Some people are too smart for nursing

suanna · May 2, 2015

I can see this as being accurate in todays market. Nurses are discouraged from having inddependent problem solving. Just do what the doctor orders and what you are told by your suporvisory staff; keep your head down/mouth shut. Just look at the number of posts on AN that relate antiquated, useless, or possibly harmful practices in nursing, but we are powerless to make the changes that would promote safer and more effective patient care. I'm pretty bright, but I find that if I look on my job as equal to a burger flipping grill jockey and lower my expectations of respect, I am a lot less aggrivated but each days events. I think nurses with a marginal level of intelligence may be more satisfied with thier assigned role in todays health care market.

LadyFree28, BSN, LPN, RN · May 3, 2015

I can see this as being accurate in todays market. Nurses are discouraged from having inddependent problem solving. Just do what the doctor orders and what you are told by your suporvisory staff; keep your head down/mouth shut. Just look at the number of posts on AN that relate antiquated, useless, or possibly harmful practices in nursing, but we are powerless to make the changes that would promote safer and more effective patient care. I'm pretty bright, but I find that if I look on my job as equal to a burger flipping grill jockey and lower my expectations of respect, I am a lot less aggrivated but each days events. I think nurses with a marginal level of intelligence may be more satisfied with thier assigned role in todays health care market.

Respectfully disagree.

I have consistently used "what I know" as a means to accurately and continually advocate for my patients; providers have looked to me consistently for recommendations to the pt's POC.

Interesting enough, I made a recommendation that was overlooked for a pt; the pt and the provider wad much appreciated for my recommendation.

Maybe I attribute my consistency to have pretty good soft skills, but my intelligence and knowledge are certainly valued, at least in my experience.

suanna · May 5, 2015

Respectfully disagree.
I have consistently used "what I know" as a means to accurately and continually advocate for my patients; providers have looked to me consistently for recommendations to the pt's POC.
Interesting enough, I made a recommendation that was overlooked for a pt; the pt and the provider wad much appreciated for my recommendation.
Maybe I attribute my consistency to have pretty good soft skills, but my intelligence and knowledge are certainly valued, at least in my experience.

This used to be the case where I work, but as the years have gone by, the Nursing department has lost more and more ground in having a say in how things are done. At this point a staff nurse only speaks up when they are in the mood to be told why whatever problem they are trying to solve is their fault and no one else ever has that specific issue. In other words "Shut up and do what you are told the way you are told to do it-we are in charge." I miss the days when staff nurses were an integral part of the health care planning team- now more often than not we are seen as an expensive but unfortunately necessary tool to perform our allotted task. If my hospital could eliminate nurses all-together I believe they would, and that isn't an uncommon an attitude from what I've heard nurses that have hired in from other hospitals say about their former places of employment. The good news- it does take the pressure off when you aren't expected to come up with solutions to staffing, equipment and bed shortages.

sunflowerr · Aug 18, 2015

I have heard this from relatives before, "You shouldn't stop at being just a nurse! You should become a doctor."

These are the same people who don't know what being a nurse really is...they think it's an easy job and nurses don't do anything. :sarcastic:

Cola89 · Aug 22, 2015

As far as I've seen, nurses are not dumb. We just supposedly have to tolerate a lot of things that most savvy, sane people wouldn't. So as a group we might seem pretty dumb.

sommer0515 · Aug 23, 2015

Thought I would open some eyes...

My fiancÃ© is in med school. He has his bachelors in chemistry. He also graduated from an ADN program before going in. He has maintained a 4.0 GPA through med school pre-reqs. However, he is quick to tell anyone his most challenging and the only curriculum he struggled with was nursing school. He graduated from it with a 3.8.

The level of "intelligence" differs greatly, IMHO. You can choose basic questions all day long but when given critical application questioning, it's a whole new ball game.

Just some insight ðŸ˜Š

brandy1017, ASN, RN · Aug 23, 2015

Of course, we really don't have to justify anything. We don't need to say that we want to be able to spend time with patients or that we don't want to dedicate a huge chunk of our lives to medical school. We don't owe anyone any sort of explanation. CNAs don't need to justify why they're still CNAs. LPNs don't need to explain why they're not going on to be RNs. RNs don't need to come up with an umpteenth speech about why they didn't go to medical school.
If you really feel the need to always defend your career, maybe that's indicative of having your own doubts, deep down.
As for the whole "You're too smart to stay a CNA/LPN/RN..." thing, yeah, that really is kind of a passive aggressive back-handed compliment. There's no escaping it. I've gotten it from many RNs and I'm guilty of saying it sometimes to the sharp CNAs I work with. Maybe once people stop saying you're "too smart" is when you should start worrying.

