Nurses don't do anything

Whatever they say, why do you care? Really, it' s none of our business what others say or think about us. That "they" say we "don't do anything" is a great sign of ignorance on their part, not yours. You are going to hear nursing maligned by a lot of people, the media, the public, patients and worst of all, fellow nurses. You will have to go in thinking they are wrong and operate from your best efforts and ignore the negative remarks. The sooner you learn this, the better your career will go.

We have med aides in the state of MD. Most of them are CNAs that have taken a course and become certified as a CMA. They give medications, they can also take vital signs but that is all. Sometimes they are abused by the facility and used as both a CNA and a CMA!! I would have just laughed at the patient and repeated what they said, "Yes, I don't do anything." It could have been a sarcastic compliment, meaning that you do a lot but everyone thinks you do nothing. I have had problems with upper management coming down on us for sitting at the computer. Hey, guess what, we are working, documenting. YOur the ones that bought this --------- program without consulting the clinical staff, so this is what I have to do!!! Then usually they walk away!! Yes, we do absolutely nothing!!! HA HA!!

Some nurses do suck and don't carry their weight :-)

You can tell the difference when they are off on their day off and someone who floats comes and runs circles around my nurse.

There are always going to be naysayers and critics. The fact is that nursing is consistently rated as a very trusted profession. That being said, I would infer most people see us as hard working.

Next time remind them that:

Without nurses, who will stop the Demi-god doctors from harming the patients? Nurses are overworked and underpaid.

There are always going to be naysayers and critics. The fact is that nursing is consistently rated as a very trusted profession. That being said, I would infer most people see us as hard working.

This is what I was going to point out...besides the year or two immediately after 9-11, nurses are consistently ranked the most trusted profession. People say things because we are with them when they are most vulnerable; don't take it personally.

About 20 years ago, a friend of mine told me nurses just take temperatures all day. I got permission from my manager for this person to shadow me for 12 hours. When the shift was over I asked her what she thought. She told me she had no idea how much nurses are responsible for and that she could never do this job. I was working PICU at the time so she saw a lot in those 12 hours. Oh, yeah, I think I did take a few temperatures!

$55/hr for doing nothing... Best gig ever!

I am 'justavulunteer' on a pt unit. I have had patients tell me "You're the only one who does anything around here". (I stock gloves, pass out water, etc., so the pts may see more of me at times). I just tell them, "Trust me, the nurses do plenty around here"

Sometimes they really mean, "Why isn't the nurse hovering over me all day?". The idea that a nurse has other patients + a million things to worry about doesn't seem to occur to them. As for the 'hovering' part, they should be careful what they wish for. One time I nearly passed out while I was volunteering. There were 5 nurses on the unit & three of them were standing over me. They thought I was having a heart attack. Luckily I wasn't, but I was never so scared in my life! Also thankful, because I realized that I was among skilled professionals.

Develop a thick skin and rise above the negative comments. I frankly don't care what "other people" think; why should I? Those "other people" don't supply my paycheck or my job. My father was once criticized for "not doing anything" on the job. He simply said, "I get paid for what I know, not for what I do." (Or.... you could turn it around on them and say, "Yes, it is great that I am going to have a good job with a good paycheck and I won't have to do anything!! You should try it!!)

I agree with the posters who have encouraged you to ignore such comments. Most of the time they require no response other than silence as they are based in ignorance and it is not polite for us to point that out while "on the clock".

I was a nurse aide for 3 years before finishing nursing school. I still work for the same hospital. I'm pretty observant. I feel like the NA's attitudes about nurses largely depends on the culture of the unit. For the day shift group, which is what I worked, I very, very rarely felt like the nurses were being "lazy" when it came to tasks that the aides can also do. However, in the same unit's night shift group, the aides felt like the nurses were "lazy" in that regard; sitting around, gossiping, reading, etc. while ordering the aides to do every bit of primary care to the patients, even when the aides were spread too thin. A nurse I worked with recently got a job on nights on this unit, and she agrees with the aides opinions. In other words, on the night shift, the nurse culture was "that's not a nurse's job, that's the aide's job." Call lights going on for way longer than necessary because most of the nurses felt that it was not their job to answer the lights. Personally, I work ED nights where there is a real community effort to ensure all patients needs/safety are met by all nurses and medics/aides, like there was on the other unit where I worked days. I can't imagine prioritizing chatting with other nurses and enjoying down-time over answering call lights and helping pts to the bathroom, bedpans, etc.

I got into a huge argument with a friend of a friend once about this. She was a poser who ran around telling everyone she was a nurse but she's actually a nurses aide or something. She said nurses don't do anything. We sit in front of the computer while the nurses aides do all of our real work for us. First of all I called her out on being a poser and a liar. I said no self respecting nurse would ever say she doesn't do anything. If nurses didn't do the assessment part of our jobs and dispense medication and evaluate outcomes, there would be no patient to take to the bathroom or bathe or chat with or whatever else nurses aides think we should be doing. A lot of our practice is the application of nursing science. That's a lot. I used to be a clerk and a tech. I felt the same way about nurses. Now that I am a nurse I have changed my whole perspective on the profession as a whole. Unfortunately a lot of what we do is charting but that doesn't mean we do nothing. But don't get me started. I am always so offended when people say that about my profession.