To be pissed off at being 'just' a nurse?

[bottleofwater]

Three times in the last week Ive had different family members making sarky comments regarding some recent achievements & promotion at work.

Usually comments along the lines of "Oh Florence Nightingale you will be telling the Doctors what to do now" " You will be a surgeon in no time" & " What do nurses know about blood pressures, they are not doctors".

Im so fed up of how its like being a nurse is rubbish & that only Doctors are of any value

Also comments regarding how I dont make the same amount of money as other family members but thats probably another thread!

Not sure what they think nurses actually do but aibu to be pissed off at the constant sneering at me?

And why oh why do nurses whilst striving to be considered as professional at work always resort to the cheesy stereotype of sexy nurse when a fancy dress themed social bash arise

They don’t (I’ve never seen it anyway). Why oh why though when you tell someone you’re a nurse do you get the whole ‘sexy uniform’ thing. It’s tedious.

Nurses do not require to have high entrance qualifications nor are they subjected to the rigour of a medical degree.

Well you've made yourself look really bloody stupid haven't you

I suppose the difference between nursing and midwifery is that there is potential for women to never need an obstetrician, whereas, by the very nature of nursing; all hospitalised patients require medical input and as such, a doctor.

Ahhh now your comments make sense, you look down on nurses because you hold your own profession in a higher regard. Nurses don’t just work on medical wards in hospitals, there are many nurse led services, such as palliative care, dermatology, detoxification, prison nursing, district nursing, wound care specialists, the list goes on and on. Medical inpatients is just one area and to insist that all areas of nursing is like that is a bit short sighted really, it’s like claiming midwives only catch babies.

I love my doctors by the way, as I do my cleaners, HCAs, dentist, Physio, podiatrist. We can’t do our jobs without each other.

IT says a lot about society when people are held in high regard when doing a certain task, because they have a medical degree but they can carry out the same task with a nursing degree background, yet would be held in poorer regard

There is an element of crossovers - that is in some places a task is routinely done by Drs, in some others nurses. In fact advanced practitioners in some places take exactly the same exam as Drs - with the same pass mark....
And to enter a certain field one must be either a dr or nurse, and will have the same training, exams etc. In that instance they are interchangeable.

Not all degrees are equal

AmeliaFlashtart - a degree is a degree surely? Healthcare professionals all require degrees now. The USA is moving towards pushing healthcare professions to get a Masters as a basic entry requirement.

I have no doubt that some Drs would be able to work as a nurse - but there are aspects that are very different - managerial and logistical aspects which Drs would undoubtably find challenging, having not learnt the skills. It's no surprise that nurses often go into general management and become the CEO.

They are certainly equal to get onto specialised training in certain areas.

It's a bit like architecture and civil engineering.
No one in their right mind would argue that engineering is somehow lesser, it's just different.

They are idiots and not worth your concern.

My baby grandson was in the ICU twice in his first 6 months, with bronchiolitis so bad he had to be sedated and tube fed.
It was the nurses who watched his monitors constantly and cared for him so brilliantly - we were so,profoundly grateful to them.

You are massively justified at being pissed off. Some people evidently have no clue how well qualified nurses are. Just look at what happens on the wards when the newly qualified doctors are let loose.

The lack of status is really to do with how society views females historically.
As for autonomy, ive cancelled patients surgery because I felt that it would be unsafe - without needing to ask anyone!

Not all degrees are equal

Nursing degrees are highly regulated, and must all cover the same learning outcomes, so a nursing degree from KCL is the same quality as one from UWS.

No degrees aren't equal at all.
The standard, academic/personal and otherwise for being accepted to study medicine is much much higher than getting on a nursing degree. FACT.

I am a nurse specialist, I run clinics, prescribe medication, refer patients on to other specialist Consultants. In many ways I do exactly what doctors do and I am often advising GP’s in my area of speciality and they send their patients to me for treatment. The difference is that I get paid a quarter of what most doctors do, probably even less than that and that pisses me off some times. There is a general ignorance from the public about what nurses are actually doing and what skills and expertise is involved in the profession. I don’t work on the wards anymore but I have great admiration and respect for my nursing colleagues who do - they do an amazing job under immense pressure.
The people who make shitty remarks about nurses are likely the same people who slag of teachers and moan about them having time off in the school holidays etc etc.

When my DH was in hospital recently there were elements of his care the Drs openly referred to nurses saying that the nurses were better able to do it as they had more experience and expertise. This was a specialist ward and the nurses on it did these procedures day in day out for multiple patients. The Dr covered a wider area and so didn't do it often. She said she therefore felt the nurses were better qualified and able to do it.

I am really surprised by how much this thread has shown that there is a real lack of understanding of what nurses do and how much many of them specialise. It is particularly concerning when it is coming from other healthcare professionals.

And can I add I have never yet met a doctor colleague who doesn’t value nursing staff and value the contribution they make not only to patient care but also in supporting their own profession where required.

So you believe that it's the academic performance prior to the degree that makes it harder Amelia?
IT is difficult to get onto a medical degree - not because itself is difficult to study, but because it's popular. Would you say organic chemistry is easy or hard? How would you rate people who do that? Yet you can do that with no prior A levels.
How do you square the fact that in some cases nurses and Drs do the same exams for the same jobs....

You know something as a patient/relative I couldn’t give a flying monkeys what degree or qualifications the nurses have - the important thing is what they are doing day in day out. Not just the procedures and the physical care but the support and help they provide to people going through awful times.

I have never once felt the need to ask “excuse me what degree do you have”

My Dad managed a very successful career as a Nurse without the need for a degree at all. Before someone decided that the academic side was important.

Irrelevant to the qualifications you have - you need to perform to the same standard.

I'm a mental health nurse, based in a community team. I assess new referrals for the service, and end up telling the doctors what they need to do.

Thankfully the consultants I work with are respectful of my knowledge and experience and usually say if I say the client requires x,y,z then they should get x,y, z. I'm certainly not their handmaiden or assistant. I work with and alongside them, not under them.

A lot of the conversation here seems to be focused on ward-based care.

At my local hospital, registered nurses barely past their first year of becoming qualified are deemed to be capable of running their own outpatient services - surely that says something about the level of training, and the rigour of their qualification?

If there's an unfairly treated profession within the NHS, I'd say it is the Manager -especially operational managers that have to deal with an ever-shrinking budget while trying to do right by their staff and patients.

A good chunk of them will have been nurses (or continue to do so) or members of a different healthcare profession, but they're treated with contempt by the public as they're not "on the front line".

Thankfully I'm in an NHS role not recognised by members of the public, but I do work for an evil CCG so I'm not immune from hostility.

No degrees aren't equal at all.
The standard, academic/personal and otherwise for being accepted to study medicine is much much higher than getting on a nursing degree. FACT.

The reason why medicine requires a higher UCAS tariff is because a) it’s a very popular course and b) it has an integrated masters. Medicine at Bristol for an integrated masters requires AAA. Nursing at UWE for an undergraduate degree requires BBB. I wonder what the entry requirements would be at Bristol for the stand alone undergraduate degree in medicine? I’m not sure it would be AAA...