The 'Image' of Nursing

Nurses General Nursing

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We hear about the 'image' of nursing. We've seen attempts by nursing leadership to improve it's image. Some say that the whole NANDA thing was an attempt to make nursing seem more 'professional' in it's own right. I personally thought it was ridiculous, and the whole care plan thing is annoying and dumb, in my mind.

Then, I read in the latest poll regarding the most and the least trusted professions, and nurses came out on top again. Nurses are loved by the public, apparently. And, that's my personal experience. I am respected and loved by my community because I am a nurse.

So, what's your take on this?

Specializes in 5 yrs OR, ASU Pre-Op 2 yr. ER.

I think it's similar when LPNs talk like they're RNs. Some of them probably do just as much work or more, but still aren't an RN and didn't go through the schooling that the RN did. But they seriously want to be "more useful, more knowledgeable, more admired", whatever it is that they seek from being a nurse.

It's called 'professional behavior,' and it's not limited to just RNs. Has nothing to do with some supposed need to be admired, knowledgeable, or useful. Has to do with the professionalism that the pt, family, docs, etc. expect a nurse (LPN or RN) to have.

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In fact, I have noticed over the years that the more and more we have moved away from the "dumb" care plan into strictly implementing physician's orders the worse outcomes patients have. Nursing care IMO is far more influential than physician care on patient outcomes and it can make the difference between life and death, I don't care how good the physician is.

I, for one, would prefer that all I had to do was carry out the physicians orders. How easy life would be if that is all I had to do.

nursing care more influential than medicine on patient outcomes? lol. If i have a ruptured abdominal aneurism, I'll take a physician over a nurse anyday.

ps. In school, I used disturbed energy field all the time on my care plans. I think it is enormously ridiculous. Laughable even, how are we supposed to get any respect when we entertain such notions? Next thing you know we are going to break out the crystals, lol. I was challenging my teachers to tell me it was ridiculous and to rewrite. Not a single teacher ever even blinked an eye.

These are just my opinions, please don't get mad at me.

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What is a 'disturbed energy field'? That sounds like New Age mumbo jumbo.

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Specializes in Day Surgery/Infusion/ED.

I agree that careplans have their place in teaching students--if only we could ditch NANDA. Why can't we just call it as we see it? Instead of saying, "Ineffective airway clearance AEB blah, blah, blah" just say "Shortness of breath." Instead of taking seventy five sentences to state a simple intervention, just state the intervention. We get so bogged down in self-important nurse-lingo that what we actually do gets lost.

God forbid you use a medical diagnosis in a nursing careplan; that was like grieving the Holy Spirit of Nursing. When I was a student, you could never just flatly say your pt. had a "PE" or "pneumonia." You could dance all around the diagnosis, just as long as you never said it directly. How stupid.

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from nanda: disturbed energy field: the state in which a disruption of the flow of energy surrounding a person's being results in a disharmony of the body, mind, and/or spirit.

lol

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Specializes in 5 yrs OR, ASU Pre-Op 2 yr. ER.
from nanda: disturbed energy field: the state in which a disruption of the flow of energy surrounding a person's being results in a disharmony of the body, mind, and/or spirit.

lol

Sounds like me when i've pulled a double shift.

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Specializes in Occupational Medicine, Orthopedics.
It's called 'professional behavior,' and it's not limited to just RNs. Has nothing to do with some supposed need to be admired, knowledgeable, or useful. Has to do with the professionalism that the pt, family, docs, etc. expect a nurse (LPN or RN) to have.

Very true indeed. Professionalism is very important. We "represent" the profession.

Just a tad different when you're in "Grandpa Pete's Pizzaria" waiting for your dinner and having a conversation with other patrons who are tired from a good days work.

Just a by-the-by conversation, everything is great. Psyche gets the best of us (sometimes them, sometimes me) whether we admit it or not.

The CNA (in some cases) plain and simple wishes he/she was a nurse. The LPN (in some cases) wishes he/she were on the same level as the RN.

This exact same thing happened to me just last week. I was waiting for terryaki, when another lady in scrubs asked me where I worked. I told her in a pediatric office. Then I reciprocated the question and she answered that she worked in our local hospital. We had small talk for several minutes before she hesitantly told me she was in dietary. Now, of course I have nothing against dietary personnel, that would be stupid, but it was obvious she didn't want me to know that she was not a nurse. I made every attempt to make her feel my equal in every way during our conversation.

That's the only thing I'm trying to get across here, Freud would surely have a take on this.

Blue

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I, for one, would prefer that all I had to do was carry out the physicians orders. How easy life would be if that is all I had to do.

