6 monts ago, I got my first nursing job in a medical spa. I do laser treatments, Botox. Juvederm, etc. etc. etc. I really enjoy it. Most of my clients are nurses themselves. EVERYDAY for the last 6 months, nearly every nurse that has laid on my table has asked me. "So, what's your REAL job?", when I tell them that I don't have another job...this is my job...they kind of roll their eyes at me, give me the pity look, and say, "Well this isn't REALLY a nursing job". Even my own mother who is an R.N. says that a monkey can do my job! It has made going to work very frustrating, because everyone is looking down on me. I love my job, but hearing that people think my job is worthless is very degrading. (Honestly, I don't find these nurses very wise....criticizing someone holding a laser or needle to your face).
I just got offered a position at a SubAcute/Rehab Center, I start in a few days (nervous!!!). Well, when I told my patients at the medi spa about that job...thinking *whew* they aren't going to be so condescending toward me now. They STILL rolled their eyes, shook their head, and said..."Oh well, at least you're ALMOST there to becoming a REAL nurse." I am really apalled at how judgemental other nurses can be! What is this so-called REAL NURSING???? This wasn't just one or two people...at least 20 nurses have criticized me for just working in a medispa...and now they are turning around and saying SubAcute is also NOTHING.
Honestly, I don't need their praise, or acceptance...but hearing it everyday is annoying. I went to college, got my B.S.N., and took the NCLEX just like them. I take care of people everyday...maybe I don't work in a hospital, but I sure as hell am a NURSE. What's with the attitude from these nurses???
Medispa nurses, Clinic nurses, LTC/SubAcute/Nursing home nurses, school nurses, camp nurses, so on and so forth....we are all nurses! Right?
I have been a nurse for 50 years, working in a variety of positions and currently teaching nursing at our local comm college. A Real Nurse is not defined by a position.......he/she is defined by the caring, compassion, and empathy that is shown in all areas. SNF is just as important as any acute nursing unit. A clinic or even a cruise ship is just as important as the ICU nurse running 5 drips. Caring, compassion, empathy, concern and competence are needed in every area where we practise. Be proud of your accomplishments and realize that the people rolling their eyes probably don't have an inkling of what a Real Nurse is. We used to say RN meant real nurse or real nut but now I would say it means R eally Nuturing both body and soul.
6 monts ago, I got my first nursing job in a medical spa. I do laser treatments, Botox. Juvederm, etc. etc. etc. I really enjoy it. Most of my clients are nurses themselves. EVERYDAY for the last 6 months, nearly every nurse that has laid on my table has asked me. "So, what's your REAL job?", when I tell them that I don't have another job...this is my job...they kind of roll their eyes at me, give me the pity look, and say, "Well this isn't REALLY a nursing job". Even my own mother who is an R.N. says that a monkey can do my job! It has made going to work very frustrating, because everyone is looking down on me. I love my job, but hearing that people think my job is worthless is very degrading. (Honestly, I don't find these nurses very wise....criticizing someone holding a laser or needle to your face).
I want your job!~!!!! Where can I apply? I have come to the conclusion that many people have such a low self esteem that they have to bring others down to pull themselves up. It seems nursing is full of people like that. It was a culture shock when I started my nursing career.
Nursing is an art: and if it is to be made an art, it requires an exclusive devotion as hard a preparation, as any painter's or sculptor's work; for what is the having to do with dead canvas or dead marble, compared with having to do with ...the living body, the temple of God's spirit? It is one of the Fine Arts: I had almost said, the finest of Fine Arts. ~ Florence Nightingale
Based on the responses so far, this may be an unpopular answer... but I think that you're a nurse who is not currently practicing nursing. And I don't think there's anything wrong with that - there are lots of perfectly good careers out there other than nursing - so I hope you don't feel pushed to leave a job you enjoy for this reason.
In my book, nursing is related to the promotion of health, the prevention of disease/injury, and providing care and comfort to the ill. Every other example that has been brought up in this thread - occupational health, home care, public health, school nursing, psych, nursing education - can be tied to these goals. But I don't see what cosmetic procedures have to do with promoting health or preventing/treating illness.
For example, I've done my BSN, passed my board exams, and paid my annual licence fee, and that makes me an RN. But if I decide to take some time out from my hospital career and make my living giving music lessons, I wouldn't be practicing as a nurse. It would be a perfectly legitimate job providing an honest service to those who choose to buy the service. It just wouldn't be nursing, because it's not based on promoting health and preventing/treating disease.
