Don't know if I've ever posted before today (been a member for a while), but a post in another thread prompted me to respond to it and to post this. I've spent the last few years preparing for a career change into nursing and am in my first semester as a BSN student, and I'm irritated. I am NOT bashing nursing as a profession, but I am dismayed at the constant whining and complaining as well as the lack of any trace of intellectual curiosity that I have found in my short time around the profession among many BUT NOT ALL nurses. The #1 complaint among nurses that I have seen is a lack of respect by other health care professionals. You want to know why there is a lack of respect? Read on. In my short time, I've been around amazing nurses (bright, dedicated and excellent in what they do), but there are far too many that should be doing some else. Here's why nursing gets less respect than it should...
1) Constant whining. Nursing school is too hard, floor nursing is too hard, etc. News flash: most professions are really hard. Nursing isn't special in that regard. Medicine is brutal. IT, my former career, is cut throat. School teachers often have a miserable jobs. Cops work bad shifts and put their lives on the line. The list goes on an on. People that whine about nursing would whine no matter what career they are in.
2) The nursing culture. The claim of nursing being a "caring profession" (as if med techs, rad techs, RT's, etc. aren't caring), yet there is constant bashing of "bad" patients that are "noncompliant." In addition, many nurses go out of their way to humiliate students and new grads, talk about each other behind their backs, call physicians and other providers incompetent, and are in general rude, sour and bitter. Yet nursing is supposed to be the "caring" profession.
3) The nursing culture part II: Running around the hospital with balloons, teddy bears, flowers, whatever on your scrubs says to your colleagues, "I don't have a brain."
4) Nursing education. Learning to "diagnose" a patient with "Ineffective coping mechanisms related to disturbed transpersonal energy field" sounds like a bunch of hooey to a lot of people. Why? Because it is. It too screams, "I don't have a brain." Thankfully such stuff is only in the textbooks and not in the real world.
5) Feminization. I have heard ad nauseum that traditionally, physicians are men, nurses are women and that accounts for much of the disrespect. I actually agree. Ironically, many more women now are entering all health fields traditionally dominated by men (pharmacy, medicine, etc.) but there's barely been an uptick in the number of men going into nursing. Why? See #3 above for starters. Here's some other reasons. The local Sigma Theta Tau chapter at my school has brown and pink for their colors. The local CC has a teddy bear wearing an 1800's nursing hat and a big heart on its (her) chest (that'll make males race to apply to the program). Which, BTW, also screams, "I don't have a brain."
6) Lack of intellectual curiosity/knowledge. See #3 and #5 as well. One of my instructors this semester (who is a licensed pediatric nurse practitioner) could not answer a question as to what a lesion is. A nurse during my clinical last week did not know the difference between a H2 antagonist and a proton pump inhibitor, yet has been nursing for 20 years. My clinical instructor (with an MSN) "corrected" me and explained that myasthenia gravis is an intestinal disorder. I'm guessing they are like the students I had in my science prereqs that hated science and were just glad to get them done so they could apply to nursing school - never mind the fact that the sciences are the foundation of all modern health care practice. Would you go to a doctor that hated or was bad at science? What about a respiratory or physical therapist? Do everyone a favor - if you hate or are bad at science, spare your future patients and find another career.
In short, there's got to be a change in nursing culture for the profession to be respected.
your comment on "preception" right back at ya" she didnt say "youthful feel" and she excepted those working in peds, and she, at least implied, that it wasnt only her thoughts. YOUR preceptions are showing/
I chose 'youthful feel' to collect the various adornments described, did not see any exception for those working in peds, and fully owned MY perceptions by putting "TO ME" in capital letters rather than trying to speak for EVERYBODY and claiming to know what one's colleagues will or will not think.
Well, you're obviously entitled to disagree! And as I said earlier, I have no dog in this fight. But people do subconsciously judge others by their appearance, including their clothing. Just as we tend to think more highly of a person with a neat and clean appearance than we do of someone with a slovenly one on first acquaintance, cutesy scrubs may lead people as a whole to think less highly (in the sense of intellectual or authoritative respect) of the nurses who wear them when those people have no deeper acquaintance with those nurses. It's just basically a subconscious reaction, so I'm not sure condemning people as ignorant really has much to do with the situation.
