mhatter51

You complain that the managers ignore the concerns of the bedside nurse. It seems to me that your violent reaction to treating patients as customers shows that you choose to ignore the concerns of your patients. The nurse's concerns should never come before the patient's concerns... You need to reprioritize. I don't think you need to worry about being promoted unless you are able to hide your hostility.

This is a nicely written post that acknowledges the writer's love for nursing by pointing out how hard the work is and how the demands it makes on our lives are paid back by one small reward at the end of the day. If the truth of this post is discouraging to you, it is not the writer who should be considering a change of profession. After 34 years in nursing I still find it to be incredibly satisfying and an honor to care for the people of my community. Nursing is hard work and this post just points that out.

I am an American Muslim and registered nurse. Men are very common in the nursing field in the middle east. In fact some years there are more men than women in nursing programs in Jordan. The reason for this has to do with the cultural preference for same sex nurses. It is not necessarily a religious preference and some cultures will be less tolerant of personal care given by the opposite sex. Muslims are very modest about their bodies and if you notice even the men in these countries cover most of their bodies in public. When they are in this country they are more apt to conform to the cultural standard here. In general, however, if you see a Muslim woman wearing a hijab (head covering) you can be sure that she will be most uncomfortable being touched by a man for personal care. This is something that you will explore in your sociocultural assessment. I think it will be acceptable to do vital signs and to get a history and things like that but EKGs and the like should be done by female staff if they are available. If you have an opportunity to care for a Muslim patient, man or woman, feel free to ask them about their religion. They will be glad to talk about it if they are not too sick. Use your good judgement about what is best for these patients (as you do for all your patients) and let that be your guide in caring for Muslim patients. Also don't forget that most Muslims are not Arabs.