For being furious at DH telling DSD that my degree isn't a real degree?

[TooFarGone]

So DH is sat down with his DD taking about careers etc. He says to her "these days, you need a job that pays at least £20k a year but at the same time, you don't want to be stressing yourself out with difficult degrees and stuff. You want to enjoy your time at uni. That's why I think nursing would be ideal for you! you get to go to uni, you don't have to do a difficult degree and you get a well paid job at the end of it!".

So DSD says "But isn't a degree in nursing going to be just as difficult?" and he replied "no course not, they call it a degree but its not like a real degree".

I'm furious as I worked bloody hard to get my degree and he knows this. It isn't an "easy option" at all. I had it out with him and he apologised for upsetting me but still maintains that nursing is an easy alternative to doing a "real" degree.

You don't care if your nurse is actually qualified to administer drugs and treatments to you Wamster? You like to live life on the edge!! I prefer people to know what they are doing when they are pumping me full of drugs, but I am cautious like that

Or for goodness sake, nurses have ALWAYS been qualified in giving drugs! Even pre-degree, what a complete red herring.
You honestly think they didn't test nurses for drug administration 30 years ago? !

Again, I'll just refer you back to that blog. Nurses are so understaffed and rushed off their feet they cannot do EVERYTHING. And any nurse who goes into nursing for the "glory" is being fucking delusional - there is no glory to be had.

The biggest issue EVER is staffing. My mum has frequently complained to senior management at being left on a ward to care for upwards of 20 people with only one other nurse on hand.

So that basically means that if everyone is sitting up in bed smiling from ear to ear with no complications from whatever they are suffering from and yet not suffering so much that they need any form of medication or dressing that needs to be altered/changed/updated whilst simultaneously being upwardly mobile and able to feed themselves/take themselves to the toilet/fetch their own water then yes: the two nurses will have enough time in the day to have a good meal, talk the doctors through the rounds, fill in every single bloody form going, answer the phone every time it rings, send off for test results, receive the test results, talk to the families of patients and even indulge in a bit of hand-holding.

But when does that ever happen in real life?!

And I'd LOVE to see your suggestion go down like a lead bloody balloon. "Excuse me, I'm really sorry but this gentleman over here is feeling a bit needy and would like his hand held for five minutes. Do you think that you could possibly delay your chest cavity collapsing for a few moments whilst I reassure him that everything is going to be fine? It doesn't really matter if you're drowning in your own fluid/in absolute agony because you need your pain medication topped up/your stitches have just exploded and you're currently pissing out blood at a speed only F1 racers seem to reach, he just needs some love!"

Sorry if this is harsh, but they aren't there to hand-hold. They are there to try and make sure as little poeple die as possible. And when you've got so many other duties to take care of and a patient-load that requires you to have at least three extensions of yourself, then compassion is probably the first thing to slip.

Suit yourself but I am happy for the person responsible for my health to be as well qualified as possible. And I dont think its a profession that gets a lot of "glory" or pay. Not compared to something really difficult like kicking a football around.

Oxbridge definitely doesn't involve students being spoon fed anything. Tutorials were very much about challenge and independent enquiry.

I was told by tutors not to apply - I was too shy etc etc. Did anyway. Have very fond rose tinted memories. Loved the dressing up for formal hall, but it wasn't a compulsory thing.

This thread reminds me of my uncle advising me to become a legal secretary as a straight A A Level student...

MummyTigger, I didn't want compassion. I wanted a glass of water. Yet here you are defending (some) nurses inability to do this simplest of tasks.

Pathetic.

I think she was actually pointing out that one of the things they learn on thier unecessary degree courses was the ability to prioritise.

catgirl1976, don't insult the nurses of 30 years ago, for god's sake, they were left alone to take charge of wards (rightly or wrongly) by themselves. Bit insulting to them to insinuate that they could not prioritise, is it not?

Actually that isn't what I was insinuating. But the problems are todays wards are not down to the individual nurses. They are down to staffing problems etc caused by the total mis-management of the NHS. As I am sure you well know.

Hmmm.

Nursing is the easy option, and you don't need a degree to care for patients.

[randomly turns the dial on the ventilator settings and then plays with the capture on the temporary pacing wire going
Into the patients heart and thinks fuck it, and hopes for the best].

Yeah, it's dead easy.

Well you should leave that to the doctors wideawake. You are there to hand hold and give people water. I think your degree has given you ideas above your station!

You know defending a nurse's inability to fetch a patient a glass of water is like defending a lawyer for getting a person's name wrong on a document. You think that a lawyer who got this simplest of things wrong would not take responsibility AND feel a bit of a tit? Nurses won't and can't though, or so it seems.

And mop the doctors brow cat, don't forget that vital role.

Mmm. But you, they are not waitresses. Getting a patient water is not thier core function. That would be the keeping people alive bit. And I am sure they are capable of getting water, but just possibly too busy doing the keeping people alive bit.

And do I think a lawyer who did something wrong would take responsiblity for it?

Seriously? A lawyer....take responsibility......erm

No, I do not think that nurses need a degree to operate a ventilator. wideawakenurse, if you are operating a ventilator, what the hell are you doing on mumnsnet?!

Oooh and shag him if he's dishy! Thats why you went into nursing isn't it!? You can tell me :)

catgirl1976 Actually, the lawyers that I know are a damned sight quicker to take responsibility than the nurses I know.

i don't think she is doing both at the same time Wamster

I'd be more upset that I was married to a complete idiot than about what that idiot thought of my degree.

'It doesn't follow that the exams are harder or easier, just marked bya different system.'

Here's a 1968 Maths O level paper. Perhaps some people familiar with Maths GCSE would like to comment on that.

www.burtongrammar.co.uk/?cat=19

wamster yes, all nurses should be able to respond to met the basic needs of their patients. To your mind, this did not happen and this is wrong and yes, the individual should be accountable for that.

However, that experience does not mean that nurses should not pursue further education. The tasks I described are not only highly technical, but also require knowledge of Anatomy and pathopysiology. That all needs to be delivers whilst caring for distraught relatives.

Like someone has stated previously: They are not waitresses, there to drop whatever they are doing to plump your pillows for you. They are there to make sure PEOPLE DON'T DIE. I'm terribly sorry that you feel your need for another glass of water outweighs someone elses life, but then that just shows what a selfish and horrendous person you are. And yet all of these people on here will never be able to tell you any different.

You don't want a hospital: you want a hotel.

Wamster.

Do you honestly think I am operating a vent whilst MN'ing?

Then you clearly don't have a clue.

My mother was trained in the fifties: by nuns in Australia. She learned anatomy and physiology among other things. And also a lot of hands-on nursing. Plus she was taught how to cook and serve nourishing food for patients. She also needed chemistry to understand about drugs.

And if there was any dirt or untidiness on her ward she was bollocked. No chance of a patient not being taken to the toilet. No chance of an elderly person not being helped to feed themselves.