Most businesses have a professional dress standard. Nursing as a profession isn't given the respect that big-M Medicine is, despite the fact that nursing requires an incredible amount of knowledge and a broad variety of skills. I simply think that, particularly because of the general prejudice against professions dominated by women, a professional standard of dress might help nurses be taken more seriously (again, in terms of intellect and authority) by some patients and health care colleagues. Obviously dress and appearance aren't the root of the respect issue, but every little bit helps.
However, I'm certainly not trying to launch a "Change the Way Nurses Dress!" campaign - that's neither my place nor my desire. I'm just putting my opinion and observations as an outsider into the ring, because they might serve as food for thought. They certainly aren't intended as a mandatory meal, though! :)
Where I used to work we had a nurse that always wore whites and her cap, this was in 04. Everyone always stopped her in the hallway, thought she was in charge, asked her for confirmation of other nurses responses, etc... God rest her soul but she was by far not the smartest nurse on the floor.....
me too. haven't heard from the op in a bit- iI thought this smelled a little trollish.
Nah, trolls don't typically make any attempt to rationally defend their points the way the OP did. I think he/she actually thought they had a valid point.
Where I used to work we had a nurse that always wore whites and her cap, this was in 04. Everyone always stopped her in the hallway, thought she was in charge, asked her for confirmation of other nurses responses, etc... God rest her soul but she was by far not the smartest nurse on the floor.....
Exactly so; even though she wasn't in charge and wasn't, er, the brightest star in the sky according to your report, she was treated as someone with more authority and/or knowledge because of her attire. It's just human nature, I guess.
Well, you're obviously entitled to disagree! And as I said earlier, I have no dog in this fight. But people do subconsciously judge others by their appearance, including their clothing. Just as we tend to think more highly of a person with a neat and clean appearance than we do of someone with a slovenly one on first acquaintance, cutesy scrubs may lead people as a whole to think less highly (in the sense of intellectual or authoritative respect) of the nurses who wear them when those people have no deeper acquaintance with those nurses. It's just basically a subconscious reaction, so I'm not sure condemning people as ignorant really has much to do with the situation.
Most businesses have a professional dress standard. Nursing as a profession isn't given the respect that big-M Medicine is, despite the fact that nursing requires an incredible amount of knowledge and a broad variety of skills. I simply think that, particularly because of the general prejudice against professions dominated by women, a professional standard of dress might help nurses be taken more seriously (again, in terms of intellect and authority) by some patients and health care colleagues. Obviously dress and appearance aren't the root of the respect issue, but every little bit helps.
However, I'm certainly not trying to launch a "Change the Way Nurses Dress!" campaign - that's neither my place nor my desire. I'm just putting my opinion and observations as an outsider into the ring, because they might serve as food for thought. They certainly aren't intended as a mandatory meal, though! :)
10 years ago most businesses had a professional dress standard, but after working as a HR Manager for the past 8 years I can tell you that the trend has been moving toward casual or business casual dress for the past 5 years or so. CEOs, VPs all wearing jeans or business casual attire to work now. I disagree that the majority of people still look at people in suits as more knowledgeable or professional. Nurses can earn more respect being more educated, skilled and providing quality patient care, not by conforming to a so called standard.
@Angel0411: I guess we'll simply have to disagree on this one. My (recent) experiences with business attire and customer expectations, attitudes, and behaviors have been quite different. Perhaps we've worked in different sorts of businesses.
@Angel0411: I guess we'll simply have to disagree on this one. My (recent) experiences with business attire and customer expectations, attitudes, and behaviors have been quite different. Perhaps we've worked in different sorts of businesses.
If I had to guess, I'd say the OP is a "He"...That's just the impression I get from all the rant about hearts, flowers, and teddy bears. Almost comes off as thinly veiled chauvinism to me...I could be wrong though. Wouldn't be the first time.
:lol2:
whodatnurse
444 Posts
I chose 'youthful feel' to collect the various adornments described, did not see any exception for those working in peds, and fully owned MY perceptions by putting "TO ME" in capital letters rather than trying to speak for EVERYBODY and claiming to know what one's colleagues will or will not think.