All this talk of professionalism and being respected by doctors makes me sick.
I am a professional. I am a nurse. My job is to diagnose and treat human responses to illness (care for the sick). I also educate patients, assess their physical condition, and rehabilitate them. Society considers an RN a professional position, so I am a professional. I am not a doctor, I don't work for a doctor; I am not a doctor's assistant. I work for my hospital and my nurse manager.
A doctor is an academically prepared individual who diagnoses and treats medical problems in human beings. We use doctors in caring for patients who have medical problems. We need their medical orders (orders for the patient--not orders to us as in "ordering" us to do something), because we can't legally administer medical interventions without them, why? because we are nurses not doctors!
I'm in the profession of caring for people, especially sick people, and in my case especially sick people with cardiac conditions. So, naturally I have problems with the nurse practioner being considered an "advance practice nurse." In reality they are a doctor's assistant. Our professionalism does not come by being more like a doctor but by being more of a nurse.
I respect doctors, but then I respect patients as well, and I respect strangers on the street. Doctors are not nurses, and I feel they are missing out on the greatest spiritual vocation available. If they think they are above me, professionally, then they are as misguided as the nurse who thinks he's not a professional if he can't write a prescription for amoxacillin.
Nursing and teaching are the two career fields that I feel you should not go into if you have even a single cold unfriendly bone in your body. If you do, but you want to work in medicine and are good at biology....be a lab tech. Hopefully my experiences will get better, I'm not complaining about the job...I know what I want to do and I know that I'll make a good nurse, I've just been a little surprised at what I've seen some nurses get away with doing.
AshleyKay.....I was once like you, thought I knew everything, thought I was going to be a better nurse because I cared more. Slowly but surely my naivete and self righteouness turned to pleas for help when I realized I did need the help of fellow nurses. And no, I didn't look for a young new nurse to help me, because I knew/realized experience is what mattered. I looked for the old hag nurse who had barnacles on her back, who's feet had bunions you could see through the shoes, but who patients and doctors, and staff members admired cuz she could start IV's on anyone with one stick, knew her meds backward and forward, and knew hospital policy. Patients and their families (especially nowadays) are much more demanding than they have ever been. I actually was a much "sweeter" person back in the day. But it gets hard to smile and fluff pillows with staff shortages, higher pt. acuitys, longer shifts. I wish you the best and I hope you'll stop finding the negative in people you work with. You may need them one day. Good Luck.
Alright well I'm not going to try and convince everyone here about any abilities I may have as a future nurse...I'm sure I'm going to screw up as well, I'm sure I'll have bad days. I am actually loving clinicals and can't wait to graduate. So I'm working with a few cranky nurses who have foul attitudes. That doesn't go to say the majority of nurses have bad attitudes. I'm pretty sure I have good attitude when I walk in the door, I'm always happy to be there...even on thirty minutes of sleep. I'm as friendly as I can be with the nurses I work with, I realize they know 100% more than I do and I want to learn from them so I ask questions, lots...that are usually answered with a strange look or ignored completely, but not by all. I thought that's what I'm there to do, watch and learn. I'm not being a pest I don't think. Maybe I am just being really annoying and I don't realize it. Who knows, I guess I'll get all the answers once I am a nurse. I have never once gone in with any kind of know it all attitude, I'm usually just trying to not look like an idiot and stay out of the way. But hey I am sweet and my attitude about nursing is far from negative, I'm excited to do it. I'm not really sure what else to say. Maybe in 6 years I'll have let a few patients lay around in their own urine or vomit because I didn't have a choice and I'll have a different story to tell. My original point was that there are nurses out there who are not compassionate people, who never were to begin with. I'm sure you all have worked with a couple. Maybe practicing nurses just have a foul taste in their mouth about new nursing students in general...which is totally understandable. I'm not pretending to know anything more than a practicing nurse...but when I ask a nurse to explain what she just did quickly and she says, "What the hell are you talking about?" I get a little upset. Which is also understandable I think.
I am sure you will make a good nurse and yes, there are those out there that are not good and do not care and probably never did. I once talked to my mom, who is also an RN about why she became an RN her response? In the early 60's women , for the most part had two career choices..nursing or teaching.
I think the reason that your post brought up some negative comments, mine included, is that you referred to the fact that "most" nurses are that way.
As far as the the cold uncaring bone in your body thing..thinking back to when I first started school about 16 yrs ago I probably felt the same way and at that point, I probably didn't have any cold or uncaring bones in my body. I have developed some though and you most likely will also. First of all, you can not "feel" for every pt you come in contact with...liken it with a cup, you fill it a little each time and blam it spills. I have found that esp when I did my time with IV pain management and oncology nursing I had to compartmentalize things otherwise they would have eaten me up.
When I worked ER, I really built up a stong armor..saw a lot of yuck (Like the dad that put the kid in the dryer and turned it on..guess she was being bad?) and I also became quite cynical after dealing with drug seeker after drug seeker every night. I remain cynical in my current job of workers comp..if I get an inkling that a worker is playing the system I do my best to get the claim closed and I do not have any compassion...for those that have truly been injured I go the extra mile.
As far as clinicals..I don't have any advice for you there. Most Rns do want more RNs to join the ranks but at times, when we have to add teaching to the menu it is frustrating..the only suggestion I can give you is keep your eyes and ears open..jump in when it looks like someone needs a hand doing ANYTHING. Even though you are not yet an RN you have to prove yourself worthy of being there...besides, it will be good practice for when you get out there for real...nurses do eat their young and we have all been there...don't let them see you sweat and you will do fine and please don't criticize just look at the RN and consider it to be a learning experience..make sure you don't follow the same path. Someday you may look back and think.."so this is what she was going through"..it does happen.
