Nursing Misconceptions

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What do you think are the biggest misconceptions that the public has regarding nursing and the stressful job we must perform every day?

Specializes in Licensed Practical Nurse.

i feel the same way when people find out i work in the nicu. they either go one way or another - "oh, you get to play with all those babies!" or "oh, isn't it always so sad?" to the former, i want to say, "it's really hard to play with a baby on life support," and to the latter, i want to say, "oh yeah, that's why i work there - constant sadness and heartbreak really floats my boat!"

i do love my job. not every single day. but the vast majority of them.

i'm in school for my rn and all of my friend want to do peds because they dont want to wipe(that what they say) but i constantly remind them that their not going to be kissing and cuddling babies all day long, nicu, picu, peds are rough units, its emotionally tolling, risky practice wise and very demanding, all the reasons i dont want to work with sick children,the picture isnt always pretty!

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Specializes in NICU.

Don't ask me, I just sit and rock babies all night ;)

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I have always thought about doing pediatric oncology. I'm a HUGE supporter of hospitals like St. Jude's because I lost a friend at a young age to cancer. What gets me is when people (like my dad) say "Ugh... I just couldn't be around those sick kids all day... it would be so depressing." Well DUH of course it's not always smiles and fluffy bunnies, but it's a good thing some people can look past themselves, you know? Like the kids are just supposed to lay there alone because you "just couldn't do that all day."

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Specializes in CTICU, Interventional Cardiology, CCU.
i'm not knocking any other truly believe people that work such jobs as in offices really dont know what work is, sitting at a computer typing all day long or answering phones pales in comparison to not being able to pee for 4 hours or being on your feet for 3 hours!! straight banging out meds!! (ltc) i dont know any other profession where people (patients/pt families) get away with abusing staff!! i work in ltc and i'm fairly young so people think i'm a cna and they also think i wipe butt. discovery health had a show entitled ''nurses" chronicalling what nurses go through day to day! but they dont show it anymore! they show alot of what doc go through though (whatever!) i'm tired of people thinking nursing is a female proff if anyone lay person did nursing for a day theyd see how agressive and demanding it is, absolutely nothing feminine about it! i had a friend who didnt even know what an rn was let alone an lpn! i had to explain everything to her! im just tired of ignorant people! i'm an lpn and people tend to think we're not real nurses! no offense to my fellow lpns but thats a minor part of why i'm going for my rn! lpns just arent respected even by their own manangers sometimes! it kills me how the manangers where i work get so much praise, while us poor lpns sweat it out all shift long working so hard watching them kick back! lets not forget its not only lay people who dont respect nurses, its management as well, even some nurse manangers!!!

i respect lpn's. my aunt was an lpn from the time she was 19 to the time she was 40. she went back to school when she turned 40 to get her rn about 12 years ago, she did the lpn bridge to rn got her asn and passed the boards and became an rn,in 1996. she's 52 now and decided last year to go back to school for her bsn.

the resons she went back for her bsn is b/c she was my mentor in nursing school. i graduated last year from the same nursing program she did in 1996. i got my asn last year in 2007 and passed the boards and i have been working as an rn for the last year. but she helped me every step of the way, we would study 3 days a week and she knew all the material, not much changed in 12 years from when she was in school for her rn. and she made me understand things that i never would have learned in school. she filled me with her knowledge, 30+ years of experience in various areas and 13 years exp. in a level one trauma center, and one of the most intelligent nurses i know, it prepared me and i am a better nurse because of her.

i am going back in the fall for my msn. i have my bs in something other than nursing. i have a asn in nursing, and i am an rn. i am going to do the bridge rn to msn program.

all things aside, when i was a little kid she was my hero. i knew the difference between an lpn and an rn. i knew the lpn was the licensed prac. nurse and the rn was the resgitered nurse at the age of 4 didn't know what the scope of practice was, but all i know is that she was a nurse. i know in the 70's and 80's there were lpn's working in hosp. along side rn's, now you rarely see lpn's at all in the hosp. and if a floor has one, i would treat them like gold, and at the hosp. i work at in nj i see lpn's few and far between. an lpn is not what some people think a glorified nursing assistant (i love my nursing assistants at my hosp. so i have nothing aginast cna's but there is a diff. b/t cna and lpn)..i get so mad when i hear that, espically from rn's, which i am an rn and those words would never come out of my mouth. an lpn is a nurse, the word nurse is what the n stands for in lpn.