If all we nurses did was blindly follow orders, consider all the adverse outcomes for the patients. We are a line of defense in preventing adverse outcomes BECAUSE of our knowledge.

nursing care more influential than medicine on patient outcomes? lol. If i have a ruptured abdominal aneurism, I'll take a physician over a nurse anyday.

Actually mortality of AAA rupture is 75-90%, with 65% of patients dying before they arrive at hospital. Certainly you would want a skilled surgeon to repair an abdominal aneurysm before it ruptures, however it will not be that surgeon who will be monitoring your condition at all times, neither is that surgeon in the operating room alone. Throughout your stay, from pre-op to discharge, you will be monitored by nurses. Trust me, you will want nurses who are well versed regarding your condition and the course of your treatment, that know any signs of complications and what needs to be done, someone else may be covering for your surgeon if he is unavailable.

It's not an either or situation. When your physician is not there, who do you want? I really don't think you want someone who blindly follows orders.

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Specializes in ER..
Some patients are just very self centered, and do only consider nurses handmaidens and pillow-fluffers. I don't think you're going to change that portion of the population, no matter what.
Not being penalized as "uncaring" on PG when you tell a patient, "I'm busy with a more critical patient right now, but I will ask the patient advocate or nursing assistant to bring you one shortly" might be a good start.

I think that's a large part of it, actually. When we hire survey companies like PG to evaluate how we do our jobs, they better be asking questions pertinent to not just our caring, etc., but our clinical knowledge. Asking to rate from 1-5 "Did the nurse seem willing to drop everything for you?" further reinforces our view as handmaidens to the public. If the survey asks it, it must be true that's it's all we do! Not many people here are fans of Press Gainey for such reasons, the nefarious of which being what I mentioned above. If even they can't understand the core of being a good nurse, I sure don't expect the public to.

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the thought of graduating from nursing school now scares the hell out of me. the public may love nurses, but from what i hear it is different on the "inside". i hear of how the older nurses will eat you up and spit you out. my cousin is a nurse and told me she went home crying the first month of her job!!!! in my opinion if there is such a shortage of nurses why would the older nurses do this.

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Specializes in Med/Surg, Geriatrics.
I, for one, would prefer that all I had to do was carry out the physicians orders. How easy life would be if that is all I had to do.

nursing care more influential than medicine on patient outcomes? lol. If i have a ruptured abdominal aneurism, I'll take a physician over a nurse anyday.

ps. In school, I used disturbed energy field all the time on my care plans. I think it is enormously ridiculous. Laughable even, how are we supposed to get any respect when we entertain such notions? Next thing you know we are going to break out the crystals, lol. I was challenging my teachers to tell me it was ridiculous and to rewrite. Not a single teacher ever even blinked an eye.

These are just my opinions, please don't get mad at me.

Uh-huh. How many times do people survive a surgery only to die of

1. Pneumonia

2. Wound infection

3. DVT

4. Post-op ileus

These are all complications which require skilled and aggressive nursing care. Unfortunately many nurses think like yourself and only want to carry out the physician orders....ya know the "important" aspects of patient care. Too many nurses value medical interventions such as hanging antibiotics, administering Coumadin, administering Albuterol treatments and pushing MOM over nursing interventions such strict hand-washing, good wound care, turning and ambulating the patient aggressively, promoting the use of the incentive spirometer and carefully monitoring and promoting PO intake. It's very embarassing to see a physician write an order to feed or turn a patient, something we should be doing anyway. Trust me, those are the issues that a patient's recovery hinge on.

And yes, I am well, well aware of time issues and the frustration that many of us feel when we are unable to carry out our nursing care in favor of implementing the physician orders but at least we realize that nursing care is just as important(if not more) as physican care.

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Specializes in home & public health, med-surg, hospice.

the thought of graduating from nursing school now scares the hell out of me. the public may love nurses, but from what i hear it is different on the "inside". i hear of how the older nurses will eat you up and spit you out. my cousin is a nurse and told me she went home crying the first month of her job!!!! in my opinion if there is such a shortage of nurses why would the older nurses do this.

hi lovejana22,

the issue of "older nurses eating their young" is really a worn out cliche (imo) and a misplaced blame on one particular group of our practioners for all of the woes which are endemic within our profession; whereas, in reality it is a lack of unity amongst all of us...:(

it's a divide and conquer technique that some of us have decided to jump on the band wagon of. you know, i.e. "there's a problem,"..."oh we can blame it on somebody else???"...."yea! let's do that instead of finding a solution!" (said with tongue in cheek)??? believe it or not, many of our older nurses are not regarded with the high esteem they deserve for the knowledge they posses and they too are mistreated.

anyways, and again, this is just my opinion, we need to be promoting the care of one another and the need for supporting eachother. something that would probably be of immense help to you, lovejana22, is to find yourself a good mentor.

good luck...:icon_hug:

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