What would you do if you were Nurse Ratched?

[purple_nomad]

I am in my mental health class and have done a few clinicals already. Out of curiosity, I finally watched "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest," and was taken aback by Nurse Ratched. Not by how terrible she was, but rather how NOT terrible she was. At least, not as terrible as I had imagined her to be, based upon all of these vague references to her in articles about nursing representation in the media.

Granted, she wasn't good in the film, and I'm sure she was even worse in the book. We all know that. But as I was watching the film, I wondered...what would I do if I was in her shoes? Residents being violently disruptive? Residents trashing the ward? A suicide on the ward? Would I ever respond like she did?

If you were faced with the same situations as Nurse Ratched was, what would you do?

[thinkertdm]

I agree, I really didn't find the character as outrageous as commonly thought. However, you have to remember that the book and movie were made in times that:

1. people didn't really think about the mentally ill- they just trucked them off to an institution, then were forgot about. When people did think about those places, they probably envisioned a happy place with flowers and ponies.

2. Back then, nurses were thought to be sweet angels who could do no wrong. Any one reading these forums will quickly realize that it not the case.

The movie is not so shocking to us, because we are on the inside.

[smily nurse, BSN, RN]

You didn't think she was a perfect example of passive agressive behavior?????

[Horseshoe, BSN, RN]

You didn't think she was a perfect example of passive agressive behavior?????

No kidding. Among other things.

For anyone who hasn't read the book or seen the film, here is a nice little description of Nurse Ratched from Wikipedia*:

*Warning: spoilers

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nurse_Ratched

[billyboblewis]

It was an interesting movie and accurately reflected what life is like in a state mental hospital. There are many nurses and they range from mediocre to outstanding. This is the same with any profession

[RNMeg]

I agree that she was not as shocking a character as the popular culture suggests, and in some ways she is a sympathetic character to those of us who know what nursing is like sometimes. However, she very much contributed to Billy's suicide by humiliating him during "group therapy" and reminding him of his mother's disapproval when he slept with a woman. Using a patient's known "issues" against him in that way is completely inappropriate.

[Horseshoe, BSN, RN]

It was an interesting movie and accurately reflected what life is like in a state mental hospital. There are many nurses and they range from mediocre to outstanding. This is the same with any profession

I haven't spent any time in a mental hospital, but if the nursing staff is anything like that in a regular hospital, the nurses more likely range from outstanding to absolutely horrible. If the worst nurse in a facility is only "mediocre," that's a fortunate facility. In my own experience, the horrible nurses are really in the minority, but they are definitely there.

[MoLee228]

Nurse Ratched is not only the epitome of a passive-aggressive nurse who abuses her power, but she is a downright evil character.

If you are anything like Nurse Ratched you might not want to admit it. In fact, you might want to reconsider your career choice. And take a good long look at yourself...

Please, PLEASE do not tell me that any of you manipulate and abuse mentally ill patients. I don't care how "bad" they are....NO patient deserves to be treated like the patients in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest... THANK GOD the field of mental health care has improved and mental health nurses are well educated on how to handle these difficult personalities.

[MoLee228]

It was an interesting movie and accurately reflected what life is like in a state mental hospital. There are many nurses and they range from mediocre to outstanding. This is the same with any profession

If you think the character Nurse Ratched is a "mediocre" nurse, than I am TERRIFIED of what you consider a BAD nurse to be!

[leslie :-D]

after billy had sex with that woman, nurse ratched asks billy, 'how you you think your mother would feel about this, billy?"

after that, he resumes his stuttering and ultimately kills himself.

she shamed, humiliated, and bullied him.

i'll never forgive her for that.

leslie

[DoGoodThenGo]

"Sometimes being a high riding ***** is all a woman has to hold on to"

One has to look at nurse Ratched in context of both being a woman and nurse in an era when neither had much if any real power. Thus women who did find themselves in any sort of authority, be it their own homes or employment may have tended to get "carried away".