"" Maybe practicing nurses just have a foul taste in their mouth about new nursing students in general...which is totally understandable. "
I have gotten some of the same treatment at a particular hospital, but I dont think that having a foul taste about nursing students is understandable. Maybe getting a little anxious when the nurses see a herd of students walk on to the floor, because they are responsible for the care their patients get, so they end up having to supervise. It would freak me out to have students taking care of my patients, and I am a student. But a "foul taste", no, because nursing students (the ones that make it through) are going to help staff all those understaffed units.
As you go through school hopefully you will have the opportunity to work with some awesome nurses, because they are out there. I've gotten to work with so many, and have learned from them. Good luck and keep your strong will, it will benefit you as you go through school.
Specializes in Med/Surg, ER, L&D, ICU, OR, Educator.
Originally posted by Plato
Nurses, whether the individual nurse is or not, are thought of as compassionate angels of mercy.
...they represent a person who for low middle class wages is willing to bathe a leper or sit with a dying cancer patient until they cross over. They have the Blessed Mother Teresa as their call-to-arms and mentor.
...many are called but few are chosen.
What did Christ say? He said, "I was sick and you cared for me."
You were the one that said that 75% of the nurses you work with were lousy; don't try to backpedal now and say that we were mistaken in reading that.
I would be willing to bet that the attitude you displayed here comes through loud and clear in your clinical time, no matter how "sweet" you may think you are being.
Personally, I don't want the students I work with to be sweet. What I do want from them is for them to be prepared, to not act like certain tasks are beneath them. Some students act as if the sole purpose of experienced nurses is to be avilable for the student to download all of their knowledge. It can be very tiresome when students ask questions that show quite clearly that they haven't prepared.
Over and over, I see students/new nurses on this board (and others) complain about veteran nurses "eating their young." In my experience, many times this hostility has been provoked by the student/new nurse. While I don't think it's appropriate for veterans to take out their frustrations on the newbies, I understand how it can happen, and I am sympathetic.
Want me to take the time and show you some of my tricks for starting IV's on pts. with "no veins"? Sure, I'll be glad to, but realize that this is going to take a good chunk of time out of my day. So, if I ask you to do something to help free me up, don't respond by rolling your eyes, making yourself scarce, or (the worst) saying, "I'm already signed off on that procedure."
Specializes in Specializes in L/D, newborn, GYN, LTC, Dialysis.
ick. ick. ick.
nurses as....
virginal angels of mercy with halo's firmly pirched up our sweet heads.......mother theresa's.....bimbo's....dumb bunnies.....sleezes.....tammy fayes.......etc...
blech. such theatrical nonsense......victorian thinking....quit boxing us in for heaven's sake.....
when will be break free of this stereotyping already. this is sickening.
I always thought that nurses treat people, while physicians treat diseases. We as nurses go up to the patient and focus on their feelings, their emotions, how we can help them FEEL better, not just get better physically.
Physicians and even PA's are educated and trained to treat the disease, they know all about how to make you healthy, but when their patient breaks down, they often don't know how to handle that. They just have a different focus on their training.
Now take the Advance Practive Nurse: She already has 4 years of training on how to be compasionate, she knows how to care for people. She treats the whole person, following the doctors orders for medications and treatments. Now what if this healer of emotions and feelings were able to further their training and become a CNS or a ARNP. Now they can treat the disease, treat the problem that caused the person to have troubles. But they also have the training as nurses to be compassionate and treat the person as a whole.
I believe that is the concept and basis of the Advanced Practice Nurse. Its not a nurse that wants to be a doctor. But a compasionate healer who wants to be able to treat their patient at every level, physical and emotional.
Is that professionalism? It sounds more like a denomination.
These are some of the labels many hospitals (and many of the general public) TRY to assign to nurses. My administrators CONSTANTLY chastise nurses via email:we should strive to be 'more' altruistic, 'more' caring, etc. To MY administrator a good nurse IS a martyr: definitely!! It benefits the hospital's bottom line if nurses can be coerced into taking on even more duties, and take more shyt....so they keep trying to peg us in this contexts. And try to shame us if we complain....
I quote Mother Theresa to remind myself of ego, and of the value of doing 'little things' not because I think nurses 'should' all be 'little Mother Theresas'...
We have to get past this label if we are to grow as a profession. The legalities and liabilities of what we do insist we do more than look at our work as simply a calling.
So, if I ask you to do something to help free me up, don't respond by rolling your eyes, making yourself scarce, or (the worst) saying, "I'm already signed off on that procedure."
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Wow- if anyone at my school did any of the above they would be straight up failed for the day! I am always thrilled when my orienting nurse asks me to do stuff because to me it means she trusts my skills! Sounds like you had some pretty bad experiences.
Most of my clinicals are actually really me doing care all day with the occasional consult when I see an alarming lab result or unusual assessment finding.
wayover20
97 Posts
AshleyKay.....I was once like you, thought I knew everything, thought I was going to be a better nurse because I cared more. Slowly but surely my naivete and self righteouness turned to pleas for help when I realized I did need the help of fellow nurses. And no, I didn't look for a young new nurse to help me, because I knew/realized experience is what mattered. I looked for the old hag nurse who had barnacles on her back, who's feet had bunions you could see through the shoes, but who patients and doctors, and staff members admired cuz she could start IV's on anyone with one stick, knew her meds backward and forward, and knew hospital policy. Patients and their families (especially nowadays) are much more demanding than they have ever been. I actually was a much "sweeter" person back in the day. But it gets hard to smile and fluff pillows with staff shortages, higher pt. acuitys, longer shifts. I wish you the best and I hope you'll stop finding the negative in people you work with. You may need them one day. Good Luck.