"From doctors to beautiful ladies..."

weetziebat · May 13, 2006

ETA: we've whipped and beaten the English language into political correctness to the point that it's beginning to lose its meaning. No one can say anything anymore without fear of reprisal. It's getting too tedious for me.

Reminds me of a few weeks ago at work. Management team all sitting around, having lunch, and chatting. I, innocently referred to my half-Thai daughter as looking Oriental. OMG! You could have heard a pin drop. And the look of absoulute horror on a couple of faces. ***?? What did I say? After a long pause..............................................................I was informed that 'things are Oriental, people are Asian."

E gads!!! You'd have thought I'd made some unforgivable faux pas. Good thing I thought it was funny - otherwise I may have gotten quite pissed. Let's get real, folks!

Multicollinearity, BSN, RN · May 13, 2006

Reminds me of a few weeks ago at work. Management team all sitting around, having lunch, and chatting. I, innocently referred to my half-Thai daughter as looking Oriental. OMG! You could have heard a pin drop. And the look of absoulute horror on a couple of faces. ***?? What did I say? After a long pause..............................................................I was informed that 'things are Oriental, people are Asian."
E gads!!! You'd have thought I'd made some unforgivable faux pas. Good thing I thought it was funny - otherwise I may have gotten quite pissed. Let's get real, folks!

Weetkiebat, I can tell you meant well but I do know several Asian people who get offended if referred to as Oriental. They say the same thing. Rugs are are Oriental. Trains are Oriental. People are Asian. I don't think this is about 'getting real' or political correctness, but rather sensitivity to others feelings. JMHO.

HillaryC, RN, CRNA · May 13, 2006

Oh come on now. I am really not worried about the public basing their opinions on :smokin:Keith Richards. As much of a herd of cattle the US population seems to be, I give them a bit more credit than that.
I'm a guy, and if he wants to call me a beautiful woman, I really dont give a rip. As a matter of fact, I think I will add this to my comeback lines for pt's who arent used to seeing male nurses. maybe something like this.....
PT: How come I get you for my nurse instead of a beautiful woman?
ME: I dont know, you better call up The Stones and see where they go to the hospital.

Let me defend myself. First of all, I don't disagree that Richards meant well. If he were my patient, I certainly wouldn't have gone off on him for saying what he did, but it would have irritated me. In fact, yesterday I got two compliments from a patient's wife: "you're all such angels to do this work" and "honey, here's your beautiful nurse." I smiled and accepted the compliments, but on the inside, it irritates me that these are the kinds of things that people say about nurses all the time. They don't get that there's a lot more to nursing than being sweet and caring.

A lot of people on this site will say "get a life" or "it's just television" when I make comments about how the media portrayal of nursing affects us. The fact is, studies have shown that people are influenced by what they hear and see on television & movies, and if all they ever see about nursing emphasizes just how nurses can be good hand-holders and waitresses, how are they going to ever truly respect and value what we do? Don't even get me started on the "naughty nurse" or "slutty nurse" jokes. I have a very good sense of humor, but I truly believe that these images hurt us, patients, and the system.

The reason this matters is that it affects all of us, and it also influences the really qualified people who might become nurses in the future, except they think that smart people should really go to medical school instead. It affects how we're treated by patients, visitors, physicians, and hospital administrators. I read that almost 20% of licensed RNs are currently working in fields other than nursing, and that there is a staggering number of newer nurses leaving the profession within two years of starting, presumably because it's not what they expected.

I really wasn't implying that Keith Richards' comments were going to make some huge impact on what people think, though I do think that every time people hear this kind of message, however benign it may seem, they absorb it subconsciously and it's added to their understanding of what nursing is about.

