Only lower class girls become nurses

[upsidelow]

I am a nurse, definitely from a working class background for which I am proud. I had it said to me that it's the poor or thick girls that become nurses. To be fair the person who said it did not know that I am a nurse but still...Is that what people think? That you don't need to be clever to be a nurse! I studied for three years, I also have post graduate qualifications too. My job is demanding and requires a lot of time and attention. I am not thick! Apparently bright girls being teachers...

And there are a lot of new nurses in the NHS.

I told him not to worry as one day the doctors would be calling him sir.Pretty well there now.

What on earth does this supercilious little comment mean?

How many kids from private/grammar schools are encouraged into nursing? I think relatively few. Medicine is still pushed, and schools love to publish their stats on who goes on to medical school. I think that’s a real shame and a loss.

My friend is a ward manager. She talked to me about the standard of nurses from the local university who attend interviews with her. Some of the stories are downright alarming. The literacy, common sense and numeracy are really poor. She obviously does not recruit them, but she despairs that the standard is so low. However, there is another university at the other side of town where standards are so much higher, so I don’t know what is happening there. I suspect that many of the public sector professions are no longer attracting high flyers, due to shit pay and conditions. And thus some of the junior nursing and teaching recruits are not as high-quality as previously. Of course this is anecdotal.

But we really need motivated and intelligent people going into nursing. And it should definitely be a degree. It is no longer just about giving bed baths and offering comfort. It is a highly scientific and responsible profession. They are not saintly angels. They are skilled professionals who have to make important decisions every day.

@ClockBotching Depends on the grammar school! In Bucks they aren’t full of dc who could be doctors. Therefore some do become nurses. It’s really all about personality and don’t forget some really want this job. It has immediate career prospects and progression. Frequently dc look at psychology with similar A levels but they won’t all get health jobs. Very few in fact. So nursing suits those who know they want that job.

In hospitals as nurses you leave on time. Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!
No you really don't.

Hilarious! I leave late all the time because we’re so busy!

Actually LOL’d about leaving on time 💀💀💀

i dont have a degree,
the world and his wife doesnt have a degree

Ok but it's much more common. Used to be the elite went to uni now nearly half the population do I believe

@Gogogo12345 Not quite. Around half the working population do but 38.% of school
leavers go to uni. Adults get degrees too and some immigrants come with degrees. So overall we have a well educated workforce. Nursing is one career where you can still work your way up to a degree I believe.

I think you are partly right there. Nursing definitely isn't something for the dim or unmotivated. I also don't think it's that badly paid. Surely on a par with teaching?

However I do think it's a more working class choice. In a room of people you can generally pick out the nurse from the doctor by accent and mannerisms.

Someone from a middle class background with the same ability and inclination would probably choose a different career. I will get jumped on for this but it's not denigrating anyone - it's a leftover from our unaspirational culture where people feel certain jobs aren't for them (even though they'd be more than capable).

This. I know several middle class women who were nurses and are married to doctors.

Not really. It may be an average of nearly half but in some areas it's 75% in others it's 16%. In addition that 75% from the well off areas will be more likely to do better quality degrees from better institutions and end up with better paid jobs as a result.
Not that a degree is the be all and end all but there's huge inequality behind the average figure

I went to private schools including a public school for the entirety of my schooling. I know quite a few nurses and midwives amongst the girls I went to school with, including one from public school - although I think she has subsequently left to become an estate agent! Also six medics, two radiologists, a phd in a field of biology and two paramedics. So a wide spread of what they have chosen to do given the same basic opportunities and coming from a broadly similar social start point. These are girls who would've been leaving school in early 2000s to the early 2010s.

In terms of the nurses, they all seem quite happy with their lives and seem very middle class tbh. My aunt by marriage was a State Enrolled Nurse back in the day and has a more working class background I would say although she's maybe more MC now. Staunchly middle class auntie was a physiotherapist.

Completely disagree with that one. I was a nurse for twenty years then re trained and became a teacher! Nursing was a hard and demanding role and the extension of the role over time is furnished by bright women who operate at the level of a junior doctor these days, so that blows that one out of the water.

It’s been a degree since the eighties.

You could certainly do a degree in nursing in the 80 s and become a qualified nurse
The vast majority however did the traditional ward based training where they spent most of the time on the wards and having blocks of time in school to cover the academic side ,
In the early 90,s traditional training was phased out and project 2000 was introduced which was the start of Diploma based nurse training ,it was supposed to be 50% academic and 50 % placement based .
Degree for all student nurses. Was introduced probably around 15 years ago ( maybe a bit more).

@ClockBotching I think local government and nursing attracts a certain type of person. They don’t tend to be high flyers and in local government, they are more politically motivated than they used to be. More union minded like nursing. It’s now what differentiates the private sector from the state. Strikes. My DDs went to two private schools for girls. Never anyone going into nursing. I don’t recall any in a 10 year stint as a parent.

Because teaching and nursing are the only options open to 'girls'.
They are a bellend.

What an idiot. Nurses have to be very clever - they know so much of what a doctor knows.

I know half a dozen nurses. Two are from extremely wealthy families, the rest seem middle or working class - I can't tell and never asked. They are intelligent, hard working, articulate.

Oh I see class nardling is alive and well here…
Top two percent here….grammar school girl, nursed for twenty years, returned to Russel group uni did second degree, whilst raising a family of four, teaching degree and MA. Worked as a teacher.

In nursing and teaching you can and will see many bright, aspirant, brilliant women. Many of whom had working class back grounds, including me. Some were from single parent back grounds too. I don’t believe you were familiar with the whole cohort of girls and their results/destinations for ten whole years, really?

You can label yourself with your class put downs and inaccurate stereotypes when ever you like but the rest of the world of women and girls are out here doing the real thing and excelling in-spite of your class based snides. You need to modernise…

Could you explain why you think that?

Any girl aiming for medical school will need a strong ability in what are often considered harder A level subjects, and will need very good grades in them. Presumably any teacher who’s aware of their strengths (or lack of) will be able to advise them on whether they stand a chance.

From all I’ve ever heard, and from those I’ve known, people who want to be doctors have known this for at least a few years before A levels, and will have worked and chosen their subjects accordingly.

@Meadowwild Define “very clever”? Do nurses become surgeons or consultants? They are not doctors and it’s an easier degree.

@ByWaryCrab. Look at grammar school destinations now. Look at fsm in grammar schools. You might be a tiny minority from a grammar but you are not looking at the wider picture. There’s fewer going into nursing from academic schools. It’s not necessarily class but it’s a lot to do with other jobs being more attractive.

The nursing role has changed a lot over the decades. The modern band 3 HCA role is more the old nursing role. Then the qualified nurse role is more of the old junior doctor role minus the prescribing. Then of course as you move up the nursing ranks into advanced clinical practitioners, these are originally nurses by trade, but work with the medical team rather than the nursing team. They prescribe, diagnose, do minor operations etc.

However like any traditionally female dominated role, nurses are criminally undervalued and under paid.

It’s very hard to pass the degree now if you aren’t both acedemic and good practically. It’s a tough degree.