<p>Over the weekend at a gathering before my son’s prom, I overheard the following conversation between two couples:
Dad 1: My daughter is still on this nursing kick, I just don’t know how to change her mind
Dad 2: I told my daughter if she wanted to waste her money for college on nursing she could waste her own not mine
Mom 1: But honey, she really wants to do this, is it really that bad?
Mom 2: “Jane”, do you really want your daughter to be a nurse! What a waste of her brains and talents.
The girl in question is a bright girl who is a casual friend of my son’s. He told me that she wants to be a nurse because she worked in a hospital over the summer and really respected and admired the role nurses play.</p>
<p>Now, I am a nurse. I have heard over the years, why didn’t you become a doctor, you are so smart… Why did you JUST become a nurse…What is the difference between a nurse and an aide?
Well, let me tell you. You can have the best doctors in the world but if the person taking care of you at the bedside isn’t top notch, you’re in trouble. We hold patients lives in our hands and we also teach, support and comfort our patients. We need smart excellent nurses. And unfortunately, too many people have the same opinions as these yahoos. Movies and books are filled with negative stereotypes of nurses. The smart nurses on ER all go on to be doctors…
So this week during Nurses Week, support someone who wants to be a nurse. Be appreciative of a nurse you know. Respect the profession as one that is worthy of intelligent students.
Thanks for listening</p>
<p>I am married to an RN/MSN/Clininal Specialist…and it sickening me to here talk like this. She is much SMARTER than I am, WORKS much harder and yet is paid so much less. If we can’t financially reward Nurse…lets at least give them the RESPECT they deserve. </p>
<p>My kid brother is a Dr…and even he will admit that nurse are the BACKBONE to care.</p>
<p>I have a lot of respect for nurses. Indeed, one of my closest friends is a nurse.</p>
<p>I do have a question, however. What could be done to increase the respect for nurses? More $? More advertisements about the level of intelligence that’s required? I think that something concrete needs to be done, not just telling people that nurses are smart, valuable people.</p>
<p>And why do people choose nursing over being physicians? Knowing this also would be helpful.</p>
<p>I have a few friends that are nurses- and a few friends that are physicians.
Feeling like that they don’t have as much control over their work schedule has led some to chose to become nurse practioners and work in a clinical setting rather than in a hospital.
I know how important nurses are- my older daughter was in the NICU for the first 8 weeks of life, and it was the nurses who were the trained medical staff that her life depended on, the doctors were still in training, and had limited contact with her.
I think nurses are very important- but it just another of those high stress/high responsibilty jobs, that because is often held by women, don’t get as much respect.
I hate to say it, but until more men are attracted to the profession, it won’t be taken as seriously, and for that to happen, the benefits/pay probably need to increase</p>
<p>My wife is completing her RN, and is already working. Her goal is to work in facilities where there are no doctors (she works in a skilled nursing facility now, and hopes to end up as a hospice nurse), and no particular expectation that anyone ever gets well. Being a bonafide adjunct or lackey to a physician is just not something she sees as a worthy goal - she actually wants to “nurse”, not simply extend the doctor’s authority. It’s a different talent, one that virtually all of the physicians I know do not possess.</p>
<p>All the nurses I know are paid VERY well. I’m surprised that people think they don’t make good money </p>
<p>One big drawback to the profession is the horrible hours if they work in a hospital. My next-door neighbor did that for years and got tired of working 14-hour shifts and all the holidays. Now she works in home health where the hours are much better and I believe she gets the same pay. </p>
<p>It’s too bad to hear about the conversation you overheard keymom. That is definitely one profession that doesn’t “waste” somebody’s mind!</p>
<p>mini: If your wife has an independent spirit, home-care hospice nursing will be a great career choice choice. Huge demand, too. </p>
<p>I became a nurse after my first child was born. I was intrigued by all the maternity reading I had done & after her birth & I wanted to try maternity nursing. I wanted to raise my own kids & thought a shift or two each week would be a great way to keep a challenging career going without the crazy time commitments of my marketing/sales management position. Unfortunately, I came out of school during a nursing glut & had to take a med-surg job from hell. 18 patients a night, poorly run hospital, no support. Impossible to give decent patient care under those circumstances. No part-time/flex-time options. No longer doing bedside, needless to say. </p>
<p>Keymom: I agree that it is very annoying to be asked why a smart person like yourself became a nurse instead of a doctor. I have utmost respect for nurses and know first hand what we endure. But as the hospital world is still entirely physician-focused, I understand why the question is asked. Doctors fail to rewew their medications on time, properly evaluate patients, and follow unit protocol without any penalty. My business career was client-focused. Workers at every level of the organization knew that our organization’s mission was to please the customer while making a profit. It seems that hospitals forget they should be patient (client)-focused and are unwilling to make any changes that the doctors will balk at, no matter how much efficiency will be gained by those changes.</p>
<p>As to why people chose nursing over medicine: Different answer for every person, I’d say. Personally I wanted to actually spend time with patients, teaching them, comforting them, being their advocate. I just walked into an unfortunate situation & was turned off to the profession. I was willing to take the huge paycut for the career change, but was unprepared for how utterly powerless I was as a floor nurse. Fortunately, there are an unlimited number of ways nurses can take initiative and change the system. I’m just too lazy (& caught up in my kids’ needs at the time) to join in.</p>
