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.
Then answer the same question I've been asking that no one has answered -- when nurses in this thread with years of experience agree with me, do you discount them too?
In answer to your question...They're not the ones complaining, you are. Don't chicken out now. Own it. You're not going to win any points by advancing your agenda on the backs of your supporters. Show me the money, Jerry.
hmm Sarjasy- have you considered maybe PA school? since us experienced nurses have allowed the profession to become so disrespected? Maybe you should become a union leader- maybe you'd do better in that field. One thing I have learned over the years- in order to be a good nurse- you also have to work well with your fellow nurses. Since you seem to think us whiners and print- top wearers are so beneath you, I don't think anyone will be willing to help you when you need it. Btw, my "company" wears specific solid colored uniform scrubs.
Or how does experience have any relevance to the fact that flowers on scrubs make nurses look unprofessional and unintelligent to other health care professionals (Don't believe me? Ask around).
How about don't judge a book by its cover? I wear cute and flowery tops to work most of the time.. I would never consider myself or any other nurse who wears cute and flowery tops unprofessional and unintelligent unless I have obvious proof to do so. Thats our style if we choose to wear that.
I would rather have a nurse wearing a Spongebob or Easter Bunny top who knows what she is doing and whats going on with me taking care of me than a nurse who dresses in plain tops who can't tell her elbow from her eyelash.
Or how does experience have any relevance to the fact that flowers on scrubs make nurses look unprofessional and unintelligent to other health care professionals (Don't believe me? Ask around).
hmm ok using that analogy- why is it that the last IT-> RN transplant we had couldn't make it as a nurse? Could it be because they think like a computer? A perfect flow chart? So, since most nurses wearing flowery tops( umm, i doubt the men nurses are wearing flowery scrub tops) and looking unprofessional and unintelligent, must mean that since our experience with that particular RN means they all must be that way- ask around!
anyhow- since you seem to want to change the nursing force into some respected individuals singlehandedly ( oh , please save us from ourselves) how come you werent able to garner any respect in your previous profession, that you would even want to come to nursing?
cicatrixx15
207 Posts
Oh MY GOD!!! I was so just about to post this!!