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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

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

613 replies

bottleofwater · 18/12/2017 22:45

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 Angry

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?

OP posts:
RebornSlippy · 18/12/2017 23:15

@FruitCider, there's very little point becoming defensive with me! I have worked on general wards in hospitals where this is not the case. Those nurses, in those settings, with that level of doctor involvement within the MDT do not have the autonomy you describe. You can list your work load to me until you are blue in the face, and I don't dispute it. However, you are not the only nurse in the world and you are not typical.

FruitCider · 18/12/2017 23:15

If a patient spikes a temp overnight, nurses first point of call would be to administer paracetamol if appropriate, then call the doctor to see what they wanted to do.

It’s a fair bit complicated than that. I would look at the rest of the observations are and try and find the source of the infection by doing a head to toe examination of the patient and doing a urinalysis or collecting a sputum sample if necessary, if clear source I’ll message the doctor with my examination findings and a request for antibiotics if needed. I wouldn’t just administer paracetamol for a fever without looking at my patients medical history First!

Monoblock67 · 18/12/2017 23:15

Well said @FruitCider. I’ll say it again, ask a doctor and they would say ‘I trust the nurse’. Ask a nurse how many doctors theyve met in practice that they would want looking after them and id be surprised if it was more than a handful.

HermionesRightHook · 18/12/2017 23:16

It's a different bloody job, no "just" about it. It's like a plumber saying "oh she's just an electrician". Highly skilled, different training, different requirements, similar area of work. Only loaded with crap thanks to the patriarchy and a lack of recognition of traditionally female-coded work.

Monoblock67 · 18/12/2017 23:16

@FruitCider I know, i would do the same, I was just trying to be succinct for the post Smile

FruitCider · 18/12/2017 23:18

reborn technically I’m a “practice nurse” though I do accept that prison nursing is a speciality in itself. Just please don’t assume that we are all good servants to doctors, because general medicine is a v small part of Healthcare,

FruitCider · 18/12/2017 23:19
  • @FruitCider I know, i would do the same, I was just trying to be succinct for the post* 

Noooo don’t do that, otherwise they will call us pill pushers 😂

LucheroTena · 18/12/2017 23:19

Nurses and doctors do very different jobs (as do doctors and pharmacists or physios and radiographers, for example). Sure, there is a lot of overlap these days (many nurses are independent prescribers PP, and in fact prescribing will be built into undergrad training) but nurses are not failed med school applicants (most I've interviewed recently had string of A* science A levels and would have got into medicine), nor are they underlings to medical staff. If people have any real life experience of how the NHS works they see that junior medics actually take instruction from senior nurses, all the time.

madeyemoodysmum · 18/12/2017 23:19

My son asked if doctors are men and women doctors are called nurses today.

I put him straight!!!!!

ButchyRestingFace · 18/12/2017 23:19

No yanbu but tbf you are able to do less than a Dr. And m9ney is nt everything!

Looks like one of your relies has wandered onto this thread, OP! Xmas Grin

Back in the day, I briefly worked as a ward clerk at the local hospital. The nurses had to address doctors as "Dr" or "Mr" but the doctors got to address the nurses by their first name.

I chaffed at this on their behalf. (they didn't appear to mind).

Is that still the case?

Originalfoogirl · 18/12/2017 23:19

I think this is common with all “non - professional” roles. Just a PA, just an administrator, just a labourer, just a driver. People seem to forget that a place will fall apart without ancillary staff. In my industry they focus on “fee earning” staff. I absolutely could not do what I do and earn the fees that I do, without the two administrators in the office. But they are considered as “just” administrators and it drives me nuts.

Nurses do so much, and are vital to the NHS, anyone who can’t appreciate that is an idiot.

Monoblock67 · 18/12/2017 23:20

A huge part of being a nurse is being able to work autonomously. You don’t have doctors 24/7 but you always have nurses. If you’ve got 12 patients to look after yourself you’d have to work autonomously because no one else is going to do it for you.

