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.
Oh I searched and I am reading this one. It is actually quite comforting and enlightening. Because yes.. I am a new nurse and I am scared of poop. I hope to one day soon get over it though. lol
As far as the scrubs are concerned.... I spent 1 1/2 months in the hospital as a patient after multiple complications from my pregnancy and I can honestly say that I never gave a crap about what the nurses had on, never judged them for it and could not tell you what they were wearing 2 seconds after they left my room. However, I can tell you every nurse that was rude, disrespectful, inattentive and/or lacked knowledge regarding the drugs they were administering.
I've spent my fair share of time in the hospital after several surgeries, and I didn't really care who wore what scrubs top. But just because you as a patient and a nurse didn't and don't care what type of scrubs top other nurses wear, that's not necessarily how others feel. Doctors, other health care professionals, and especially the people on the business side - how do they perceive you? Many of them don't work with you all the time, and so have no real idea of your abilities, intelligence, or professionalism. Even if they don't consciously judge you by your attire (and let's face it, some people actually do), how do you think it affects their perception of you individually versus nurses who wear solid scrubs? How do you think it affects their perception of the nursing profession as a whole to see so many nurses wearing cutesy scrubs rather than the standard "business" attire for your particular business?
As I said in my earlier post, not being a nurse but merely a student in health care administration/data analysis, I don't have a dog in this fight. Clearly no one is any more or less intelligent or capable by virtue of the scrubs he or she chooses to wear. However, there is a professionalism issue that comes into play in this, simply because of the way people in general perceive others. We consciously or subconsciously expect more of the woman wearing the suit than we do of the woman wearing "I Love Frogs" sweatshirt (please note: I love frogs and own a frog sweatshirt) in a bank office or insurance center. We generally tend to think "She's dressed more professionally, so she probably has more power to help me and and is smarter than the other person." So in order to capitalize on that tendency, nurses as a whole might be better off adopting the standard business attire - meaning solid scrubs, not a business suit, clearly! - of the active health care professions.
I hope that makes sense. I'm not sure if I'm explaining myself clearly, and I definitely don't mean to offend anyone or personally call anyone unprofessional because of the scrubs s/he wears.
Personally, from someone with a firm science background in math and science. I don't think that my potential is limited by going into nursing. In my biology courses I studied with many people who aspired to be pharmacists and chemical engineers. In fact, I had taken many of the prerequisites to be a pharmacist or a doctor, but after volunteering at a hospital felt more comfortable with the nursing model of healthcare.
My decision to go into nursing was predicated on the idea that I could articulate myself in a proficient manner and explain procedures objectively and analytically. As a pharmacist, chemical engineer, or even a doctor I would not be working with people in that capacity. Doctors are limited in the time that they can spend with patients due to pressure to focus primarily on the diagnostic model of medicine.
While I agree that you MUST be proficient in science, I also believe that you should excel in it. Otherwise, your particularly astute patients will be able to see through your B.S. in explaining a certain medical procedure. Colleges and universities are increasing the difficulty and the number of required courses needed to go into the nursing profession, if you do not have the potential in science then you will most likely be weeded out, especially with the current state of competition to going into nursing school.
Forever Sunshine, ASN, RN
1,261 Posts
I want to read that. lol