The passive/aggressive, frigid, battle axe, castrating, anal retentive, etc stereotype female was by no means in fiction nor life limited to nursing. She was often found all over the female dominated "pink ghetto" areas of employment, and vocations. Teachers, nuns/sisters, supervisors of secretarial pools/switchboard operators/female office workers, house keepers, and the list goes on.

In every case such women often either did not marry or would not marry, thus closing the traditional and preferred by society role for women; wife and mother. However even within these roles such women were still able to cause havoc.

Women who either were left on the shelf, or for various reasons chose not to marry, often became wedded to their employment. Indeed their career/profession often became their life's work. These women often became technically quite good at what they did, regardless of how "bad" or "good" they delivered the goods. What often mattered at that time (and indeed often still does), is that these women made the trains run on time and on budget. This in turn made their superiors (often male), look good. In short in a perverse take on societal norms, these women were "on top", as without them and their methods, regardless of how one felt about them, things would literally fall apart.

This was the case with "Nurse Ratched". The doctors in charge of the asylum were at best indifferent, or worse incompetent. NR kept the inmates in line, and her methods produced results which obviously satisfied everyone from patient's families to whatever authority charged with monitoring the institution.

NM follows a long history in both fiction and real life of ****** nurses*. Women who upon entering a ward sent the temperature down ten or so degrees, sent student and young nurses scattering, and others in positions from snapping to attention to fighting the urge to curtsey as she passed. As in OFOTCN immediate subordinates to such women were vast satellites of "mousey" loyal followers that almost resembled ladies in waiting or worse lady's maids. In short there was no bucking of authority, any nurse who was a firebrand and had *ideas* was dealt with via tactics designed to bring her in line. If this didn't work, said nurse was got shot of, end of story. Again because the medical staff was often beholden to the "NR", you'd get little sympathy or involvement there.

In relation to a woman's role in society, NM was likely brought up as many girls were back then. Sex was something dirty, as was one's body or least parts that involved relations and or attracted male attention. We know from the book, NM has "issues" with the size of her bosom, and tries to down play them in her choice of uniforms.

For such women the only reason a decent married woman let her husband near her was to have children. Relations for enjoyment equal lust, and *that* must be stamped out not only in married life, but most certainly in unmarried women. NM's severely starched whites, crisp cap, and tightly curled hair,along with her cool (but deadly) demeanour are her armour against the one thing she cannot control; being a woman.

When NM finds "Billy" not only has laid with a "loose woman", but in her territory, she is not only shocked/repulsed, but threatened by this clear attack on her authority. Her response is the same as if she had caught her son at it in her house, or maybe a local boy in the barn out back with the maid. By threatening to contact threatening to contact the man's mother NM seeks to take back the manhood so recently displayed. It is same as saying "wait until I tell your father....". In any case the man is emasculated back to being a boy, and boys are usually controlled by their mothers.

Have always felt sorry for "Nurse Ratched" because we only see her at the end of her career. We don't know what she was like as a young graduate nurse and the years working on the wards afterwards. It could very well be the type of nurse she turned into was a way to cope with the situation of her employment. Institutional care of the mentally ill then was *not* for the faint hearted. Indeed the world at large took little notice of things until Geraldo Rivera's famous expose on Willowbrook State School (located in my hometown of Staten Island).

[Psychtrish39, BSN, RN]

after billy had sex with that woman, nurse ratched asks billy, 'how you you think your mother would feel about this, billy?"

after that, he resumes his stuttering and ultimately kills himself.

she shamed, humiliated, and bullied him.

i'll never forgive her for that.

leslie

I agree with Leslie. I am a psych nurse and I have been asked that before by people not in nursing if I was Nurse Ratched. I said no and she wasnt a good representation of what psychiatric nurses do . I then watched the film and I was horrified. I should have at the time considered it an insult to myself and the psychiatric field. Things are not like that anymore and I have worked in state mental hospitals as staff and agency. I thank God they are not.