I'm disappointed that I seem to be in such a minority here. I think part of the problem is that a lot of us have absorbed the same messages without realizing it and may not recognize how much more there is to what we do that the public is completely oblivious to. I remember reading something Suzanne Gordon wrote that said nurses save lives. Even I initially felt that she was giving us too much credit. The more I thought about it, I realized it's true. The problem is, way more often we hear of physicians saving lives, and nurses just being sweet and caring. When's the last time anyone can remember a fictional TV show showing a nurse using his/her knowledge and critical thinking to help a patient? We're lucky if nurses have a storyline at all, other than sleeping with a physician, of course

Ok, I think that's about all I have to say for now :)

Preparing to be flamed,

Hillary

PANurseRN1 · May 13, 2006

I don't think it has anything to do with nurses not recognizing what they contribute. We know what we do. It's a matter of choosing your battles.

If you're going to get offended every time someone makes an innocent remark that was truly meant to be appreciative, you're going to spend your career being disappointed.

As someone who actually does volunteer work for www.nursingadvocacy.org, I know exactly what kind of battles nurses face out there. I think we do ourselves harm, though, by railing against every little thing some of us deem insulting.

Keith Richards stated:

the beautiful ladies who make painful nights less painful and shorter

So, you're offended that Keith acknowledged how important nurses were in providing skilled care needed to ease his physical pain and fear? Wow, how dare he!

If by some remote chance he read some of these posts about how "degrading" his comments were, I would be seriously embarrassed for the nursing profession.

traumahawk99 · May 13, 2006

Let me defend myself. First of all, I don't disagree that Richards meant well. If he were my patient, I certainly wouldn't have gone off on him for saying what he did, but it would have irritated me. In fact, yesterday I got two compliments from a patient's wife: "you're all such angels to do this work" and "honey, here's your beautiful nurse." I smiled and accepted the compliments, but on the inside, it irritates me that these are the kinds of things that people say about nurses all the time. They don't get that there's a lot more to nursing than being sweet and caring.
A lot of people on this site will say "get a life" or "it's just television" when I make comments about how the media portrayal of nursing affects us. The fact is, studies have shown that people are influenced by what they hear and see on television & movies, and if all they ever see about nursing emphasizes just how nurses can be good hand-holders and waitresses, how are they going to ever truly respect and value what we do? Don't even get me started on the "naughty nurse" or "slutty nurse" jokes. I have a very good sense of humor, but I truly believe that these images hurt us, patients, and the system.
The reason this matters is that it affects all of us, and it also influences the really qualified people who might become nurses in the future, except they think that smart people should really go to medical school instead. It affects how we're treated by patients, visitors, physicians, and hospital administrators. I read that almost 20% of licensed RNs are currently working in fields other than nursing, and that there is a staggering number of newer nurses leaving the profession within two years of starting, presumably because it's not what they expected.
I really wasn't implying that Keith Richards' comments were going to make some huge impact on what people think, though I do think that every time people hear this kind of message, however benign it may seem, they absorb it subconsciously and it's added to their understanding of what nursing is about.
I'm disappointed that I seem to be in such a minority here. I think part of the problem is that a lot of us have absorbed the same messages without realizing it and may not recognize how much more there is to what we do that the public is completely oblivious to. I remember reading something Suzanne Gordon wrote that said nurses save lives. Even I initially felt that she was giving us too much credit. The more I thought about it, I realized it's true. The problem is, way more often we hear of physicians saving lives, and nurses just being sweet and caring. When's the last time anyone can remember a fictional TV show showing a nurse using his/her knowledge and critical thinking to help a patient? We're lucky if nurses have a storyline at all, other than sleeping with a physician, of course
Ok, I think that's about all I have to say for now :)
Preparing to be flamed,
Hillary

if i ever need to make a mountain out of a molehill, i'm calling you!

weetziebat · May 14, 2006

weetkiebat, i can tell you meant well but i do know several asian people who get offended if referred to as oriental. they say the same thing. rugs are are oriental. trains are oriental. people are asian. i don't think this is about 'getting real' or political correctness, but rather sensitivity to others feelings. jmho.

o.k. - sorry to :deadhorse but.........."sensitivity to other's feelings" - well, sorry, maybe i was in the outhouse when it became offensive to refer to a person as oriental. my daughter and her dad certainly have never said anything about feeling slighted. and what about my feelings? - i never had a clue it would upset anyone.

