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.
It's not that serious.It's only meant to bring cheer to patients and make their days look better instead of bleak. Granted, it doesn't work all the times, but the few times it does, makes a difference.
Now, where's that Tom and Jerry scrubs again?:)
Not only do some of the nurses where I work wear Strawberry Shortcake, Scooby Doo, Tom and Jerry, etc., scrubs, but we just got the purchasing department to get us some Powerpuff Girl and Hello Kitty band-aids !! Seriously. It's a community health center, and the responses we've gotten are overwhelmingly positive; lots of patients have even asked for band-aids to take home to their children. :rckn: And always lots of positive comments about the scrubs.
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.
I can't speak for the OP, but I'm not a He....yet feel the same way about the hearts, flowers and teddy bears. Unless it's in a peds unit, or in a place (like Community Health) where you're going to have kids around, it's just unprofessional.
I can't speak for the OP, but I'm not a He....yet feel the same way about the hearts, flowers and teddy bears. Unless it's in a peds unit, or in a place (like Community Health) where you're going to have kids around, it's just unprofessional.
I suppose you are as entitled to your opinion as I am entitled to not care in the slightest about said opinion.
i found the OP presenting an intelligent, and well thought out arguement. And find many of the childish, mocking responses indicative of the fact that the OP is right on with his/her assessment. Especially those obsessing about the print scrub tops, and not adressing the point made, how the other nurses or patients/families observed/preceived the nurses in prints was not the point! I hope the OP does continue on in nursing, some one with their head squarely on their shoulders instead of up their orifice, would be a pleasure to work with!
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.
I sewed my husband 3 scrub shirts with chickens on them. Oh, there was another one with fish. He didn't want to wear hearts, flowers, or teddy bears, either.
i found the OP presenting an intelligent, and well thought out arguement. And find many of the childish, mocking responses indicative of the fact that the OP is right on with his/her assessment. Especially those obsessing about the print scrub tops, and not adressing the point made, how the other nurses or patients/families observed/preceived the nurses in prints was not the point! I hope the OP does continue on in nursing, some one with their head squarely on their shoulders instead of up their orifice, would be a pleasure to work with!
Heh...Until you have the audacity to vent in a way that isn't 100% relenting to his strict moral code.
Edit: I wasn't trying to be rude to the guy, just telling him to put his money where his mouth is :) His criticism of the profession is that nurses are complaining about their public image, but doing nothing constructive to combat it. My question was, why doesn't the OP stop complaining about the inactions of others and act himself to change it? Leading by example works.
I can't speak for the OP, but I'm not a He....yet feel the same way about the hearts, flowers and teddy bears. Unless it's in a peds unit, or in a place (like Community Health) where you're going to have kids around, it's just unprofessional.
Personally, I wouldn't go so far as to call it unprofessional to wear such things. I just don't know that colleagues from other branches of medicine, allied health professionals, and those from outside the medical world in general tend to perceive those who wear them as being as intelligent and as high up the authority ladder as those who wear the solid color scrubs. Clearly those who wear them are as a group no different in intellect or authority than their solid-color-wearing nursing colleagues, but the point is a matter of perception which relates to the whole respect for nursing as a profession issue. However, I've made the same point a couple of times now, so I'm just going to be quiet and watch this one from the sidelines from now on....
Personally, I wouldn't go so far as to call it unprofessional to wear such things. I just don't know that colleagues from other branches of medicine, allied health professionals, and those from outside the medical world in general tend to perceive those who wear them as being as intelligent and as high up the authority ladder as those who wear the solid color scrubs. Clearly those who wear them are as a group no different in intellect or authority than their solid-color-wearing nursing colleagues, but the point is a matter of perception which relates to the whole respect for nursing as a profession issue. However, I've made the same point a couple of times now, so I'm just going to be quiet and watch this one from the sidelines from now on....
Honestly, I think that portraying myself in a manner in which colleagues from other branches of medicine and allied health professionals doubt my intelligence and/or authority is unprofessional.
abbnurse
405 Posts
Not only do some of the nurses where I work wear Strawberry Shortcake, Scooby Doo, Tom and Jerry, etc., scrubs, but we just got the purchasing department to get us some Powerpuff Girl and Hello Kitty band-aids !! Seriously. It's a community health center, and the responses we've gotten are overwhelmingly positive; lots of patients have even asked for band-aids to take home to their children. :rckn: And always lots of positive comments about the scrubs.