What do you really think???

[mr.rn-2010]

I am in my first semester of nursing school and everything is going well!!! :cheers:I love the school so far and the instructors are really nice as long as you know what your doing. I was in class today and the subject of money came up as a reason for entering the profession. I wasnt going to say anything but everyone was saying dont go into the profession for monetary reasons, which i agree with. However I think with that stigma attached to our profession, we are actually devalueing the profession a bit. Think about this for a minute, there doesnt seem to be anything wrong with physicians entering their profession for money and I believe that is directly tied to the fact that the majority of physicians are men. But when a profession is tied to women then all of a sudden its wrong to enter a profession and think about money. I am saying this to say we a nurses need to stop saying that b/c if a person does enter the profession for money then they 1. Wont make it through nursing school. 2. Wont make it on the floor when they have to deal with people and their bodily functions.3. Wont take care of patients anyway and move to another area of nursing. And when you think about that is the best thing they could do. Would you want someone who is in it for the money to take care of you??? I didnt think so! In a nutshell I am saying until we start to value ourselves as a respected profession that deserve to be paid as such. We do hard work!! Just my :twocents:

"The Hopefull One"

[FuturoEnfermera]

when you get into the whole "what makes a profession" lecture (maybe just bsn programs have this mostly boring-maybe kinda useful one day for 5 minutes class) you'll get the spiel about one of the identifiers of a "profession" is that a person enters it for altruistic reasons. that said, i know many people who'd rather be in a rock band but will make more money as nurses. it's reality.

[locolorenzo22, BSN, RN]

There's a reason they give you that lecture....there will be MANY days that seem overwhelming, frustrating, where you feel like you can't do anything right, where everyone is screaming at you and every patient is mad.....those days happen, and NO amount of money would make you feel like staying (if that's your only reason....)

However, there is nothing wrong with wanting to help people and get paid a decent wage at the same time....in fact, if nursing only paid 10 bucks an hour...there would be a much worse shortage....but it's not about the $, cause that doesn't make you a good nurse. You have to be willing to deal with people at their worst....because many of them will be having rough days....

[MB37]

That's the thing - nursing doesn't pay nearly well enough to go into it if it's not something you enjoy. Also, women make up more than 50% of med school classes now, so a gender-based argument doesn't really hold water anymore. I believe that one of the major reasons we have a "shortage" is that women have more choices, and that the profession hasn't done a good enough job of marketing itself to men.