I've had a Dr encourage me to be an NP and was surprised that I wasn't in school for that and I have likewise encouraged a CNA to go back to school. I would say in these instances it was seeing the potential in someone and also wanting more for them. The Dr knows how difficult floor nursing and shift work is. A CNA job is a very difficult, low paid job. I wanted more for that person to not labor in a dead end job that barely pays the bills. Personally, I think CNA's should be paid more, but I also think people need to vote with their feet and seek out better paying jobs as well.

I wish I had listened to that Dr, but have chosen to keep doing floor nursing. There are times I wish I was a secretary again, but I will never do it because it doesn't pay enough. I do however encourage the younger nurses to seriously consider going back to school for NP because floor nursing is so brutal physically and not getting any easier. It is amazing to see people in their 50-60's at the bedside, but some of them are struggling with back pain so bad they can barely walk thanks to moving patients without ceiling lifts, hovermats, etc!

vintagemother, BSN, CNA, LVN, RN · Aug 23, 2015

I hate this comment.
I have a degree in biomedical engineering but my passion is in nursing so I'm going back to school for that.
Lots of people say I'm too smart to waste it on nursing.
Have people said this about nursing? I'd think you'd have to be pretty smart to take care of sick people.

I've been told this before, also. ðŸ˜€ I think nursing may be like many other jobs: yes, one can choose to be a simple "order taker". But it takes brains to actually do the best thing possible for a client/pt.

Indeed, at my bank, a few weeks ago, I received inaccurate advise from the telephone customer service rep. When I went in the local branch to complain, the manager explAined tgat i would have recvd better advise of ID gone in a branch, because, in his words, the telephone customer service reps were "order takers". I asked him to clarify what this meant and he explained.

Once he did, it made sense to me. It's like some nurses just do what they're told, without thinking.

Sorry, not sorry! Some nurses do. Though that was rare where I worked.

I considered what he said and compared it to my work, and it made sense.

I hope this makes sense.

Thankfully, I've known some smart nurses who evaluate and consider their work and the impact on the pt, rather than simply doing the minimum the mar/DON requires.

I don't blame those who settle for this minimum standard.

But, I, as a thinking nurse, work hard to do what meets my pts immediate need, meets the Dons need, meets the needs of the facility, and makes the other feel better.

This requires the use of critical thinking.

dudette10, MSN, RN · Aug 23, 2015

Thought I would open some eyes...
My fiancÃ© is in med school. He has his bachelors in chemistry. He also graduated from an ADN program before going in. He has maintained a 4.0 GPA through med school pre-reqs. However, he is quick to tell anyone his most challenging and the only curriculum he struggled with was nursing school. He graduated from it with a 3.8.
The level of "intelligence" differs greatly, IMHO. You can choose basic questions all day long but when given critical application questioning, it's a whole new ball game.
Just some insight ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½

I was wondering about the type of evaluation testing done in med school. I took an advanced patho course for my MSN that wasn't in the school of nursing--it was in the biology department. It was the easiest class I've had because it was all recall. Yes, a lot of info had to be memorized, but that's really all you needed to do. I'm not saying med school is easy, but maybe the testing is very different than in nursing school?

sommer0515 · Aug 23, 2015

Dudette10.. He's in a DO program in second year and they've just now begun some of the application part of diagnostics. First year was a lot of foundational of osteopathics, histology, gross anatomy... Now it's clinical sciences where they will have mock pt/physician situations with PMH and SOAPs to go on. I'm assuming (haven't had many exams yet) they may get a few more real life scenarios as they progress that can build critical thinking skills. It's the enormous amount of info that makes the difficult part...

la_chica_suerte85, BSN, RN · Aug 24, 2015

I have gotten the "You should be a doctor, instead." comment. :no: I was pre-med and I was for a reason. I much prefer nursing over doctoring. Just because I can do the school thing well doesn't mean I struggle with other things (I also have enough student loan debt and I'm not a loon and going to incur more just because others think I should be something they perceive me to be). I'm doing this to get out of my comfort and challenge myself - there are things inherent in nursing that are naturally difficult for me. I come from a family of folks that worked hard and were intelligent. Those things are not mutually exclusive and I don't know why people sell nursing short so often.

AuDDoc · Sep 5, 2015

When I was in nursing school and I got the comment "You're too smart to be a nurse, you should be a doctor" I responded with "I already am, but I decided I wanted to do nursing instead."

I usually got a bewildered look.

There are days I still regret not finishing my RN and then there are days when I roll into the inpatient unit amidst the call lights, yelling patients, doctors chewing out nurses, nurses talking crap about other nurses, etc. and I think "thank God I only have 2 more hours and 2 more scheduled patients and then I am off for 3 days.".