Why Are Nurses Given Such A Bad Rap Today?

ISeeURN · Apr 23, 2005

You don't see doctors doing this, not to the extent you see nurses doing it in any case.
How are we to get respect when we don't respect ourselves?

Valid point as for Nurses going after each other (horizontal aggression, isn't that what it is called?) and not respecting each other...

Could it be because it is a (still) mainly female profession ?

I have noticed the tone and team work usually changes when there are male Nurses around.

Could it be as well, as this is a profession still seen as one of the "social" occupations, for which you will be rewarded much later? (Nurse as an "Angel" and so on)

Also look at the hirarchical Structure of the workplace... may that have something to do with it?

(Let me add, I usually respect, get along, and like to work with pretty much everyone who happens to be on the same shift as myself...no matter what abbreviation anyone may have behind their name)

As for physicians not doing this... maybe Vegas is "special", but we have quite a few prime examples here, who just love to go into what I call the "June bug mode"... Pumping themselves up by chewing out a Nurse over the phone or at the Nurses Station, before take off...( I have never seen it as bad as here, and had the Privi of working all over the States as well as in Europe)

Unfortunately often Nurses don't stand up for their right to be treated like a grown up vs being treated like a small child.

As to the extend... maybe that has directly to do with time spent at the Nurses Station? :)

Marie_LPN, RN, LPN, RN · Apr 23, 2005

I'm not buying that it's a gender-based problem.

Kelly_the_Great · Apr 23, 2005

I hate to say it's a gender-based issue as well.

My mother was a nurse for over 35 years (car wreck 4 years ago) and she could hold her own with any man and then some. Ironically, the things that really made her great as a nurse and as a supervisor (she had some people who had worked for her for over 20 years) were qualities that traditionally would be viewed as "feminist" qualities, compassion, concern, etc. (Not that I'm saying men can't possess (sp???) these same qualities as well, I'm saying "traditionally"). For instance, if a worker called in because of a sick child, when they returned to work she would ask "how's little timmy doing?" not because she wanted to see if the kid had really been sick but because she genuinely cared, you know?

However, I do see the similarities between nurses self-sacrificial behaviour and women's behaviour in general. For example, we can easily extend our care of the doctors to that of our husbands, the care of our patients to that of our children. Where does that leave the care of ourselves? Maybe that's why we're so sh***y to eachother. Maybe we see eachother as an extension of ourselves and thus not worthy of care...???

Again, I think they should incorporate this into our curriculum somehow: "The Proper Care and Feeding of Nurses." LOL Personally, I think this would be more beneficial than learning about Florence Nightengale.

ISeeURN · Apr 23, 2005

I'm not buying that it's a gender-based problem.

Just two of many articles found, that deal with this problem... :) Gender, I believe has to do with it... one of many aspects which contributes to the problem

Come to think of it... almost a Catch 22... what makes us "strong" or "good", the caring, motherly, concerned part of our personality, makes us vulnerable or "weak" for abuse as well... Interesting...

Words can hurt

Horizontal Violence among Nurses in the OR - AORN Journal

ISeeURN · Apr 23, 2005

I hate to say it's a gender-based issue as well.
Again, I think they should incorporate this into our curriculum somehow: "The Proper Care and Feeding of Nurses." LOL Personally, I think this would be more beneficial than learning about Florence Nightengale.

I had this vision of a Flowerpot with a sprouting Nurse...:)

cblancke · Apr 23, 2005

Your thoughts match what I was really referring to. I apologize for not being able to express these thoughts better when starting the thread. Thanks for posting! :)
I've been talking to a lot of people who work healthcare over the past two weeks when I'm out and about job hunting, and I've met a few nurses who work in non-nursing jobs (retail for example) because of their belief that nurses are not being respected............thus...what I termed "bad rap"...sorry to confuse anyone. :uhoh21:
Then, when I read the threads that are specific to the nursing profession in regards to how we are being portrayed in the media, the news, the movies, and so forth........this made me think of the "bad rap" term I used.
That's it in a nutshell. :)

I think you are right. Nurses are getting more of a bad rap in the media and while related to "the Arnold's" side swipe, the root cause, at least in

California, is that Nursing wages have finally increases to a level in keeping with nurses level of education and responsibilities! As a "recovering" accountant and now a nurse I am aware that when any element of society becomes more costly to employ, their profile as a "cost element/unit" rises along with pressure from Administration (this can be state gov, hospital, or clinical) to reduce costs.

