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?

My sister has just retired after 45 years in the nhs, including 10 years in palliative care as a nurse consultant, where she advised doctors and prescribed drugs but was often patronised by fellow professionals as ‚just a nurse at the end of the day‘ and left feeling unvalued. I think your relatives remarks are rude and out of order. Personally they are people i‘d avoid if possible..

Everyone gets it when people don’t understand the job.

I’m “just” an author
“Just” a dinnerlady
“Just” a mother ...

Doesn’t matter that I know about blood pressure too, that I’m a certified first aider, that I can make 300 (yes, three hundred) decorated muffins, and 50 portions of rice pudding (from scratch) in three and a half hours. Or that I know the clothes size, shoe size, hat size for four people in my family, the location of girlie’s shoes, Laddo’s season ticket and husband’s mind, all at the drop of a hat.

Keep your head held high and as the penguins of Madagascar say, smile and wave!

You know your worth, we know your worth, and that’s all that should matter.

I have not read all of this thread but are your relatives aware that Nurses are often doctors as you can achieve a doctorate in nursing. Back in my day it was the nurses who had to ensure the doctors carried out their role. I expect it is still much the same. It is a different role than being a doctor. Nurses care for people whilst doctors diagnose and treat they compliment each other.

It's not only nurses, anyone who works in the NHS who isn't a doctor keeps on being put down.

You can include doctors in that! Just search the old doctors strike threads

Anyone below consultant are 12 year olds with no experience who earn 6 figures, and consultants spend all day on the golf course or seeing private patients in harley street for 7 squillion quid an hour while defrauding the nhs.....apparently.

Oh and they are all over paid....coz some people have to live on 2p a week so doctors should never complain about their work conditions...

Dont leave the docs out! Theyre getting it too!!

Can I just say a big thank you for all everything you do. Nurses are over worked, under-paid and severely under-appreciated (not that I need to tell you that). You're not "just" a nurse. You're bloody wonder woman and our society would crumble without you. Sincerest thank you's

Gingerbread so true!!

Oh that is just plain ignorant - haven't they ever been ill! No you're not being unreasonable. But the season of goodwill to all is coming up so just smile and nod - one fine day they will need a nurse.

Your family sound like twats.
I think nurses are amazing. Congratulations on your promotion.

What Chocolate said on the first page about a cure for tiny brains and big mouths. Next time anyone makes such a remark perhaps be sarky back and say “yes if only I could be a doctor and find a cure for stupidity. Would you be my guinea pig?”

You can include doctors in that! Just search the old doctors strike threads

Absolutely! I was genuinely shocked when I found out how much a junior doctor gets paid. It's a bloody disgrace. As has been mentioned on this thread they are now often asked to take responsibility well above the level they used to and they get £22k raising to £30k in four years. It made me embarrassed to be in my £36k cushy office job doing nothing of any real value to anyone. They got so much flack when they dared to go on strike for pointing out you can't cover more hours on the same number of people when they are already stretched to breaking point. These days everyone in the NHS has a crap deal in my view.

Anyone who is considering starting a career in medicine or nursing needs to remember a couple of things :

Never ever piss off the ward clerk , ever !

Be nice to everyone you encounter whilst in the hospital environment , one day you will need and appreciate their skills , you might not realise it at the time you are being rude to them , but they will remember that rudeness and they will make you pay !

I was watching an episode of Friends earlier where there was a male nurse and one of the characters was mocking him for it and said "It's a bit girly isn't it?"

As part of his response the nurse said, "I'm only doing this to get me through medical school" and in light of this thread it really pissed me off.

Yet again it fuels the stereotype that women are nurses and men are doctors and being a nurse is far less important or taxing....

He also said something about nursing not being girly during the Vietnam War but I still felt annoyed.

Well this thread has made for a very interesting read.
Amelia your posts are particularly hilairious, although I must admit I’m glad you aren’t a commissioner for healthcare at the moment if your opinion of nurses is so low. Having said that, the state the nhs is in the the moment, maybe you are....
I was a healthcare assistant in a hospital for a short while. I wasn’t suited to it.
I always felt bad for the band fives however, they were responsible for lots of lives. They needed to know when a patient was deteriorating and would call the doctor, often with a good idea of what was wrong and what needed to happen to help.

Personally Amelia your attitude that nurses are simpletons worth about 14,000 a year. With a limited skill set and a chip on their shoulder because they aren’t doctors is very ignorant. If the nursing workforce really was like that, there would be far higher fatalities. A limited skill set would mean they didn’t pick up on a deteriorating patient, they couldn’t manage wards and staffing and carry out procedures safely.
If they were as egotistical as you suggest Amelia, they would be working above their competence, and dangerous in this respect. I have found none of this to be true.
I left working for the nhs as a hca. I liked it but not enough to put up with rude partients and hard work for poor pay. There was no motivation to train to be a band five nurse either seeing how hard they worked for not much more money.
Thankfully there are nicer people than me who will put up with not great pay for hard and skilled work. Oh and put up with some of the general loons like Amelia.