Some may say that doing Botox injections etc. is more nurselike than giving music lessons because you're penetrating the skin barrier and taking precautions against infection while you do it. But tattoo artists do that too, and I don't think most people would consider tattooing to be nursing, even if the artist happens to be a nurse as well as a tattoo artist.
I have had it up my butt with what a real nurse is. I am an occupational health nurse in a 300 acre chemical plant in Texas. If you are helping people with their health and wellness you are a real nurse.
When you make someone feel good about themselves...you are promoting health in the holistic sense. In making a person feel good you are caring for their emotional and spiritual wellbeing.
When you massage a patient...you are creating a therapeutic relationship, massaging is therapeutic,...caring for the patient holistically.
If you are a tattoo artist and a RN you are a nurse still why? because you're caring for the persons identity and helping that person identify themselves. Aka you are holistic.
Not only were you promoting health by making the person feel beautiful but you were also at the same preventing negative health outcomes. How? Simply by making the person feel good, helping them on their journey of self identification etc you prevented them from psychological issues and spiritual crisis.
Many nurses out there have forgotton what holistic care is.
I have had it up my butt with what a real nurse is. I am an occupational health nurse in a 300 acre chemical plant in Texas. If you are helping people with their health and wellness you are a real nurse.
I work in an interventional radiology unit. One day a med/surg nurse was an escort for a patient brought to us to have a nephrostomy drain inserted. The conversation went like this:
HER: how long have you been working "down" here?
ME: about 5 years.
HER: when are you coming back to the wards to work?
ME: never I hope.
HER: Oh, do you like working here?
ME: Yes, why?
Now, here's the kicker.......Oh, "we" thought you couldn't make it in the ward so they sent you here!
ME:
I then invited her to stay and watch the procedure, which she did. That nurse learned a lot that day about my skills in what I do.
This happened about 17 years ago, (I remember it like it was yesterday) and we still have ignorant remarks about our work today. Idiots!
I think alot of that attitude comes from us "older " nurses who believe that spending 2 or 3 years of "hell" on a med/surg floor toughened you up and made you a "real" nurse before you went off to do what you really wanted to do.
There was a time when as a graduate, that was all you could get...night shift on a floor other staff didn't particularly want and you did your time and went on. Baptism by fire can be such the learning experience.
Also, I think that attitude may come from the new wave of nurses who graduate with little to minimal hands on clinical experience. Not the nurses fault by any means! You do your program and you write your boards and you go to work. The last generation of nurses see it differently. The generation of hospital trained nurses and those that did graduate from early community college programs where clinicals took up 60% of your time and to graduate meant spending and shadowing an R.N. for 3 months working every shift that she worked eventually becoming (and proving) that you could function in a team leader role. I do believe those days are gone. What ever the reason is ( and I am sure there are many) it is a disservice to the new grad. I have met many a new grad who has never put in an NG tube, assisted with a chest tube insertion/assisted with a SF tap , monitored a CVP pump or swabbed an area for culture. Pretty basic stuff...however they have not been provided such experiences.
So...in your "real" nurse affirmation I would say.....be happy with what you do and be rewarded in your current situation...but...give a little slack to those who do work in the trenches (by choice) and deal with the nitty gritty of nursing.
Specializes in Acute Spine, Neuro, Thoracic's, LTC.
Wow I would love to have your job!!! People are just jealous. I wouldn't let it bother me. You are not missing out on anything by not working in a hospital.
Your completely right.... We are all nurses. There are different nurses all around the wrld some do simple jobs others chose more serious & complicating jobs but that shouldnt change the respect you should receive for being a nurse! You kno your a real nurse... Who needs their approval? You love uour job and thats what matters, they probably hate theirs!!
never I hope.
dianepslh62
1 Post
I have been a nurse for 50 years, working in a variety of positions and currently teaching nursing at our local comm college. A Real Nurse is not defined by a position.......he/she is defined by the caring, compassion, and empathy that is shown in all areas. SNF is just as important as any acute nursing unit. A clinic or even a cruise ship is just as important as the ICU nurse running 5 drips. Caring, compassion, empathy, concern and competence are needed in every area where we practise. Be proud of your accomplishments and realize that the people rolling their eyes probably don't have an inkling of what a Real Nurse is. We used to say RN meant real nurse or real nut but now I would say it means R eally Nuturing both body and soul.