Why are nurses disrespected so much?

Nurses General Nursing

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Hi all! I just started our clinical this week as a new nursing student and there is something that's been bothering me and I just can't seem to come to terms with it... why are nurses so disrespected? I've seen nurses treat other nurses like dog crap and the pts treat them like slaves essentially-- ungrateful, degrading, etc. I'm shocked that this is the way the heirarchy is structured... Dr's are gods, nurses are peasants. We've worked way too hard in school and beyond to be subjected to this treatment. I guess this is also my phlegmatic personality coming thru... but wow!! Nurses are literally like Mean Girls. Sometimes I wonder, how did I end up choosing this profession again? It sickens me the way HCP are supposed to nurture and support their PTs yet they can't even treat their own coworkers like human beings... I guess I have "thin skin" but yikes this is not the kind of work environment I want to be in! Why can't we all show compassion towards each other? I'm a very kind person and I feel like I'm going to get spat on in the nursing world... rant over.

Stress. Patients are scared, and don't want to be there. Coworkers are understaffed, ratios are too high, and we carry a lot of legal liability. That comes out in the way they treat others.

I work as a school nurse now and it's better but there's always that 1 teacher or 1 principal who thinks they know better than you and question everything or try to tell you how to be a nurse. Some of it is Ego too ;)

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I think it depends on where you're at, because I can say that where I am this doesn't occur often and when and if it does we have no problem calling out the person who is acting like a "mean girl". Remember you went into nursing to help people and I know that sometimes it seems like you're unappreciated but trust me that one patient who thanks you for all you do will make up for all the others.

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TriciaJ said:
I don't know how it would. Nurses in Canada are dealing with the same issues, primarily short-staffing and not enough time to do everything.

But that's the nursing perspective. What about the patient's view - aren't they the ones who are perceiving the nurses in order for the nurses to be labeled as "most trusted?" Canada has socialized medicine. The USA is privatized. You walk into a Canada ER and you're treated the same as everybody else, you're probably going to look at your nurse, or any medical staff, differently than if you walked into a USA ER and were told you'd be stabilized, but then you're going to be get transferred 20 miles away to the nearest hospital who'd accept your insurance. I've been blamed for financial decisions that I had nothing to do with. I'm sure my patient's opinion of me at that very moment was nothing close to "trusted" at all.

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Specializes in Psych, Corrections, Med-Surg, Ambulatory.
NuGuyNurse2b said:
But that's the nursing perspective. What about the patient's view - aren't they the ones who are perceiving the nurses in order for the nurses to be labeled as "most trusted?" Canada has socialized medicine. The USA is privatized. You walk into a Canada ER and you're treated the same as everybody else, you're probably going to look at your nurse, or any medical staff, differently than if you walked into a USA ER and were told you'd be stabilized, but then you're going to be get transferred 20 miles away to the nearest hospital who'd accept your insurance. I've been blamed for financial decisions that I had nothing to do with. I'm sure my patient's opinion of me at that very moment was nothing close to "trusted" at all.

I really don't see how that changes anyone's perception of nurses. No one thinks it's the nurse's fault whether your insurance covers one hospital or another.

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TriciaJ said:
I really don't see how that changes anyone's perception of nurses. No one thinks it's the nurse's fault whether your insurance covers one hospital or another.

But the fact still remains...why did this study have to be performed and limited only to Canada? I can't think of any other reasons as to why it could not have been done for USA patient opinions other than the difference in health care systems.

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I'm not sure why so many are concerned about your user name! It clearly states nurse2b. You are not passing yourself off as an RN.

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Ravw RN said:
I'm not sure why so many are concerned about your user name! It clearly states nurse2b. You are not passing yourself off as an RN.

If you look on the first page (the quote in post #3 to be specific), you'll see her name didn't have the 2b in there, it was changed.

I don't understand why you'd create an account and bump a six month old thread for that though. Different strokes I suppose.

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