RebornSlippy · 18/12/2017 23:20

I'm not sure why this has become a competition between doctors and nurses? The OP is related to the fact that her job, a nurse, is being undervalued. As someone upthread said, comparing doctors and nurses is like comparing apples and pears. They are different roles with different requirements. Both are valuable. But to try to cement the value of your role by essentially minimising the role doctors have is disingenuous. Nurses, in particular, should understand the role the doctor holds and how they differ to their own.

FruitCider · 18/12/2017 23:20

No. We all use First names x

Monoblock67 · 18/12/2017 23:22

FruitCider sorry, my indignation at some of these replies has overtaken me 😂 definitely not just pill pushers!! Most nurses I know are actively working to reduce their patients meds or are constantly querying what they’re taking!

FruitCider · 18/12/2017 23:23

The competition only exists because people say “just a nurse” but never say “just a doctor”. I don’t want to be a doctor. It seems so boring! I love spending time with my patients.

QueenAmongstMen · 18/12/2017 23:23

I'm also "just a nurse" Grin

I just remember that the doctor spends 10 minutes a day with the patient whereas I spend 13 hours with them a day.

It's the nurses who monitor them, care for them and it's ultimately us who sees when the patient is getting worse. The doctors can only treat the patients properly because it's the nurse who alert them to problems. We can challenge doctors when we disagree with them and on many occasions when putting treatment into the place the doctor will include the nurse in those discussions, it's not just something they dictate and we oblige.

On my ward (paediatrics) the nurses have a lot of autonomy regarding most aspects of the patients care including making decisions about how to respond to deterioration, putting treatment changes in place and then informing the doctors. The doctors we work with all fully respect and appreciate the role of nurses.

In some patients the doctors see them on admission and they are then signed over to the nurses care. We make the decisions about their treatment, we decide when treatment can be scaled back and it is also us who discharges them when we feel they are well enough and the doctors have no part in any of that.

One nurse will hold a bleep and will be responsible for overseeing all the paediatric unit (4 wards, a HDU and children's A&E) and that is a huge responsibility. They are also involved in all resuscitations and any incidents that occur across the unit.

There are sadly some people who still think nurses are nothing more than someone who gives bed baths and does what the doctors say and nursing is so much more than that in these current times.

I'm so incredibly proud to be a nurse and I'm sure you are too OP so don't let other people's ignorance affect you.

Many congratulations on your promotion!!

Littlechocola · 18/12/2017 23:23

I’m ‘just’ a nurse too.

You know you are better than that.

FruitCider · 18/12/2017 23:23

mono I’m a detox nurse so I definitely agree with you Wink

Monoblock67 · 18/12/2017 23:24

And by querying what they’re taking I meant ‘why is he taking x with y?’ Or ‘he’s had three days of pabrinex, he shouldn’t be onto day 4?’ Etc. Not ‘what’s that tablet’.

ButchyRestingFace · 18/12/2017 23:24

No. We all use First names x

Oh, that's good. Smile Hope it's a widespread practice.

LucheroTena · 18/12/2017 23:24

noise you haven't a clue what you're talking about. Usually consultant nurses have a PhD and are actually 'doctors' in their own right. Most prescribe and have their own list of patients that they're fully autonomous in managing. ANPs also work at a very similar level to junior doctors, nurses do a lot of post grad education and training to work at this level.

ButchyRestingFace · 18/12/2017 23:25

The competition only exists because people say “just a nurse” but never say “just a doctor”.

I've heard "just a GP".

FruitCider · 18/12/2017 23:25

Oh I love a good pabrinex! I do them IM though as not only am I “just a nurse” but I’m not even a “real” nurse I’m one of those dodgy RMNs 🙄

FruitCider · 18/12/2017 23:26

butchy that sucks, I work with gps and they work bloody hard, I don’t fancy their job!