<p>My wife stayed in Nursing rather than getting an MD because she 1. wanted to give patient ture care and 2. she never felt like there was any Drs she really wanted to emulate.</p>
<p>To “fix” the problem, we can reinforce with our children (female and male) that nursing is an honorable profession.</p>
<p>I think the general population (unless they or a family member has been hospitalized recently) really has no idea just how many things nurses do. Most probably envision someone in a startched white uniform following a Dr. down the hall taking down orders or maybe standing by a bed taking vital signs. I was overwhelmed by the resposibilities I was given straight out of nursing school (on an understaffed surgical floor).<br>
I find it ridiculous that people turn up their nose at the nursing profession saying it is a waste of a smart mind. Maybe it’s just me but I thought nursing school was tough. I had to work much harder in school than some of my friends majoring in liberal arts. </p>
<p>Do you think it has anything to do with the fact that most of the colleges that people consider elite and worthy of bright minds do not have a nursing program? If Princton had a huge undergrad nursing program, would nursing get more respect? </p>
<p>Nursing is a degree that can be used in so many different ways. Nurses make a difference in peoples lives everyday. Unfortunately, nobody thinks about it until they need a nurse.</p>
<p>I feel your pain. As a teacher, I heard these comments when I chose my profession. My high school calculus teacher actually said “What a waste!” I remember that comment more than ten years later. My parents also tried to encourage me to go into something they felt would be more “lucrative.” However once they realized how much I loved it and that it was truly my calling in life, they were onboard. I think it’s silly to discourage smart students from going into fields like nursing and teaching. If I’m sick, I would MUCH rather have a smart nurse than one who barely squeaked by in school!</p>
<p>i am socially surrounded by med students and advanced nursing students at an ivy league school right now. the nursing students are studying or in class or clinic nearly at all times. the med students go out partying nearly every single night. the med students know that just having their diploma from this school will get them jobs just about anywhere they want, where the nurse practitioners have to wait and keep their fingers crossed for a decent position. most of them are currently working as an RN, with the RN salary, instead of as an NP. can you imagine if an MD had to do that?</p>
<p>“Do you think it has anything to do with the fact that most of the colleges that people consider elite and worthy of bright minds do not have a nursing program? If Princton had a huge undergrad nursing program, would nursing get more respect?”</p>
<p>Penn has a program, and last time I looked, it was harder to get into than Wharton. The Middlesex Community College nursing program and the one my wife is completing here in Olympia are both tougher to get into than Harvard.</p>
<p>As the son of a doctor, Ive heard so much regarding how important nurses are for doctors.</p>
<p>That being said…i still would want to know why someone would rather be a nurse than a doctor if he/she has the financial and mental abilities to become one?</p>
<p>Well, the total cost of my wife’s nursing education has come in at around $6k, and for the last year of it, she has been able to work as an LPN part-time. A doctor’s education is usually a minimum of four years undergrad ($80k?) plus 3 years of med school ($200k), and then 6 or 7 years more, during which time you are not doing too much in terms of paying off loans?</p>
<p>Suppose, just for example, you took two people, age 18, gave each the necessary $280k, and then ran them down the two paths. The nurse has $274k left over and is able to invest it at a 6% post-tax rate of return, compounded, while the doc has to spend her entire $280k. And nurse, beginning in year four, pulls in a $48k salary. The nurse spends exactly $0 in setting up a practice. The doc spend $X. Assuming the doc is not a surgeon or some such, and - like the nurse - doesn’t work more than 40 hours a week - after 30 years, which one do you think comes out financially ahead? </p>
<p>well considering that education is often paid for by the parents, i dont think a nurse could just go to their parents and ask for the $274k.</p>
<p>Also, keep in mind that even an Emergency Room doctor can make $325k in their first year. Specialists can make upwards of 500k in a single year.</p>
<p>Finally, a great deal of doctors work for hospitals and dont need to spend the $ to set up a private practice.</p>
<p>“well considering that education is often paid for by the parents, i dont think a nurse could just go to their parents and ask for the $274k.”</p>
<p>I think that’s exactly the point. If you look at the social/economic/racial classes (and, in the past) gender that the majority each came from, the schools they are likely to attend, and their willingness to take on financial risk, I think you’ve discovered where the prestige for one and the lack of the prestige for the other comes from.</p>
<p>For many, many nurses, becoming a nurse represents a significant step UPWARD in social prestige and in income generation; in your case (as you noted), it’s just treading water.</p>
<p>Obviously. Im not disagreeing with you with that. For some reason nurses have not been respected and as a result their numbers have suffered. I only have to look to my father’s hospital to see the impact that the nursing shortage has had on the entire hospital.</p>
<p>Im just asking why one would rather be a nurse than a doctor IF one had the financial ability to do so (It seemed like the parents in the example were willing to pay for their daughter to go to medical school)?</p>
<p>i believe that it’s because nurses, and would-be nurses, value the personal role that they have in their patients’ lives and the comfort and close care that they can give them. although the career is not as lucrative as being a doctor, i know that due to nurse shortages the wages and desirability for nurses has increased lately, at least where i live (Toronto).</p>
<p>i also know several people who are planning to use the skills, knowledge and experience that they gained in a nursing undergrad program and applying to med school with it…that way they not only have a nursing degree to rely on should they need to, but they also have a solid medical background going into med school.</p>
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