a few weeks ago there was an lpn that was floated to my floor. some of the rn's treated her like garbage. talked down to her, and didn't let her preform her job. they just treated her awful. i took her under my wing. i said to the charge nurse, give her the pt.'s that have po meds only, no ivp meds, and if the pt. is on a narc i will give the narc for her. if she needs a md's order i will call the md for her, and take the order from the md. but other than that she is a nurse just like you and me. the charge just made her do the cna's job. i was so angry that i said you will work with me. the charge nurse said that's fine. the lpn said to me, "you are the first nurse, that's an rn, that dosne't see me as beneath you." i said, "sweetie we are both nurses, we deal with the same stuff i just do some things different as an rn but not that much different, don't let people treat you like you are beneath them." i told her that when my aunt got her rn after being an lpn for 20+ years, she was making less as an rn when she stared as an rn. b/c she had been an lpn for so many years she took a huge pay cut when she became an rn, she was making less money with more responsibility. the lpn laughed and said wow, what you just said made my day!! i said some people don't understand the scope of practice for an lpn b/c the hospitals don't hire lpn's like they used to. lpn's are sterotypically the nurses that run ltc facilities. and they do a darn good job too. so don't let ignorance upset you, people just think hospital=rn's. i know that's not true. so chin up. she was so happy that i had taken the time to teach, and explain things to her.

now she's back in school for her rn..i hope she does well.

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The biggest misconception seems to be the ones that the hospitals themselves promote. The hospital decorates the place like a hotel, we have valet parking, everything is about customer service, we are supposed to write down patient requests and wishes for their care and follow it etc... Now the hospital does not staff for this in any way. so if I have a 5 patient load and the pampered lady down in room 1 is on the call light for someone to adjust her pillows and get her coffee and find a way to take away any scrap of discomfort she is having while in the hospital, I don't have time to deal with her requests when room 2 is having pain, room 3 is have runs of SVT, and room 4 is nauseated.

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The biggest misconception seems to be the ones that the hospitals themselves promote. The hospital decorates the place like a hotel, we have valet parking, everything is about customer service, we are supposed to write down patient requests and wishes for their care and follow it etc... Now the hospital does not staff for this in any way. so if I have a 5 patient load and the pampered lady down in room 1 is on the call light for someone to adjust her pillows and get her coffee and find a way to take away any scrap of discomfort she is having while in the hospital, I don't have time to deal with her requests when room 2 is having pain, room 3 is have runs of SVT, and room 4 is nauseated.

I somewhat have to disagree with this. I think customer service is the backbone of nursing. I think its every nurses job to attempt to portray a positive image of themselves professionally as well as the facility they work for. Often times patients have a choice in which hospital they stay, and you should want it to be yours.

Now it goes without saying that sometimes things don't always go as planned, and some patients will always expect too much. But I think we should all strive for the best customer service possible. Its good for you, if gives the patient confidence in you and your hospital, and it does not require much more effort.

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Specializes in Home Care, Hospice, OB.
i somewhat have to disagree with this. i think customer service is the backbone of nursing. i think its every nurses job to attempt to portray a positive image of themselves professionally as well as the facility they work for. often times patients have a choice in which hospital they stay, and you should want it to be yours.

now it goes without saying that sometimes things don't always go as planned, and some patients will always expect too much. but i think we should all strive for the best customer service possible. its good for you, if gives the patient confidence in you and your hospital, and it does not require much more effort.

did you just come out of your hospital's orientation in a fugue state? :clown:

i'm afraid that your inexperience screams out of this post. come talk to us in a few years when you have had the joy of a patient believing that his need for a snack and some tlc is much more important to his "satisfaction with excellent customer service" than his roomate's "need" for pressors, suctioning, and immediate transfer to the icu!!:banghead:

