Nurses really aren't the smartest people

Nurses General Nursing

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I belong to a parenting forum.

A girl made a post about the parenting class she took, where she was given some information regarding breastfeeding that she didn't think was correct. She had asked her mom, who told her something different. So she came on to clarify. One of the other members responds to her to listen to her mother, because nurses really are not the smartest people. :mad:

I normally just try to ignore the ignorant things people say, it's the internet after all. But that just aggravated me. First off, no where in her post did she say a nurse taught the class. Secondly, way to stereotype a group of people. Here, let me give you a pretend report on one of my ICU patients, and see how much you understand. Then tell me how "not smart" nurses really are. That would be like me saying Stay at home moms are lazy and that is why they don't work. Ugh.. sorry just needed to vent to people who understand. I don't know why it bugged me so much, but it did.

Specializes in acute care med/surg, LTC, orthopedics.
This takes the term "nursing" to new heights....

Yesterday there was a post from a male would-be nurse who queried whether nursing was "girly". One of the responses stated that "Men invented nursing," but if you consider the origin of the term, it would be a bit difficult for your average guy, unless he was on Eglonyl....

Unless of course he had a "Manary Gland"... a la Robert De Niro's character/Meet the Fockers.

What parenting forum? Mothering dot com?

i was wondering if it was mothersucker.com.;)

op, you gotta laugh at ignorance.

otherwise, we'd all go insane.

leslie

Specializes in Trauma, Teaching.
I go through this at every family function! I guess after my diploma, BSN, and graduate courses... I still haven't had enough education! Ughhh, some people just drive me nuts!!!

A prophetess has no honor in her hometown.

Now, if we could just find places that aren't "hometown":clown:

Specializes in Trauma, Teaching.

I was getting ready to discharge a girl with vague abd pain, when her boyfriend asked a question. She interupted him with "don't ask her, she's just the nurse".

I let go of her BP cuff, stood up straight and stretched to my full 6 feet, stared down at her in the eye and said "I am not JUST the nurse, I am a highly educated health professional". Then turned to him, answered him plus a bit more. She had the grace to look embarrassed.

Guess I was too stupid to know my place.:uhoh3:

My daughter didn't breast feed until three weeks after she was born (she was three weeks early)... there was no way she could suck. I pumped and bottle fed her with my milk until she figured it out, and then she nursed until she was almost four!

I think it all depends upon how determined one is, and I was!

Specializes in Critical Care, ED, Cath lab, CTPAC,Trauma.

My sister, also a nurse, went to the doctor. SHe called me outraged. The medical assistant,who introduced herself as nurse blah balh blah, apparently ranted on and on about how stupid nurses are and how they can't multitask and that is why doctor's offices prefer more well rounded medical assistants and that she would never insult her intellegence (the med a) and go to nursing! My sister was sooooooo outraged and the gall of this girl. It does still amaze me that people still have NO CLUE to what nurses really do!

We are upset because somebody who would most likely be grouped with people who wear foil on their head to keep the CIA from jamming their ESP said nurses are not the brightest people?

Specializes in Cardiology and ER Nursing.
. . . It does still amaze me that people still have NO CLUE to what nurses really do!

It's really not all that surprising given the generalist nature of the profession.

Specializes in Med/Surg, Neuro, ICU, travel RN, Psych.
Well, I am an RN AND I was able to breastfeed two kids. Does my opinion count?

I considered becoming an instructor, or working w/La Lache at one time. But there is so much in the way of 'politics' when it comes to breast-feeding, I didn't want to push my ideas on everyone.

I've been told that you have to have crazy when you're an LC, because ANYTHING happens to the baby, and you get grouped in.

Specializes in Med/Surg, Neuro, ICU, travel RN, Psych.

By the way, the site is baby-gaga.com.

It's kinda funny reading some of peoples stories about things they have encountered. It wasn't really that it made me mad, so much as just rubbed me the wrong way. I think I was just in an irritable mood, so little things were irritating me. Now, I'm like whatever. Like I said, usually I just laugh this stuff off.

I had a girl argue with me one time that being a nurse wasn't any big deal, as anyone could do it in just a few months. She had family and friends who had done it, and I just didn't know what I was talking about. I told her, Wow.. I wish I had been aware of this before I had spent all that time, money, and stress paying for my education. :smackingf

Specializes in Med/Surg, Neuro, ICU, travel RN, Psych.
My daughter didn't breast feed until three weeks after she was born (she was three weeks early)... there was no way she could suck. I pumped and bottle fed her with my milk until she figured it out, and then she nursed until she was almost four!

I think it all depends upon how determined one is, and I was!

Determination, support, and having enough sense to do your own research! I had a really rough time to start as well. But my nursing staff were absolutely wonderful, and spent hours working with me. They were so incredibly patient and understanding, it made a horrible situation better. I don't know for sure if I got better care, as I later found out that they were passing it in report that I was a nurse (I think my OB told, lol)But they were very knowlegable, and kept me from having a meltdown.

Specializes in Trauma Surgery, Nursing Management.

Dressed in too small scrubs, popping pink bubble gum, thong showing, I say to the doc in the ED. "Um...dude? You want me to give this here drug, but I get the Dilaudid and the Digoxin so confused cause they both start with D? Since I am a nurse, and people tell me that I am not the smartest, I don't know what you want. Or was it Depakote? SEE?!? The D thing gets me, like EVERYTIME!"

Ha! Just kidding. But I wonder if lay people think that nurses are really just handmaidens...not very smart ones at that! What a joke! If they only knew how many times NURSES saved the DOCS!

I work with a scrub tech that just loves to think she is a walking medical encyclopedia. She thinks that when we are charting on the computer, that we are really just playing on the internet. One day she had the audacity to say to me, "When you are done with your shopping online, can you get XYZ for me?"

She is known for being completely unprepared for the cases, and her take on what OR nurses do is to "fetch" things for her when she doesn't plan accordingly. To add insult to injury, one day the surgeon asked for a routine and essential supply. Of course she didn't have it, so she announced, "I will just have my assistant get it for me." I was at first flabbergasted, then I started to laugh. I said, "Oh, so I am your assistant now?" She said, "Well, yeah. It IS your JOB to get things for me!" Wow.

OK, I admit that I have a little devil sitting on my shoulder at this point. I am discussing the next case with the surgeon, and of course, she always wants to grace us with her opinion of everything, oftentimes interrupting the surgeon to spout off her opinion. Normally she will respond to my direct questions to the surgeon, thinking she knows best. I get the surgeon's attention, wink at him and say, "Dr. X, the next patient has an INR value of 8. Do you think we should cancel the case?" Right on cue, she responds, "What do you mean cancel the case? That is a GREAT value! Why would you cancel?" I didn't say another word, but everyone in the room started laughing. Guess nurses ARE smart afterall! :)

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