So what does that mean? It means that we are in the cross wires of media savvy business administration cost cutters - because after all, whether we like it or not - health care is run as a business. Nurses have historically been viewed as unquestionably ethical and principled and last of all self-sacrificing. The latter is unfortunate because nurses have tended to be reluctant to speak up and complain in public. Well, watch out we are increasingly coming in for a well orchestrated media bashing in order to diminish our hard earned public reputation so that our public bargaining power is eroded.

Schwartznegger's attack was a classic technique to reduce the validity of the target's voice. The California skirmish was about reducing the ratio of patients to nurses for patient safety reasons based on sound scientific research. Schwartznegger characterized nurses "as a special interest group" and threatened to "kick our butts". Let's remember the governator is very media savvy; that, after all, has been the entire reason for his success. We can dismiss him as an ignorant bully but we ignore his media treatment of nurses at our own peril; there will be plenty of other "cost cutters" who will follow his lead.

I believe in speaking up in public - a short letter to the editor of the offending paper, etc. will do it. It is up to us to make sure the public really understands what we do so we can be better appreciated and defend our professionalism. Many of these posts are wonderful snap shots of public misunderstanding of the nurse's role/responsibility at the frontiers between nursing and the public. Don't be shy speak up.

Sorry this is so long -

Cblancke :rolleyes:

Kelly_the_Great · Apr 23, 2005

I had this vision of a Flowerpot with a sprouting Nurse...:)

Sounds like a good poster project... :flowersfo

Marie_LPN, RN, LPN, RN · Apr 23, 2005

Just two of many articles found, that deal with this problem... :) Gender, I believe has to do with it... one of many aspects which contributes to the problem

Come to think of it... almost a Catch 22... what makes us "strong" or "good", the caring, motherly, concerned part of our personality, makes us vulnerable or "weak" for abuse as well... Interesting...

Words can hurt

Horizontal Violence among Nurses in the OR - AORN Journal

Articles (AORN is not my friend) aren't convincing me of it either.

Kelly_the_Great · Apr 23, 2005

Articles (AORN is not my friend) aren't convincing me of it either.

LOL, Marie, how come AORN is not your friend? Because it's RN?

This is precisely what I'm referring to as "divide & conquer." I did some brief research regarding the lack of unity in nursing. One of the things I thought would be most beneficial in creating unity would be membership within organizations which support your profession, right? So, of course, I looked at the ANA and it's membership in relation to the nursing population. I don't have access to all of the information I gathered at that time but I think the membership was only like 6% of the nursing population. I then compared it to the AMA which I think was like 21% (I might be wrong about that), anyway it definetely was higher. Then I began to look at some of the criteria for membership.

The ANA was much more exclusive in comparison to the AMA. While the AMA allowed ancillary membership to students and even had a division for spouses! How's that for inclusiveness?

Much to my surprise, I learned that as an LVN (I'm currently in a BSN program) I wasn't allowed to join the ANA. I'm not considered an "american nurse", i guess...LOL.

The excuse given by ANA was, "well this is a professional orgranization and LVN/LPN is only vocational." I understand this arguement. However, what better way to encourage professional achievement than through some form of active involvement. We know this is true in the achievement of patient goals, right?..."active involvement"

live4today, RN · Apr 23, 2005

Tactics for Diffusing an Abusive Opponent8

* Develop a protective coat of self-esteem; never take abuse personally.

* Tell yourself that your verbal abuser is counting on your emotions to take over and reduce your ability to think clearly and logically.

* Look for noticeable indicators showing that the person trying to upset you is already out of control.

* Negotiate the validity of any verbal abuse.

* Get up and use the phone out of earshot of your attacker.

* Redirect the verbal abuser to discuss any of your valid issues or points.

* Implement the four-step diffusion process:

1. Ask questions the answers to which you know are yes (Do you want to solve this problem?)

2. Ask questions about related topics that don't have clear-cut "yes" answers to test your opponent's flexibility. (How do you suggest we proceed from here?)

3. Do not react to the answers being given; merely continue to ask your next question. 4. Smile, say thank you very much and walk away.

RN Zeke · Apr 24, 2005

I thought the "pink collar ghetto" remark was originally made at one of the student doctor sites?

Look in your Introduction to Sociology book for the "Pink Collar Ghetto" definition. Someone has been studying their sociology book and just learned the term to insult women with an old phrase.

RN4NICU, LPN, LVN · Apr 24, 2005

Look in your Introduction to Sociology book for the "Pink Collar Ghetto" definition. Someone has been studying their sociology book and just learned the term to insult women with an old phrase.

I recently took a women's studies course and nursing is *still* referred to as a "pink collar ghetto". :angryfire