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did you just come out of your hospital's orientation in a fugue state? :clown:

i'm afraid that your inexperience screams out of this post. come talk to us in a few years when you have had the joy of a patient believing that his need for a snack and some tlc is much more important to his "satisfaction with excellent customer service" than his roomate's "need" for pressors, suctioning, and immediate transfer to the icu!!:banghead:

i've worked as a tech before. i'm nervous about the responsibilities of my new rn status.

i will continue to believe that customer service is an integral part of nursing. i feel bad that other people do not feel this way. it doesn't take that much more effort to smile, and be polite, and do extra little things. perhaps its different where i am, as the max patient load is 6 patients, with an average of 3-4. it has always been, and will always be my personal mantra to provide the best care and customer service possible. if you don't agree, well its your opinion i guess. i feel it will make me a better nurse.

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Specializes in Pediatric/Adolescent, Med-Surg.

i'm in school for my rn and all of my friend want to do peds because they dont want to wipe(that what they say) but i constantly remind them that their not going to be kissing and cuddling babies all day long, nicu, picu, peds are rough units, its emotionally tolling, risky practice wise and very demanding, all the reasons i dont want to work with sick children,the picture isnt always pretty!

i'm a new grad going into peds, and i also find that people that don't think about all the childhood illnesses, complications, etc don't realize all that will go into my job. i had one friend tell me i was "taking the easy way out" by not putting a year or two in doing med-surg."

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Specializes in NICU.

I really just hate the words "customer service". It reminds me too much of when I worked in retail.

I want my patients to be happy with the care I provide. I strive for "patient satisfaction", not because I feel like I need to get their service for my hospital, but because I want to treat them how I would want to be treated if I had a baby in the hospital. I want to make them as comfortable as possible ..... if I can make the parents comfortable and give them peace of mind with the care I give, then it makes my job easier as well, and we all win.

It's the people that want to write the orders for the doctors because they think they know better .... and the ones that demand the most insane things. Those are tough to deal with because it really does take away from good nursing care.

Strive for good patient satisfaction, but please don't let it take away from the actual nursing duties you have to those patients.

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I somewhat have to disagree with this. I think customer service is the backbone of nursing. I think its every nurses job to attempt to portray a positive image of themselves professionally as well as the facility they work for. Often times patients have a choice in which hospital they stay, and you should want it to be yours.

Now it goes without saying that sometimes things don't always go as planned, and some patients will always expect too much. But I think we should all strive for the best customer service possible. Its good for you, if gives the patient confidence in you and your hospital, and it does not require much more effort.

The problem is when they promise the moon and create a phony sense of what the patient can expect and fail to pay for the staff to deliver on those promises. What good is a beautiful rose garden on a terrace if the patient in room 2 requires someone to take her in a wheelchair out to see it and no one is ever available to do it? What good is "telling" someone they have round the clock room service when the staff aren't provided to actually accomodate these promises? I have excellent customer service skills, I am new, bright eyed and busy tailed and gung ho, ready to make a difference... and even I can tell that the promises made are pretty empty.

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I've worked as a tech before. I'm nervous about the responsibilities of my new RN status.

I will continue to believe that customer service is an integral part of nursing. I feel bad that other people do not feel this way. It doesn't take that much more effort to smile, and be polite, and do extra little things. Perhaps its different where I am, as the max patient load is 6 patients, with an average of 3-4. It has always been, and will always be my personal mantra to provide the best care and customer service possible. If you don't agree, well its your opinion I guess. I feel it will make me a better nurse.

Perhaps I have missed something, but I don't see anyone stating that they don't make an effort, are not polite and do not smile. These are things that we are in control of and probably the vast majority of us do with regularity. However if I am running interference between a patient with runs of v-tach and another with symptomatic SVT, I cannot immediately drop what I am doing to get fresh water for your flowers or grab another blanket out of the warmer because the one I got you 20 minutes ago is no longer toasty. Doesn't mean that I wouldn't like to to those things, it means that I simply don't have the extra time to do those things at the moment, now if we had a CNA or tech or "concierge" services (meaning not a nurse) then perhaps that could be done ASAP. But, we aren't staffed for that. This is the problem.

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