Published
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.
Let me just say, I love 99% of my patients. The reason we "whine" about some is because they take away a LOT of time that needs to be given to the patients who really need us. I cant tell you how many times I have one med seeking take all my time and my poor other patients get the shaft because I cant be 5 places at once. We complain about certain patients because we want to do our best for all our patients.
and we do need a chance to vent with others that know what we are talking about. I've tried with my husband and he just doesn't get it.
The pain, the suffering, the unjust way some people get ill/hurt and others don't, the fact that we can't do all we want to for each patient. I leave every day wondering if I did enough.
And then there are some patients - but usually patient's families, that just don't seem to ever be satisfied and have no idea what being a nurse is about.
So if coming here to complain helps us stay just one more day to "make a difference", than so be it. Do you really thing we say these things to our patients?
Your dodging the question. Your point was that because you are a nurse, and I am just a student, that I had no place to comment on such matters therefore my opinions were invalid, due to my lack of experience. I then pointed out that there are those in this thread that agree with me that have 4-5 x the experience you have. So, I will ask you again. How does my lack of experience make my opinion wrong when there are those that have far more experience that you that agree with me?
Just because 3 or 4 nurses on a website dont DISAGREE with you, doesn't mean you are right about everything. Youre lack of experience doesnt make your opinion wrong, it makes it irrelevant. Anywhoo, I'm done here, its been fun! Stay cute! :redbeathe:redbeathe:redbeathe
Ummmmmmmmmmmmm....you reread."Constant whining. Nursing school is too hard, floor nursing is too hard, etc."
"...there is constant bashing of "bad" patients that are "noncompliant." "
In my orginal paragraph I wrote, "The #1 complaint among nurses that I have seen is a lack of respect by other health care professionals." The mention below that in my OP about other forms of complaining was in reference to that main point.
You still didn't address you experience claims.
Your dodging the question. Your point was that because you are a nurse, and I am just a student, that I had no place to comment on such matters therefore my opinions were invalid, due to my lack of experience. I then pointed out that there are those in this thread that agree with me that have 4-5 x the experience you have. So, I will ask you again. How does my lack of experience make my opinion wrong when there are those that have far more experience that you that agree with me?
You have no experience as a floor nurse. Nursing school with 1 or 2 patients vs floor nursing with 5-7 patients (if you're lucky) new admits, discharges, codes, paperwork, etc. Whole other animal. Its possible too that someone with 15/20 years has no experience on the outside and feels nursing is the only field like that. Or maybe where they have worked has been that way.
Youre lack of experience doesnt make your opinion wrong, it makes it irrelevant. Anywhoo, I'm done here, its been fun! Stay cute! :redbeathe:redbeathe:redbeathe
Yet another dodge of the point.
Just because 3 or 4 nurses on a website dont DISAGREE with you, doesn't mean you are right about everything.
Yet you've yet to show me how I am wrong.
Youre lack of experience doesnt make your opinion wrong, it makes it irrelevant.
Well, if only experience can make one's opinion right or relevant, then your opinion is also irrelevant because there are those that have responded on this thread that have 4 to 5 x your experience that agree with me. Which brings me back to the fact that you still have not answered the experience question posted earlier. I suspect you won't.
By the way, the hearts were a nice touch.
Wow! Wow! Wow! I guess once you are a nurse and you realize that patients don't tend to scream "NURSING ASSITANT" or "RESPITORY THERAPIST" or "ECG TECH" or "DOCTOR" when they can't figure out their phone, the bed doesn't work, the light is on, they are having chest pain, the dinner tray isn't right, they want their water filled up, they have an itch, they are in pain, they are nervous and just want to be reassured, etc. See the thing is Nurses and Police Officers and Firefighters have a lot in common, they are expected to be able to know all and fix all. IT may get a lot of annoyed people calling them to figure out how to work their computer but I'm sure if they want to know what time the bus comes, they won't be calling IT. Betcha that patient in the bed will call the NURSE to find out what time the bus comes. And I can remember being on hold for at least 20 minutes to wait to talk to an IT person. Ha! Let a NURSE put someone on "hold" for 20 minutes watch what happens.
I'm a pretty new nurse myself so I know the biggest lesson I learned in my first year of nursing is I by a long shot do NOT know everything - and neither do you. It'll be interesting to see you after a long shift of being pulled in 100 different directions while you hold lives in your hands. You just might find yourself whining and your legs aching.
Nursing being labeled as a whining profession is nothing new that some nursing student discovered on their own. Frankly, it's quite an old topic, yet not totally irrerelevent nor something to be completely dismissed. So some merit is deserved here.
I'm another experienced nurse who agrees with a lot, but not all of what the OP stated.
There may be some nurses out there, but I've never met an experienced nurse who believes that the best and brightest at science make the best nurses. In fact many will say the opposite:
"She's very book smart, but when it comes to actual nursing, yikes..." I've heard things like that over and over in my nursing years.
MD's will say the same about their colleagues as well.
Yes the sciences are the foundation, but proficiency at balancing chemical equations, how many joules of heat it takes to melt gold, etc.........come on!!
Many discouraged me from entering nursing as a young person because I wasn't "good" at science. Since I wasn't good, I studied harder/longer than the others to get the "A"'s and "B"s in science.
Honestly, I would encourage any young person that has a natural knack/gift of the biological sciences to pursue other fields. In fact if you are that science brilliant, I would ask you why you are in nursing school and not living up to your full potential?
Maybe I'm wrong.
But for you to say that people who are not good at science should look elsewhere for a career is dead wrong because there are many of us who are living proof that great nurses can be made from hard work and determination.
But again, I do agree with a lot of what you are saying and understand your frustration.
sarjasy
21 Posts
Your dodging the question. Your point was that because you are a nurse, and I am just a student, that I had no place to comment on such matters therefore my opinions were invalid, due to my lack of experience. I then pointed out that there are those in this thread that agree with me that have 4-5 x the experience you have. So, I will ask you again. How does my lack of experience make my opinion wrong when there are those that have far more experience that you that agree with me?