"Why don't you just be a doctor?"

Nurses General Nursing

Published

Last night, I was approached by a gentleman, and after a few minutes of small chat, he asked what I was in school for. Proudly, I said "nursing", and he gave me a not so nice look, and replied with "Why don't you be a doctor?". I was immediately thrown off, and very annoyed that this man viewed nurses as not being "good enough". Has anyone else ever been in this situation? Can you please tell me what you said back? I said "I admire the job of a nurse more than a doctor, and can't imagine doing anything else." I can't help but be annoyed by people that have NO idea what kind of work it is to be a nurse! :uhoh3:

Specializes in M/S, MICU, CVICU, SICU, ER, Trauma, NICU.

My answer is, "I wanted a life."

Up Vote Up Vote ×

"Nurses keep your doctor from killing you"

Up Vote Up Vote ×

I've been blindsided a couple of times and didn't always have time to answer. I would say I want the ability to have a career that's flexible. I'm sorry, but you don't get that with medicine. You go to school for up to 12 years and you accumulate lots of debt. It's hard to leave a career with that much invested; what if you don't like that career you worked your butt off for?

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Medical-Surgical, Informatics.

i'm a guy and i just laugh it off.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in OB/GYN, Peds, School Nurse, DD.
Last night, I was approached by a gentleman, and after a few minutes of small chat, he asked what I was in school for. Proudly, I said "nursing", and he gave me a not so nice look, and replied with "Why don't you be a doctor?". I was immediately thrown off, and very annoyed that this man viewed nurses as not being "good enough". Has anyone else ever been in this situation? Can you please tell me what you said back? I said "I admire the job of a nurse more than a doctor, and can't imagine doing anything else." I can't help but be annoyed by people that have NO idea what kind of work it is to be a nurse! :uhoh3:

Yeah, it annoys me too. Most people really have no idea how thoroughly prepared nurses are, nor the need for constant continuing education. My preacher asked me to talk to this daughter a few years ago, because she wanted to be a nurse. So I talked to her. encouraged her to consider nursing because of the flexibility and portability of the field. when the preacher found out, he was mad! He said he thought i would tell her NOT to be a nurse, because of all the icky stuff and how hard it is. He wanted me to tell her to be a doctor( he was in pre-med in college). :mad: I told him that the reason I became a nurse was NOT that I wasn't capable of being a doctor. In fact, my first career choice was pediatrician. But after thinking it through I decided that i didn't want to be married to my career and I didn't want to incur hundreds of thousands of debt. He was dumbfounded! I told him that nursing was a great career for a woman who plans to have a family because of the flexibility of hours, shifts and specialties. As a nurse I have been able to pick up and move when my husband was transferred to other states and resume my career in my new home. I was able to homeschool my kids. I was able to cut my hours without jeopardizing our income when my handicapped son was born and needed constant care. Why would he NOT want her to be a nurse? In the end, he prevailed and now she is finishing up her residency. She has a ton of debt. I hope she really loves being a doctor because she will be locked into her career for the rest of her life, like it or not. It will be years and years before she's out of debt. She will undoubtedly NOT have the option of staying home with her babies and her patients will probably always come first. Sorry, but that doesn't seem like a good trade-off to me.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Nursing Professional Development.

I think the OP's answer was just fine. I wouldn't recommend using the opportunity to say anything bad about physicians ... that's not necessary and makes us look bad.

We should not be taking "pot shots" at doctors. We should not have to put others down to make ourselves look good. We should be able to state our reasons for becoming nurses in positive terms. Use the opportunity to say somthing good about nursing.

As for me ... I got that question a lot as my father was a physician. He and all his colleagues always told me they thought I had made the right move by getting a graduate education in nursing. The person least intereted in seeing my go to med school was my Dad -- followed closely by his colleagues. None of them advised me to go to med school.

llg, PhD, RN-BC

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in mental health.
I wouldn't recommend using the opportunity to say anything bad about physicians ... that's not necessary and makes us look bad.

