Respect from patients as a Registered Nurse?

emtb2rn, BSN, RN, EMT-B · Jun 10, 2015

ER. I honestly don't care what other people think or whether they "respect" me. I try to be the best nurse that I can be & other people's (i.e., customers/management) thoughts about me ain't not never high on my priority list.

Yeah, worked a triple negative in there.

TheCommuter, BSN, RN · Jun 10, 2015

I can only speak for myself and my place of employment. I work at a specialty hospital where nurses are not highly valued. This is mostly due to the fact that we cannot charge for the services we render.

Most of the other healthcare professions in the hospital (medicine, respiratory therapy, speech language pathology, physical therapy, occupational therapy, etc) are valued because the services they provide generate revenue for the hospital in the form of billable charges. Nursing, on the other hand, is viewed as a drain to the hospital's budget because we do not generate billable charges.

Jules A, MSN · Jun 10, 2015

Overall I place more value on income and enjoying my job than I do feeling respected. I was proud to be a floor nurse and a bonus is I did feel respected for the most part. In psychiatry the patients who weren't respectful were usually the ones too sick to be able to control their behavior or withdrawing. In either event I didn't take it seriously. Most docs, techs and fellow RNs were fun to work with. I made a good living, felt respected and enjoyed my job. As a NP its similar. Overall I feel respected, the patients are mostly the same, Docs I work with have been amazing and of course my nurses love me cause I've been there, done that.

If I had to do it over as a young person I would definitely go to medical school but thats just with the benefit of hindsight.

Emergent, RN · Jun 10, 2015

I feel that I'm respected, appreciated, and admired.

Larry3373 · Jun 10, 2015

I work Icu. Typically I'm well respected though not always. Every patient and every family member is different, and you will always have that one that totally disrespects you. Admittedly, I have more problems with family members than I do with the patients themselves. Family members show up during the visitation times and act as though we haven't been doing enough for their family member or that we don't know how to do our job. The typical patient that I'm familiar with that can get on your nerves is the drug seeker who is mad that they can't get their q 2 hour prn dilaudid early, lol. Overall I feel respected though. You have to look at the attitude of the nurse too sometimes. For example, I know nurses that have abrasive and argumentative attitudes. Sometimes the wrong attitude can provoke the disrespect.

Here.I.Stand, BSN, RN · Jun 10, 2015

I feel respected/appreciated more often than not. For every one that expects to be treated like they're at the County Hilton, there are probably 50 that express heartfelt thanks and/or give us candy. :laugh:

Dogen · Jun 10, 2015

I can only speak for myself and my place of employment. I work at a specialty hospital where nurses are not highly valued. This is mostly due to the fact that we cannot charge for the services we render.

I've heard this argument, that nursing isn't respected within medicine because we're billed as part of the room fee, alongside the food and linen. I guess from a management perspective it makes sense... I wonder how you'd bill for eight hours of care. How about a per-call-light fee? :)

Libby1987 · Jun 10, 2015

Home Health. Patients and families show a great deal of appreciation, providers and their staff, have upped their courtesy and communication in recent years to the point of remarkable, my managers are great and my employer treats us well.

tiamaria123 · Jun 10, 2015

Most of the other healthcare professions in the hospital (medicine, respiratory therapy, speech language pathology, physical therapy, occupational therapy, etc) are valued because the services they provide generate revenue for the hospital in the form of billable charges. Nursing, on the other hand, is viewed as a drain to the hospital's budget because we do not generate billable charges.

This is an interesting perspective that I hadn't considered before. I thought about applying to the programs you mentioned but chose a second-entry nursing program because there seemed to be the most job opportunities (and growth opportunities) in that area. I didn't consider that nurses may be viewed as less valuable by hospital admin than those other professionals.

Home Health. Patients and families show a great deal of appreciation, providers and their staff, have upped their courtesy and communication in recent years to the point of remarkable, my managers are great and my employer treats us well.

This sounds like the kind of work environment I'd like to have. I'm going to look into this :)

LadyFree28, BSN, LPN, RN · Jun 10, 2015

ER. I honestly don't care what other people think or whether they "respect" me. I try to be the best nurse that I can be & other people's (i.e., customers/management) thoughts about me ain't not never high on my priority list.

This.

Although I have been on the receiving end of complements as well as witnessed nurses get "Thank You" noted on paper towels lately, I think nurses are respected in the ED, for the most part.

Lev, MSN, RN, NP · Jun 10, 2015

I work in the ER as well. From your typical not drunk/high/psych patient I would say that nurses are respected most of the time. Of course there are always your special cases. There are rude people everywhere. Truly, I do not personalize 99.5% of what any of my patients say to me.