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...

I know plenty of privately educated women who are nurses and midwives who come from well off families.

🤣 does that person want to tell the consultant nurses, nurses who are professors , specialists nurses and those nurses who are prescribers that they are nurses because they are thick!

What bollocks.

I'm a nurse from a working class background. It's saddening to hear that these sorts of stereotypes still exist. Nursing is a diverse and challenging profession and not "second place for those not bright enough to go into medicine". I got top grades in GCSE and A levels in science subjects,I have a bachelor's degree and two masters degrees in my specialism. I am an independent prescriber.I have nursed for 15 years and love the extended scope of nursing practice today.

The person who said that to you is the thick one. Don't pay any attention to the opinions of a fool.

Your issue was not confronting the arsehole right then and there. I'm a nurse too. I'm working class background and spent 3 years in Uni and further 2 in post graduate with a 30 years experience. I would never allow an arsehole to denigrate me or the 10/12 hour shits (should be shifts but shits is accurate) I did for many years due to lack of public hospital funding while trying my (our best) to keep up with patients.

Don't accept crap from idiots who have no idea what this profession actually means.

Good point, in the 50s you were often sent as working class out to work at 14, families often couldn’t afford you to stay in education or train as a nurse or similar.
Most of us are working class, we are not from independently wealthy families or the aristocracy. You don’t become middle class for a year if someone pays you 100K that year, and it’s certainly not linked to intelligence.

This reminds me how the office magazine asked for people to say what they'd wanted to be as children. We were chatting about it and one person said she'd wanted to be a hairdresser and I said oh so did I! So I submitted that, only to find when the mag came out that she had put astronomer.

Student nurses got a salary back then so you didn't,'t have to be rich.

One must ask, can someone who makes such a deroctory sweeping statement in front of a relative stranger be bright enough to be the judge of intelligence? Ignore the ignorant is what I'd say!

I can 100% assure you that in my role as a nurse, which I've done for 6 years that I do know more than some of the doctors that pass through on their stint!

How upsetting OP, that person is a fool. As my great granny used to say ‘ ‘Sometimes you have to listen to thunder’.

This stereotype exists because nurses used to be like current HCAs. They did mostly personal care and some procedures that HCAs do. The exception were midwives.
You used to be able to become a nurse by leaving school at 15 and getting a trainee nurse position in a hospital. And you worked your way up on the wards with some external training. So it was popular with girls who were not that academic, but were good with people.
Nurses now are more like junior Drs in reality.

Sounds like a lot of rubbish to me

I did my nurse training in the early 90,s under project 2000 ,we got a bursary rather than a salary I think it was £360 / month ,I'm not sure how that compared when student nurse, s were employed and got a wage .

I think it's too big a profession to generalise. My MIL was a nurse, I would say it's a traditional solid career for working class women who are bright. Especially when you get to your higher bands, they often have the equivalent of master's degrees. Also know a lot of MC nurses but they tend to become practice nurses. Every midwife I have met was WC unless they were in the union then they tend to be a bit posh.

I think in general the nurses I’ve met have come across as brighter than the teachers I’ve met. My assumption would be that it’s harder to become and work as a nurse than a teacher.

The person who said that is wrong but I think the argument is clouded by the fact that there are so many people in what look like nurse's uniforms but who are HCA's rather than nurses. It seems to have become custom and practice because it's a way of diluting patient to staff ratios. It doesn't help that many doctors refer to HCA's as nurses. And before I get bashed I'm not trying to be nasty to HCA's but to be clear that they are not nurses.

What we need if the NHS is to remain a National Service, is a whole nation adopted approach to uniforms with clear communication about who is who and who does what.

Are you American?

being “ok with a unionised profession”. Most jobs in the UK as far as I’m aware have unions to which you can choose to belong. Every job I’ve had certainly has had that option. I don’t think there are any professions that are excluded from joining a union.

dd wants to do nursing. She doesn’t want to be a Dr, but to do clinical research a clinical degree opens more doors than straight science.

we are finding many uni’s are asking for AAB and ABB at a’level, which back in my day would get you into many medical schools.

i wanted to go into nursing at one point and was told I was “too clever” and should apply for medicine if that’s what I wanted to do.

i think we need to move away from this idea that Dr’s are the medical gods and nurses are little more than their assistants, carrying out their orders. Nurses often have more specialised knowledge as they don’t have to do so much general training. A nurse with a 3year paeds degree probably knows far more than a paeds dr with a 5 year general medicine degree.

Recently retired nurse here. In my experience, yes, all the nurses I worked with were from working class backgrounds. Definitely not thick though! I was a grade A pupil right through school. Working class does not equal thick!

I'm not sure thats entirely true ,as I have said I did diploma nurse training
But I worked with a lot of nurses that did the traditional training,they still had to have entry requirements and pass exams and have placements.

Went to a very middle-class girls' grammar and I'm pretty sure nursing has turned out to be the most popular career for my leaving year. That was 1998, so before degrees were required. Other non-doctor medical professions like physiotherapists or psychotherapists are likely second most popular. I can't think off-hand of anyone who chose to be a doctor, though of course I don't know where all 250 girls ended up and 'ex-classmates that rumblegrumble's noticed on Facebook' may not be representative of the whole!

I’ve heard the same said about teachings many times as a teacher. Those who can do, those who can’t teach. Or it’s for people who when to comprehensives/ were poor/ not bright.
If I’m honest I do think nursing and teaching do attract those looking for secure pay/ shorter study due to financial reasons

Nursing is a very mixed entry career. That is because it is much more accessible than other degrees. There is an excellent entry pathway via college. I've studied at 4 universities in nursing and postgrad nursing courses and taught in 1. Two of them were more traditional universities and miles ahead academically and mostly attracted school leavers from more middle class backgrounds. The uni I taught at was mostly mature entry and had to be a lot more flexible with childcare/maternity breaks. It is built in an area with high social depravation and very few people find themselves in a position to travel for uni/pay high rent in cities and therefore typically has more graduates from working class backgrounds.

We all have a degree in Nursing (whether masters, Bachelors or honours) and this is what entitles us to apply for registration and to work in a post as a staff nurse. As a result of this there is a massive variation in 'a nurse'. More academic nurses often prefer settings like ICU because there is more of a push on post grad education and often they will be seen in ANP or CNS roles later in their careers.

I disagree entirely with the 'nursing shouldn't be a degree' argument. Nursing has changed massively in the past 20 years and the role is more akin to a junior doctor of the past. I'm certainly not too posh to wash...I'm borderline obsessive with being involved with personal care but to manage 5 deteriorating patients concurrently and have the knowledge to understand the pathophysiology of what is going on to know when I need to be concerned I am thankful I have a degree and a masters.

There is quite a complicated picture around class which is explored in this study. One of the points it makes is the class is an indicator as to how far Nurses progress Who Cares? Social Mobility and the ‘Class Ceiling’ in Nursing - Helene Snee, Haridhan Goswami, 2021 (sagepub.com)

I'm a teacher and there's no way I could be a nurse 🤣 everytime I gave birth I was in awe of the midwives