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...

What a lot of nonsense.

I am one of 6 siblings, all grammar school, all with 8+ GCSEs and 3 A'levels.

One is a registered nurse, a midwife, a qualified paediatric intensive care nurse and earns more than twice the National average salary.
Nothing dim or lower class about her. Another was a deputy head mistress.

@Nadeed I'm sorry, that's really hard. Hospital wards aren't the best for so many reasons, and the fact there isn't someone to prescribe pain meds/end of life drugs easily is one of them. Unmumsnetty hugs to you.

Gosh no. That’s nonsense! Quite a few very bright and well off (privately educated with first degrees in other subjects before nursing training) in my extended family.

At least in my circle it’s seen as a positive + socially responsible job.

I am a teacher and I assure you there are far too many not-very-bright people in the classrooms of our schools…

I'm a theatre nurse have been for decades and a few years ago my brother & sister in law told me that "I only wipe arse for a living" because I didn't understand the strain and stress he was going through as a bar manager in a fairly stable and profitable club that he ran

@Beastieboys they would be off my Christmas card list, toute suite!

Both DM and DMIL were nurses in the 40s/50s, both clever and kind, and 'naice gels' from reasonably prosperous families. One general nurse, one paed nurse. It was a respectable job that allowed a woman to have her children and return to work when it suited, and with jobs everywhere.

Both teaching and nursing are traditionally lower middle class professions - coming out of working class bracket.

These days nursing has to be the better profession, a nurse is more valuable than a teacher in my view. My view only before people start to get upset.

These things change.
My brother is a doctor so in the UK that's excellent.
Back in India my now late Grandfather was a landowner, he used to think doctors were servants.
Depends where you're from in the world, which era, what your background is.

I actually think Trades are the real professions. However, they are looked down upon.

I know someone that couldn't get into pharmacy and is now a pharmaceutical rep. Lies about being a pharmacist!

I'm a nurse, have been for 20 years, I've never heard this being said before. It wouldn't really bother me if I heard it. I have a degree, I am not poor or thick

I hope you cut them out after this.

I always thought there was a hefty middle class segment of nurses - especially at matron level. I think traditionally it was a very middle class occupation for a woman.

To me someone being a nurse is like a calling, nothing to do with class. It's an incredibly important and noble job that isn't easy mentally, physically or intellectually. I would ignore what that idiot said. Thank you for the amazing work you do!

Views like this are why nurses are not paid properly.

I’ve met a few nurses that have very little common sense, same as in every profession. I dare anyone to say that nurses are thick after completing the degree themselves!

I don’t care about what class being a nurse makes me or what class my colleagues are. I care about providing good, safe care.

It’s quite tiring to be played off against teachers again, we had this in lockdown. We are as valuable as each other.

I know six nurses, two from very wealthy upper middle class families and two from middle class families and two may have been working class growing up but they are specialists in their field now. Nurses come from all walks of life.

However, I do think at least half of them could have become doctors but were encouraged to nurse because they were women.

I’m not thick but I am poor 😂

I think nursing has changed over the years. The removal of the bursary and introduction of degree qualification means that now you have to be abit well off and def intelligent to do the job. Years ago it was more of a working class role.

Im def one of the 'thick bum wipers!'😆Spent nearly 30 yrs nursing on the wards and come from a background as a cleaner. No degree, barely any qualifications (was lucky to find a college that didnt require many!) and really not academically inclined at all.
However I do have plenty of empathy and a ton of common sense which is actually more important in my job. Nobody looks down on me for being an uneducated dinosaur....because Im usually in charge!😄

Absolute rubbish. A brilliant nurse works hand in hand with the doctor and is a valuable medical professional in their own right.

My father had a recent stay for delirium in a central London hospital and it was a trainee nurse who detected it was constipation making him so unwell. He had seen half a dozen doctors with no answers. Best wishes for your career.

Increasingly I think nursing (as in ward nursing) is a bit of a toxic environment, the people who stick it out are usually a bit more robust in personality. I'd say that traditionally WC women have a reputation of being more resilient both in terms of workplace conflict and the tasks that nursing demands.

Also, most people can't differentiate between a RN and a NA - they tend to be a slightly different demographic.

Also the correlation between class and intelligence is shaky. Even class and education isn't clear cut.

I haven’t read all the replies so this may have already been said but isn’t that two different things in the OP?

You can be lower class and intelligent and you can be middle class and be thick. Those two things are not the same.

Is the question, is it a middle class / working class profession or is the question are nurses thick / intelligent?

Very true

I've never heard that before. Maybe it was true a very very long time ago, but not at all relevant in today's society. Also, regarding teachers...I've worked with loads of teachers who consider themselves working class so I don't think the assumption about teachers is true either!

If you are that unwell you are probably not that fussed what agenda for change banding or job title someone has
There is always the big yellow name badge saying hello my name is and it gives the job title (at least mine does) and as everything requires consent now we have to say who we are in terms of profession, what we have come to do and is it okay to do it - quite often the patient doesn't remember that.
There is no way I could do a nurses job - plus I haven't the ability to be nice to people at 3am.

Working class doesn't mean thick.

I'm a nurse. I would say 90% of my band 5 colleagues are working class. Of those, two are "not bright". By that I mean they lack common sense and have made serious errors more than once. It has nothing to do with their class.

However, I have found that the more middle-class-ish nurses don't stay at band 5 for too long. In fact, I can only think of one, but in her case she was sister at one point but took a step back when she had her children.

Back in the 1960s it was generally only the small number of middle-class girls who attended Grammar school who would stay in education and have the opportunity of a career. The teachers said there were only three careers for girls - teaching, nursing and secretarial.
Nursing and teaching were not degree courses then but you needed O and A levels which only a minority of mostly middle class girls took. Now both are degree courses and nurses carry out a lot of tasks that doctors used to do. It is now not a matter of class but education.

My mum was a student nurse in the 70s, it was definitely something middle class girls did as a way to meet a doctor to marry or travel to work abroad, it was seen as a respectable profession for a young woman.

I think these days people from all backgrounds go into nursing, and you obviously need to be reasonably intelligent seeing as it's a degree level qualification!
I definitely wouldn't think someone was poor or thick if they were a nurse!

I think this might have been true at one time. My mum was bright but came from a fairly poor family, she says at school she was recommended to be a nurse, teacher or secretary (she went for teaching). My nan says in her day careers weren't even discussed, she was working class so she became a house maid. Being a nurse was something for middle class people.

I'm a nurse myself and I'd say we are a mixed bag these days.