Would you be offended, "practically an RN?" - or am I overreacting?

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In response to someone asking for medical advice, I recently came across this comment:

"I'm a mother of 2....that should at least register me at a RN or something"

I was quite offended. Now, truth be told, I'm sure she meant the comment in fun, but I still found it offensive.

Anyone else find these sorts of comments offensive, or am I just overreacting (which I have been known to do before! lol)?

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Specializes in Med/Surg, Geri, Ortho, Telemetry, Psych.
In response to someone asking for medical advice, I recently came across this comment:

"I'm a mother of 2....that should at least register me at a RN or something"

I was quite offended. Now, truth be told, I'm sure she meant the comment in fun, but I still found it offensive.

Anyone else find these sorts of comments offensive, or am I just overreacting (which I have been known to do before! lol)?

I find it very offensive. I made meatloaf last night, does that qualify me as a chef or something? :lol2:

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Specializes in cardiac med-surg.

to me, a mother is quite like a nurse

nurturing, caring, a little first aid, a lot of common sense

i would have no reason to be offended, personally, and i am not a mother

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Specializes in ER.

Being a mother of two makes you fertile...nothing else.

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Specializes in OB, M/S, HH, Medical Imaging RN.
In response to someone asking for medical advice, I recently came across this comment:

"I'm a mother of 2....that should at least register me at a RN or something"

I was quite offended. Now, truth be told, I'm sure she meant the comment in fun, but I still found it offensive.

Anyone else find these sorts of comments offensive, or am I just overreacting (which I have been known to do before! lol)?

I would not have found it offensive but I would have set her straight.

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Offended? Probably not but I too would have set her straight.

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Specializes in Emergency & Trauma/Adult ICU.

i'm not quite offended (maybe i'm just too tired ... lol) but ...

i suspect the comment was simply made in fun, as recognition of the never-ending challenges of parenting. however, the source of the humor does indicate some underlying cluelessness about the knowledge & expertise of nurses.

just in the last couple of days i've had 2 patients who (i hope) will come away from their er visit with a different view of nurses. the first one believed i was an md because i assessed his abdomen, lung sounds and obtained a history. the conversation with the second pt.:

pt: are you a doctor?

me: no, again, i'm mlos, one of the nurses here. (continued assessing pt.)

pt: well then, are you one of those ... you know, like you're almost a doctor, but you're a nurse?

me: do you mean a nurse practitioner?

pt: yeah! that's it! you're one of those, right?

me: no, i'm a registered nurse.

pt: oh. well, i just thought ... because you're examining me and asking all these questions ...

the one-patient-at-a-time education campaign continues ...

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I'm not really offended. There are far worse things to be compared to than a Mother. Things that I am offended by are patients that call me

"Waiter"

"Stewardess"

"Hey" (Funny, when I answer "Hay is for horses", the patients don't seem amused??)

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I'm sure she meant it as a joke. Moms wear many hats.

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I'm also not offended, and in agreement with those who say that it's yet another indicator of just how clueless the American public is with what nurses do. I kinda chuckled, actually, at the "at least" part...perhaps if she had a third child, she could be an MD? ;)

I have flown on airplanes a fair amount....practically a pilot.

I have put on LOTS of boo-boo strips on my kids' (and other's kids') knees: I suppose pediatric orthopedics is my specialty, really?

We could have fun with this :D

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i'm not quite offended (maybe i'm just too tired ... lol) but ...

i suspect the comment was simply made in fun, as recognition of the never-ending challenges of parenting. however, the source of the humor does indicate some underlying cluelessness about the knowledge & expertise of nurses.

just in the last couple of days i've had 2 patients who (i hope) will come away from their er visit with a different view of nurses. the first one believed i was an md because i assessed his abdomen, lung sounds and obtained a history. the conversation with the second pt.:

pt: are you a doctor?

me: no, again, i'm mlos, one of the nurses here. (continued assessing pt.)

pt: well then, are you one of those ... you know, like you're almost a doctor, but you're a nurse?

me: do you mean a nurse practitioner?

pt: yeah! that's it! you're one of those, right?

me: no, i'm a registered nurse.

pt: oh. well, i just thought ... because you're examining me and asking all these questions ...

the one-patient-at-a-time education campaign continues ...

reminded me of the patient who said to me, during an admission assessment, "you're checking me over better than my doctor does....are you sure you're just a nurse?" lol...yep, "just" a nurse, and apparently better at that than his doc was at being a doc! :)

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Many people view all health care careers as if they are all part of a some sort of continuum, with the sole determining factor being the length of education. They don't understand that nursing and doctoring, while they may include overlapping knowledge and skills, are two completely separate trajectories. You don't take more nursing courses to eventually become a doctor. An M.D. is never at any time in his/her education a nurse. Doctors aren't supernurses. Nurses aren't junior docs.

Will the general population ever get this? Probably not.

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