as you have now explained to me there are asian people who it disturbs to be called 'oriental' - and to them i deeply appologize - i definately meant no disrespect.

but i still say there are ways to let someone know the new pc terms - like telling me about it after the luncheon, in a friendly manner. not acting as though i was sitting there naked, crunching on squirming cockroaches, and farting, to boot.

y'all can call me any name ya want, and as long as it is not said in a purposefully derogatory manner, its not going to bother me. i still feel we need to lighten up.

rambisisking · May 14, 2006

o.k. - sorry to :deadhorse but.........."sensitivity to other's feelings" - well, sorry, maybe i was in the outhouse when it became offensive to refer to a person as oriental. my daughter and her dad certainly have never said anything about feeling slighted. and what about my feelings? - i never had a clue it would upset anyone.
as you have now explained to me there are asian people who it disturbs to be called 'oriental' - and to them i deeply appologize - i definately meant no disrespect.
but i still say there are ways to let someone know the new pc terms - like telling me about it after the luncheon, in a friendly manner. not acting as though i was sitting there naked, crunching on squirming cockroaches, and farting, to boot.
y'all can call me any name ya want, and as long as it is not said in a purposefully derogatory manner, its not going to bother me. i still feel we need to lighten up.

amen you "beautiful lady"! lol... i couldn't agree more and i have experience in just this subject. my family came over on the boat from syria and believe me i was teased alot when i was growing up and that was before all the arab tenson of this day and age. i was called "sandscratcher", "camel rider", " camel jockey", "ahab" and a lot of other things. i didn't "know" it was supposed to be offensive so i wasn't offended. and one day i took a good look at camels and they were adorable, so i started to collect them, i even had t-shirts that said "camel jockey". i became known as the camel lover from high school on and today, some 35 years later i have hundreds of camels and i have never ever felt offended by these comments. but then that was a different time and i grew up in a very ethnic area where many people were called many things that today you could not say because the meanings of those words have been made to be offensive. like i said in an earlier post, we all need to get over ourselves and direct our offensivness towards things that are actually important. people starving is offensive to me and children who have no clothes , people who are abused and neglected that is offensive to me, murder and hate crimes are offensive to me. there are many offensive acts taking place in the world today to get on the band wagon for and try to stamp out. whether i am called a "beautiful lady" or a "camel rider" is not one of them. we actually have important things to conquer in this world, let's get on with it and stop waisting our time on this kind of baloney.

sassy7cassy · May 14, 2006

You know he also called New Zealanders "Kiwis"

What does that have to do with anything? That's the NZ nickname.

Also, it seems he was quite appreciate of the care he recieved. Nitpicking at his choice of words because they're not as PC as you like seems to be more trouble than it's worth.

I went to college with a couple of girls from NZ and they referred to themselves as kiwis - as do the Brits.

Are you sure about that? The kiwi is a symbol of New Zealand and has nothing to do with GB.

Multicollinearity, BSN, RN · May 14, 2006

but i still say there are ways to let someone know the new pc terms - like telling me about it after the luncheon, in a friendly manner. not acting as though i was sitting there naked, crunching on squirming cockroaches, and farting, to boot.

i agree. it sounds like they were melodramatic and shamed you. very bad.

weetziebat · May 14, 2006

like i said in an earlier post, we all need to get over ourselves and direct our offensivness towards things that are actually important. people starving is offensive to me and children who have no clothes , people who are abused and neglected that is offensive to me, murder and hate crimes are offensive to me. there are many offensive acts taking place in the world today to get on the band wagon for and try to stamp out. whether i am called a "beautiful lady" or a "camel rider" is not one of them. we actually have important things to conquer in this world, let's get on with it and stop waisting our time on this kind of baloney.

ahhh...........beautiful camel riding lady..........i soooo agree! :icon_hug: :kiss

Tweety, BSN, RN · May 14, 2006

Never mind. Sorry.

sassy7cassy · May 14, 2006

Wow, that is surprising. I think some people could lead a much happier life if they didn't look for a reason to find offense in every little thing. Geesh.