Discussion overheard at lunch today: ER RN (white female) "discussing" her opinion with Respiratory Therapist (white, male) and EMT (black, male) that within 10-years white women will no longer be in the majority as far as bedside nursing goes. Her argument was that women have more opportunities to go into other professions than when she was young (guessing she's in her late 50's) and that since we are importing nurses from "third-world countries" no white woman will be a bedside RN in the future. EMT agreed and said that it's not just white women, that he wouldn't want his daughter or son to be a RN. The RT kept quiet and continued to eat his tuna sandwich.
So, I wonder, do any others of you feel that way? That is, that women (white, black, brown, etc) in America have more opportunities, more career choices now than ever before; and that the nursing profession will become the immigrant's first job in America?
) As a new poster a week ago, I posted a response on another thread that in retrospect could've been worded more 'friendlier". So with this in mind, please bear with me as I try to be more careful and aware of the words I choose. It's not my purpose to offend anyone...
I find healthy dialogue about ackward, overwhelming and often "swept under the rug" topics of racism, ethnicity and culture within the nursing realm refreshing. Why? Because forums such as this does not exist at my job. It probably would in fact serve a better purpose, there in the midst of it all, but it ain't there. Nor do I feel comfortable walking up to other nurses starting conversations of this magnitude.
So with that being said, why is it so easy for a few of the senior posters to state things that refer to the thread as beating dead horses and tired issues? The threads are usually filed with insightful information, and though some I disagree with, most points are very valid. I've learned some things from a few of the ones that where deemed "tired".
The "Same ole rehashed stuff" reminds me of what my older sister would tell me when I was excited about something new. Nothing was new to her, because she had "been there and done it" way before me - Her younger sister. Why take the validity out of another's find? OK...Without beating around the bush any further, wouldn't if be better to move onto another better suited BB thread without the "Oh Lord" speech? I understand and respect that EVERYONE'S opinion is honored and heard here, but at some point if the "topic" is useless to you.... Then the thread isn't for you.
REITERATING that I'm not trying to single any one poster out nor am I trying to offend any one. Just merely stating my own opinion.
2) I do see less Caucasian women on the hospital floor, partially because I agree that there are more avenues in healthcare to affiliate with. Administrative Nursing (Case Management) seems to be the wave for those who enjoy nursing, but want less bedside care. Also with all the regulatory "stuff" that by law is mandated to be accomplished, more hospitals have created divisions and sub divisions of nursing to address how hospital goals are to be met. I see a lot of Caucasian women heading these departments.
Additionally, it's hard not to burn out doing acute hospital care for years...and years.... and years...,without yearning to do something else and/or more. We spend so much time training for the nursing trade that once we are there, we don't envision leaving until retirement. We tend to move around within healthcare, which makes healthcare a leading trade - because of this flexibility.
Does it bother me that nurses are recruited from outside the USA to fill these seemingly abandoned bedside positions? No. It's all about staffing and patient care. My only concern (not "beef" or "complaint") is the language barrier sometimes interferes with communicating with the patient or with others regarding patient care. But even with this drawback, I find it incredibly courageous for someone to leave their home, family and all that's known to live in a land where there's challenges, learn a new language and culture. I admire those who have succeeded and therefore give them a break when the nouns aren't quite right.
I want more nurses to be in the profession period. So many in my generation are only driven by the money that can be earned and fail to see the benefits of such a great career. I accept that I won't make the millions of dollars in this profession as some of the more lucrative careers that my classmates choose.
My dream for nursing would be that there would be willing, capable and competent nurses wanting to come into work everyday to see impact that we have on our patients. I don't care what color, age, race, experience you are as long as you meet my aforementioned requirements.
Intelligent and sensible minds shouldn't be concerned with this kind of issue. Diversity is interesting. I love working with people of all ethnic backgrounds and learning about their cultures and religions. Life would be boring if I worked with just "white women"...they can be very catty and I don't find that with other nationalities. We need to learn to appreciate each other no matter what we are.
For sure, I've never thought about it and I certainly don't care.
I'm not threatened by the influx of foreign nurses like some although I hate the fact that instead of addressing what's wrong with the profession, TPTB are "going around it" by taking this path. Of course, I don't really expect the suits to act any differently as their only goal is to protect the bottom line and if there is any nurse out there who doesn't realize this yet(and there are some), I pity them.
Look around at who is doing the sh*t work of American society. Who is out there building the highways, building the subdivisions, digging the underground pipelines, doing the landscaping, harvesting this summers' vegetables, washing the dishes in your local restaurant, cleaning the skyscrapers at night. It is minorities.
And bedside nursing is sh*twork. It is puke, feces, urine, mucus, viruses, bacterial infections, blood, and humanity at its' worst. About a year ago, your administration chose profits over TLC, caring and yes, competence.
Minorities will be dominate in five years. And, per usual, your tax dollars are funding those foreign nursing schools.
The foreign nurses who come here are not some poor little immigrant who worked her way to the top in her country to immigrate here. In India, the worlds second most populous country, those nurses are of a high class of people. With their caste system, lower class women do not attend the university. And , of course, being a former English colony, they learn English as a second language as small children.
In the Philipines, the U.S. has contracted with their schools, with U.S. aid to their nursing schools enabling thousands to become BSN R.N.'s, and to immigrate here annually. Immigration quotas =none for qualified R.N.'s. They want to come here and they too learn English as a second language in elementary school.
...................... In fact when i don't have some *mean* "50's- something" nurse standing over my shoudler just waiting for me to do something wrong, I LOVE being a nurse.....
luv---joy
HEY....lay off the 50 somethings. I'm sen-si-tive about that age group since I just arrived at the bottom number. :rotfl: :rotfl:
What color is nursing, is it white, black, brown, yellow, red?