So well done op. Ignore the relatives. I don’t doubt you deserve it.

Women actually outnumber men in medical school now which might be why junior docs are now getting shat on from a height??

frumpety

I'll add to that: in mental health especially do not in any way underestimate the power of the housekeepers/domestics. They know all. They usually have the ultimaye respect of the service users and are absolutely invaluable when it comes to crisis situations. They are the givers... all the good things about being in a mental health ward are generally thanks to the housekeepers: you're hungry - they'll feed you, you're cold - they'll sort you out extra blankets and tell off estates for turning down the heating. No coffee anywhere in the building??? They'll magic it up. I love the housekeepers on my ward. And I make sure they know it too.

It’s sad how misinformed the public are about what nurses do but i’m not surprised. Unless you actually do the job yourself you simple cannot even fathom the role as it is so varied. You may think you have a good idea because you’ve been a patient or you've worked with nurses but unless you still won’t really know. I’ve been surprised about other health care professionals’ opinions about why I do.
I would like to clarify a few things. Nursing is a different profession to Medicine. People don’t assume physios or dieticians are people who weren’t able to be doctors, or take instructions from doctors in the same way as they do about nurses. Comparing a doctor to a nurse in the same way as a teacher to a teaching assistant is insulting. A better comparison would be a Nurse to a HCA or a Consultant to a House Officer.
Secondly, yes nurses assist doctors - and doctors assist nurses - team work.
Thirdly, all qualified nurses work autonomously to a certain degree, some more than others. They don’t wait to hear what the doctor instructs them to do, they are just involved in the care decision making as the doctor on hospital wards and if a patient deteriorates they don’t have time to wait for the doctor to come and give instructions- they do it. I’m proud to say I successfully saved many lives based on my own decision making, without the assistance of a doctor.
Finally - and this really got my goat - how dare people say to the nurse consultant on here that she wasn’t equivalent to a Registrar doctor!!!! They absolutely are so please do your research and google how much a band 9 nurse earns! Nurse consultants work autonomously, diagnose, consult, treat, prescribe and manage their caseload at a very highly, specialist level, the same as a registrar - higher than your average specialist nurse, most of whom will also do the aforementioned jobs like prescribe and diagnose, but not to the same level as a nurse consultant. There are usually only very few nurse consultants around but the numbers are in the rise. I can’t believe people have the cheek to tell somebody what their job is or isn’t!!!!!

As a nurse I support everything kyph says above. Really good post.

I'm pretty sure that your family would be making digs at your promotion regardless of what your job was OP.
It is their way of putting you down. Best thing you can do is let them see their opinions are irrelevant to your life and happiness. Which they are as they are nasty people.

Actually monoblock67, love your positive comments but some nurses can prescribe

You are JUST a nurse?
Tell them to take their heads out of their arses, you do a very important job indeed.

It was "just a nurse" who fixed my face after a fall 2 weeks ago when several doctors, getting more and more senior, examined it and wondered what to do. I didn't need stitches or a plastic surgery consultation, just some expert glueing by "just a nurse". So thanks to everyone in your profession. On another note, I used to be "just a nurse" and left the profession in the 1980s so it's disheartening to note that not much has changed in the way you are treated.

Interestingly, a MALE relative of mine recently retrained as a nurse. He is now a newly qualified B5.

The rellies who keep wondering when Im going to get a proper job also keep telling me how very important and difficult male relatives job is! And how difficult it is to get a job in his speciality (its really not theyre crying out for b5s) and if I need to know anything about X I should ask him as thats his speciality!!

I did his exact job title in same speciality for FIVE YEARS!!!!

Don’t get me wrong all medical staff are wonderful and medical science amazing. But surgeons spend a few hours operating on some poor sod (yes saving lives) then chuck them on the ward for the nurses to sort out. Nurses are my hero’s

Add message | Report | Message poster GingerbreadMa Wed 20-Dec-17 20:56:29
"Women actually outnumber men in medical school now which might be why junior docs are now getting shat on from a height??"

Yep. That's how it goes. I think doctors' status is going to fall greatly in the coming decades.

I work with a lot of band 6 nurses, ANPs and medics and every single one of them get annoyed when they talk to the staff nurses and the staff nurses say "I'm just a nurse." Nurses are amazing, I honestly don't know how they do what they do every day.