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 floor to ICU.
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.

:yeahthat:

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