footsoldier

I must say I agree wholeheartedly. My experience has led me to working in a Nursing Home in Australia, not very glamourous, but it is a challenging environment. It is the domain of some very out dated or quaint practices, like RN's are still generally called "sister" and it was even written on the day sheet until very recently. This is symptomatic of a heirachical belief system that sustains this environment and unfortunately contributes to a high level of institutionalisation.

Yes all good suggestions misplaced1. The problem is stakeholder involment, there would be such overwhelming resistance to a generic name change. We guys that want something less female should have the right to assume an alternative, even something, again, not gender neutral. Along the lines you suggested I would be comfortable with something like Carefeller or Carefellow. We are a type of manager and a little bit of every multidisciplinary team member. I mean I reckon I could take an xray if I wanted, well maybe not but i am glad I am not stuck in my own little medical/ speech pathologist/ etc world. Its a big bad world out here, though, when you are trying to manage everybodies behaviours.

I am inclined to agree everybody. Nursing is tough, but rewarding and it ain;t a get rich quick scheme. We really need more nurses, to replace an aging nursing population and to look after an aging population. Work loads/acuity are increasing, but I don't believe new generations want to work as hard as previous gens. I certainly don't agree with the baby boomer work ethic, and who is going to look after them, if they burn out and discourage intelligent, compassionate nurses. What you will be left with is those who can not do anything else/reskill remaining in profession. Its a type of brain drain which I believe exists and is being exacerbated currently. So I answered moderately encourage, I guess in light of the toughness of the job and if they do complete their studies, then God hope they stay nursing.

One of the funniest/slightly unethical things I saw: There was a older chap with a totally bad brain injury, he had been long term in the ICU and was by now not intubated. My friend had tied his shackle restraints, posey type things, together. So he had his legs and wrists connected on each side of his body and up in the air and was it funny! I must stress this was a middle of night for no more than a couple of minutes activity and he did not really mind it, I meant at least he was not tied down. He just flayed about, hands and legs in unison, with no idea what the hell was going on, which is just what he did 24/7 anyway. I specialed the poor guy months later and there was almost nil improve, like I said really bad brain injury.

I am probably guilty of flying off the handle on this issue, with some quasi medical Marxist poetry too, I quite like that one. In fact I am probably in the wrong thread, given I don't exact;y know about the US situation, or exactly what an MA is/does, so forgive me for that. Mabye I'll go and start a new thread, some where in the primordial ether. I wish to clarify a couple of points, when I mentioned assistants I guess I am talking about more those that work directly with nurses. If everything we do is ideally patient based, then I would on some levels and in some workplaces like to proclaim assistants as possessing powerful amounts of practical knowledge. Yet we dismiss this just as readily as we ourselves are dismissed. Much of our real work is done with people who for age or comorbid/disese state reasons are simply not on a happy tradjectory. Put simply, I thought you might like that!, a kind word is worth more than a prescription. Come with me this is not rocket science, just a delicious form of nursing science. As we know these unseen, unrecorded interventions are nursings bread and butter. They provide us with small but vital amounts of gratification, if and when we reflect on benefits that can be established through genuine healing. The real world road block is how do we emerge through all the crap to keep on giving when the outcomes are so grim and the families so annoying. It is my belief we still have so far to go, and those who are more about secularising and professionalising, thats ok. My focus however is the point of caring, both in the bedside and philosophically. I think there is a distinct role for technology which does not just tick all managments boxes, but distills nursing knowledge. I am not talking about NANDA either, I meant programs that can increase fairness and point of contact caring. Anyways....happy postings.

I see a bunch of moderate, well thought out replies, like sinking stones. Our profession has not even stepped out of the primordial ether long enough to look around and all we do is place limits and competencies on every piece of practice and form of caring we see. We microcontrol our behaviours possibly to make up for our lack of control of our own destiny. And I don't blame anyone more than the Medical Associations worldwide, first it was the principles of Galen now its unwavering belief in scientific process, but its always something stupid. They hoard financial and political power and wield it with self interest at heart. We on the otherhand do look after the weak/sick/poor/stupid day in day out, only somewhat begrudgingly. We are in hospitals 24hrs/7days and are often totally dismissed, our concerns, well they are ''little problems''. There are mutliple exceptions to this rule, but I intend to generalise. One of my biggest bug bears is the way we treat assisting staff. We value our qualification as though some some higher power has bestowed us the power to do what the medical profession does to nurses, in general. Tell them they arent good enough, not quite there yet and know your place. Are we helping to raise peoples view of our profession? You may competantly argue yes, but I would say you are retarding us from our best.

We are all nursin' in point of fact, cut these assistants some slack. I am a nurse/murse and your pusher person, but we are pawns in a bigger powerpolitik, so why are we persicuting the weak? This is my point in fact, we are more client managers and they more nurse!

i have arrived five years too late for this debate, but I would like to add my cents, not sense, to the thread. I think I agree that to rename the profession is not plausable at this time, but I am not closed off to the idea. In Australia and worldwide nursing juxtaposes caring for others while eating its own. Nursing is actually the feminist antichrist, I love feminist theory and its focus, but hear we have a profession traditionally female dominated and I feel that the ''petticoat'' government is one of the worst of all managerial evils, because it does not self reflect or actualise. It is true we are mired in a dog eat dog kind of world, but rampant feminist argue that woman would do things better, but I argue nursing is case in point agianst this. This is not to down play the good we do in society as nurses. ACCROSS THE WESTERN WORLD NURSING IS DEVELOPING STRONG LINKS TO TECHNOLOGY AND OPPURTUNITIES, LETS NOT LIMIT OURSELVES LIKE WE HAVE ALWAYS DONE!

Have been a chronic night shifter off and on. A key for me is exercise. Might help your seritonin levels too. Got me through 20 NDs straight etc. But I don't think you can fully escape disturbed sleep patterns, some weeks are like that.:zzzzz

Hey everybody, virgin poster in the house. Lets face it mursing is the future, so get on board! I don't care if its a man bag or an insult. I recall one episode of Greys, not that I watch it, but one of the male :banghead:medical officers (hehe) accused the skinny lead mo of being a ''nurse'' and she took total offence. The root meaning of nursing is something like -to suckle. Well thats not really what we, especially the menfolk, are about these days. Technical jargon would truly nurse/suck. So why not embrace the humour and self depricating nonmenclature. My only other suggestion is Toilet Brush. Hello Mr Smith, I will be your nurse today but you can just call me TB.