We should not be taking "pot shots" at doctors. We should not have to put others down to make ourselves look good.

Thank you! I would have given this post 10 "kudos" if I could have. I have been so uncomfortable reading the doctor-bashing posts on this thread. Nurses are not SUPERIOR to doctors - we are just in a DIFFERENT role.

And I think it's a perfectly reasonable question for people outside the field to ask us given that doctors make a whole lot more money than us. People who are not in the health care field don't have much of an idea of the different roles of various healthcare personnel - in their minds all of the health care roles are something that someone with an interest and ability in health care might be interested in, and why shouldn't someone do the thing that makes more money?

As for doctors asking this question, well, I think what they must like about their role is the relative autonomy in terms of diagnosing and prescribing - they don't have to wait around for the "physician's order" even while they see quite clearly what their patient really needs! And then there's the very obvious difference in pay, again.

People ask because they don't know, and it's up to us to answer graciously.

Thanks llg.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
The incident itself is inconsequential. The prevailing attitude it betrays is not. Unfortunately, a significant portion of the population consciously or unconsciously undervalues the traditionally female-dominated nursing field and considers the (traditionally, not necessarily currently) male-dominated field of medicine more important. Even today, traditionally female-dominated fields like classroom teaching, nursing, and early childhood education are held in relatively low esteem (in terms of the intellectual capability required to perform the job) by the general public and have somewhat low wage rates. Those issues are troubling and problematic for a great many talented and well-educated women.

So yes, it's a mosquito bite of an incident, but a West Nile Virus of an issue. ;)

Be that as it may, of which you raise a good point. What good has fretting ever done? She fretted about it, did she in turn school the person on the true workings of nurse? No.

Instead she fretted and took offense. That is what galls me and besides laughing over something sometimes helps pass the message across than taking offense. Try it.

Up Vote Up Vote ×

I have found the person who asks "why don't you just be a doctor?" is not going to listen to your answer anyway; the question is rarely asked out of genuine curiosity.

Up Vote Up Vote ×

Being a 40 y/o w/m who is just starting NS this coming August, I here this from my own father, only not as much as when I was taking my pre-reqs and had not gotten into the application process. He is 76 and is from the old school of women are nurses and men are docs. I think when I explained that I could actually be working at 42, and making enough to support my family, instead of having to wait until I was 50 with several hundred thousand in debt to just be starting out, the light popped on. I enjoy being around the medical field and had I been serious at 17 right out of high school I might have gone that route, however I am much happier today and thank my blessings that I am still able to start out in nursing so late in life. I now have a full family and love the fact that I will be able to spend the time with them instead of being married to a job. My father-in-law is a PA and his pager goes off constantly during dinners, trips out of town, at movies. No thanks, I think there are enough paths to take within nursing, L&D, trauma, NICU, NP, LTC, ER, CRNA. Honestly, I can't think of another career that has so many different opportunities.

Up Vote Up Vote ×

I'm not a nurse yet....but I'm on the road to becoming one and I can't wait!

I'll never forget riding in the back of my mother's car when I was about six years old and she asked me the same thing. I said, "I want to be a nurse" and she said, "Why would you want to be a nurse, when you can be a doctor....so I said "OK, I want to be doctor"....I stuck with that goal until I entererd a high school summer program and got the opportunity to see what doctors really do. I was not interested to say the least.

The point is... I began realizing why I wanted to be a nurse all along... I just couldn't articulate it when I was six. I want to help others heal, cope, and recover...I want to be there with and for my patients and their families. I don't think doctors have the opportunities to do this very often.

Nurses truly ROCK!!!!

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in neuroscience, ortho, ent.

Haha. I just chuckle, and with all the modesty and humility I can muster, I inform my well-meaning inquirer that going into medicine would have been such a waste of my talent!

Up Vote Up Vote ×
+ Add a Comment