The 'COLOR' of nursing should be RED since we all bleed RED blood, and it is RED blood that flows through our heart to keep us all alive. If that RED blood weren't there, guess where each of us would be? DEAD...WITHOUT THE RED!!! On that note..........I am soooooooo glad that I have good memories of working as a nurse. It's good to get paid the color GREEN, but it's even better to remember the color of RED that keeps us all from being TOO DEAD TO NURSE, EARN MONEY, LOVE ONE ANOTHER, CARE FOR ONE ANOTHER, SHOW COMPASSION FOR ONE ANOTHER. The color of racism is dark and evil, so let's color the love between us RED. :) :kiss
In Australia they took nursing training out of the hospital system and put it into university. As soon as they did this the number of student nurses dropped. If you're going to uni you want a job that pays a little more in order to pay off the HECS debt you accumulate. We have three major types of nurses, Assistants in Nursin, Enrolled Nurses and R.N.s
Ains train at Tech college paying about $800 for a one year course(Aged care workers), E.N.s train at Tech for eighteen months at an up front cost of about$1200. R.N.s train at Uni and accumulate about $25000 in HECS(Higher Education Contribution Scheme).
The average Aussie wage is about $35 000, The average cost of a house is about $250 000(just to put all this into perspective).
Yes we import some nurses but they need to have money in the bank, a job to go to and they need to upgrade their qualifications so we don't get many. We have a massive shortage of nurses and no end in sight. Some nurses in Victoria are getting a grand a shift( five hundred A$) in order to encourage them to work in Aged care. I just hope the Gov't here makes the connection and makes the job a little more attractive to new grads so there's someone left to take care of me!! Back, white or purple!!
Hahaha....a HECS debt of only 25 grand???? Sheesh...I want that HECS debt...especially now I've gone back! lol I'm going to be paying HECS for the term of my natural life and then some!
But agree...the numbers have dropped since the system change over. But they also sucker us in by having no clinical (well my uni didn't) in the first year and very little in the second year - one to two week blocks four times a year - not too much when you think about it. By the time you get to third year, where you get mass clinical time (3 months in one hit), it's really a little too late to be making a change. That was my thinking....I might as well finish the degree now that I'm nine months away from graduating.
So now I'm back at uni, doing the hard yards all over again. But at least this time, I know it's something that will not only pay more in the future than it costs to get the degree, plus it's something that I naturally enjoy doing. Much happier Jan now. :)
:rotfl: :rotfl:
On that note..........I am soooooooo glad that I have good memories of working as a nurse. It's good to get paid the color GREEN, but it's even better to remember the color of RED that keeps us all from being TOO DEAD TO NURSE, EARN MONEY, LOVE ONE ANOTHER, CARE FOR ONE ANOTHER, SHOW COMPASSION FOR ONE ANOTHER. The color of racism is dark and evil, so let's color the love between us RED. :) :kiss 
Back, white or purple!!
KBaldwinLVN
26 Posts
) As a new poster a week ago, I posted a response on another thread that in retrospect could've been worded more 'friendlier". So with this in mind, please bear with me as I try to be more careful and aware of the words I choose. It's not my purpose to offend anyone...
I find healthy dialogue about ackward, overwhelming and often "swept under the rug" topics of racism, ethnicity and culture within the nursing realm refreshing. Why? Because forums such as this does not exist at my job. It probably would in fact serve a better purpose, there in the midst of it all, but it ain't there. Nor do I feel comfortable walking up to other nurses starting conversations of this magnitude.
So with that being said, why is it so easy for a few of the senior posters to state things that refer to the thread as beating dead horses and tired issues? The threads are usually filed with insightful information, and though some I disagree with, most points are very valid. I've learned some things from a few of the ones that where deemed "tired".
The "Same ole rehashed stuff" reminds me of what my older sister would tell me when I was excited about something new. Nothing was new to her, because she had "been there and done it" way before me - Her younger sister. Why take the validity out of another's find? OK...Without beating around the bush any further, wouldn't if be better to move onto another better suited BB thread without the "Oh Lord" speech? I understand and respect that EVERYONE'S opinion is honored and heard here, but at some point if the "topic" is useless to you.... Then the thread isn't for you.
REITERATING that I'm not trying to single any one poster out nor am I trying to offend any one. Just merely stating my own opinion.
2) I do see less Caucasian women on the hospital floor, partially because I agree that there are more avenues in healthcare to affiliate with. Administrative Nursing (Case Management) seems to be the wave for those who enjoy nursing, but want less bedside care. Also with all the regulatory "stuff" that by law is mandated to be accomplished, more hospitals have created divisions and sub divisions of nursing to address how hospital goals are to be met. I see a lot of Caucasian women heading these departments.
Additionally, it's hard not to burn out doing acute hospital care for years...and years.... and years...,without yearning to do something else and/or more. We spend so much time training for the nursing trade that once we are there, we don't envision leaving until retirement. We tend to move around within healthcare, which makes healthcare a leading trade - because of this flexibility.
Does it bother me that nurses are recruited from outside the USA to fill these seemingly abandoned bedside positions? No. It's all about staffing and patient care. My only concern (not "beef" or "complaint") is the language barrier sometimes interferes with communicating with the patient or with others regarding patient care. But even with this drawback, I find it incredibly courageous for someone to leave their home, family and all that's known to live in a land where there's challenges, learn a new language and culture. I admire those who have succeeded and therefore give them a break when the nouns aren't quite right.