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?

Fair enough, but it follows that nurses are increasingly called upon to do tasks traditionally associated with doctors, which is where the lines begin to blur

Is that true for the majority of nurses though? or is it a very select few?

*some nurses and Drs do exactly the same role.
You are entitled to apply for the role with either a medical degree in nursing degree. You then go into the same higher training. *

What in the fresh hell is this A nurse can never become a doctor and a doctor can never become a nurse, and there is no 'in-between' profession that mixes them both. Medical training programmes are medical only. Advanced nursing practice roles are nursing only. Can you show me a job advert for one of these roles you describe?

I think it’s important to mention as well that as you go up the bands you drop pay initially. So a top band 5 is £28,400 base rate, which you’d get after working for 8 years. If you went for a band 6, you’d start on £26, and work your way up for another 8 years, and so on.
The band 5 base rate is topped up with unsociable hours pay, so nurses can take home about 2 grand a month. If you move to a band 6 post, technically a ‘higher’ Grade, they often don’t include unsociable hours (as you don’t do them), so your pay rate drops dramatically. Which is why you find so many experienced nurses still ‘just’ a band 5, because they can’t afford to go for promotions. It’s so backwards!

Spot on for your second point. But the first isn't technically true. If you are top of band 5 you should.move across and up as a band 6 (to spinepoint 24). Some trust's try to fob people off and put them to the bottom of band 6 but a good union rep should be able to fight it since as you say it makes no sense.

some nurses and Drs do exactly the same role.
You are entitled to apply for the role with either a medical degree in nursing degree. You then go into the same higher training

USA?

GetOutOfMYGarden

*some nurses and Drs do exactly the same role.
You are entitled to apply for the role with either a medical degree in nursing degree. You then go into the same higher training.

What in the fresh hell is this confused A nurse can never become a doctor and a doctor can never become a nurse, and there is no 'in-between' profession that mixes them both. Medical training programmes are medical only. Advanced nursing practice roles are nursing only. Can you show me a job advert for one of these roles you describe?

This^^^^

Maybe in the USA but even there, this is a hundred steps too far. Anyway, this is the UK where common sense prevails. I hope.

If you want to train as a public health consultant you can enter training with either a medical or nursing degree. You apply to the deanery and do the training. You can then go for consultant job. you aren't paid on the same scale, but will be in open competition with other graduates of the training.

Students do the arse wiping toileting from what I've observed.

Look up a physicians associate role. Not a doctor, or a nurse, someone in between. Typically however they are nurses who have done extra training but fulfill the doctors role in many ways.

RebornSlippy all student nurses do personal care but so do all the nurses and hcas. Don’t know what you’ve heard but everyone pitches in.

No, the uk.

RoseWhiteTips Perhaps she's thinking of shared tasks we can do? I can do a cannula/catheter/LP and so can nurses that have been trained. I can just about make a bed (but not well, no hospital corners, looks like it's been done by a 5 year old - can you tell I've tried tucking a patient back into bed and had a good natured ribbing from the nurses ). I can dress certain woulds (as in suture and stick a plaster on, none of this tegaderm stuff though!). I've even managed to wipe a shitty arse before in a pinch.

Plenty of shared tasks but it's not the same role at all and it can't progress the same. The medical model I've trained in is at the core of my training now, and it's different to the nursing model that nurses train in. I've needed my medical school physiology for a hell of a lot of what I'm doing which nurses don't get to the same extent.

Polarbearflavour

AmeliaFlashtart - why are you so obsessed with nurses? What job do you do?

And yes, you do sound a bit manic and strange.

Don’t be so ridiculous. What business is it of yours what another poster does?

In any case, what is more concerning is the way you throw unpleasant words at someone you do not know. What you are implying is clear. I do hope you are not a nurse.

In our house nurses, paramedics, doctors are the real super heroes of this world! If you ask either of my girls 7 & 3 they will tell you that. Your not 'just a nurse' your a human life saver!!

Let’s see:

“obsessed”
“manic”
“strange”

Nice.

Look up a physicians associate role. Not a doctor, or a nurse, someone in between. Typically however they are nurses who have done extra training but fulfill the doctors role in many ways.

Again, no. They are not between at all. They are trained in the medical model, not the nursing model which means they are completely separate from nurses and a nursing role. Are some of them former nurses? Yes, because it's a post graduate degree. Most are biomed graduates however.

Also, they cannot progress. It is a flat career, because they don't have enough medical education to build up to a consultant role.

(Also, if you want fireworks in the doctors office, mention that someone told you a PA was 'equal to a reg on qualifying' )

Amelia- with regards to extended roles, nursing is general has changed, one example is intravenous medications, 30 years ago would almost of certainly been done by doctors. Now most wouldn’t have a clue how to mix/draw up/administer intravenous antibiotics.
This goes for inserting nasogastric tubes, catheters, cannula, all traditionally doctors clinical roles, now 100% nurses.
Thus obviously goes further, with specialist nurses performing surgery, inserting drains, running clinical entirely independently, as well as the hoards of nurses now prescribing.

I'm not talking about what I've heard. I'm talking about what I've seen and what I've done as a student myself while placed on general medical wards. Students and HCAs were the ones carrying out personal cares; from bed baths to mouth care to toileting. It was a very rare sight to find a nurse wheeling a commode behind a curtain. They had other things to be getting on with and at the end of the day, why would they do it when they have others there? It's hardly a sought after task! Anyway, don't mind me, I'm just answering a previous question. And obviously, I can only answer from my own experience and the hospital settings I have worked in.

"Is that true for the majority of nurses though? or is it a very select few?"

I can't say for certain as it varies across region, specialty and setting.

The BBC published an article on this, however I'd add that registered nurses are also undertaking advanced training.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-33228697

An article published by the BMJ in 1996 appears to raise this (I don't have access to the full article):

www.bmj.com/content/312/7040/1211

RoseWhiteTips - you just asked if I’m a nurse then told me off for asking what another poster does!

If I am a nurse what are you going to do? Report me to the NMC?

Some people posting on here do sound obsessive and manic. It’s all very strange.

But as Ive just described garden there are places where crossover happens.
And in reply to your previous point, re training, I have seen adverts for nurses to work in clinical skills centres training medical students.

This situation is far from unique to nurses, its the same in all professions, it's a fact of life for pretty much everyone in the workforce.

So what? That doesnt make it right?
Nurses support better conditions for teachers and junior doctors etc, no nurses are saying they should be the ONLY ones paid fairly! What nonsense! So just because something unfair is happening to other people you should just accept what happens to you?

Getout best explanation of differences so far. I can perform a primary examination, catheterise and suture, but the angle at which I view things will always be different because nursing is part of my identity, in the same way that medicine is part of yours. We may even come to the same conclusion, however our thought process to get there is completely different

Love that I’ve been accused of being mean to a Amelia what’s her face who posts comments like

“get over your inflated sense of importance”
And
“Make your fucking minds up”

And who is obsessed with who in a hospital wipes bottoms.