The legal definition of 'nurse' pertains only to RN's and LPN's. The legal definition of nurse does not discriminate as to gender. My license also contains the word professional.

@skibunnie..My instructor was a LPN for 19 years as well and she went on and got her BSN and then her MSN. She says she did everything just as long as a RN was around to verify. I have seen LPN's who could dance circles around a RN....in the end you are still a  nurse! LOL! Have a blessed day ppl! :)

While I was in nursing school, what drove me nuts was the question "why do you need to study all this? You're doing what the doctor tells you to do." Mind you, while in school I worked as a physician's scribe, so that question came not just from laypeople, but from doctors I knew as well! I got very tired very quickly of having to explain that nurses are responsible for assessing their patients and knowing what is an expected finding and what is alarming and needs to be addressed and/or reported; furthermore, nurses are relied on as being the "eyes and ear" of the physicians, and often know more about the patient than the patient's doctor. I managed to change many people's opinions about what nursing entails, but hearing that question from physicians really got under my skin the first few times I was asked!

On a side note, I had some information about the Nursing Ph.D. program at ECU with me one day at work. A PA noticed this, looked at me, and with a straight face, asked me "what in the world would a nurse do with a Ph.D.? Do you really need a doctorate to research which bedpan works best?" Needless to say, that comment was overheard by several nurses, and the backlash she received from the outraged staff was well worth the effort it took not to shake some sense (or at least some tact!) into her. Gah!

Hmmmm....why are you going to LPN school instead of going to RN school. You're too smart for that....I really wanted to say that I think that everyone should take my route....

Nurses make big money and don't have to work hard for it...

" Ever feel that some MD's won't ask an LPN pertinent questions,regarding their patients,just because," they're an LPN"?

  Have had a few experiences,whereby the GP inquired specifics,that the RN didn't have the answer to,though I had.

  (Not upstaging,just knew the answer to.) It happens,every day."

HerbalNurse says ...

Some doctors don't want opinions from any nurse, whether RN or LPN. I call it short man syndrome, usually. Yes, I just stereotyped short physicians.

 

 

Bahahaha! I was rofl about that. Made me think of that song by Salt n Pepa...the radio version played "short, short man" instead of the actual <naughty> words of the song.

HerbalNurse says ...

Nurses make big money and don't have to work hard for it...

Once on the way home from work I was listening to a call in talk show and the topic was "What is the easiest job to have" 

One man called in and said it was "being a night shift nurse like his wife. She works at night when the patients are all asleep."

I was hoping that his wife was listening on the way home from work and could recognize his voice.

I agree Joyce. I love the night shift beause I am a night person, but it sure isn't easy.

cvshaw9 says ...

The stereotype that nursing and nurses are "working class" and not "professionals" is the stereotype which I dislike most about nursing. Nursing, at one time, was restricted to working class, lower class, and middle class women. Women who came from upper middle class or upper class back grounds were forbidden to work in nursing as it was deemed inappropriate for women from these back grounds to take a subordinate role to M.D.'s and to perform the work of nurses which was considered too degrading for them. To a certain extent, this stereotype remains, especially amongst the managerial class in the USA, which uses the same as a pretext to victimize nurses, oppress them, treat them disrespectfully, and to otherwise exploit nurses. The nursing culture sometimes reinforces this concept with it's adoption of the "nursing diagnosis" which implies that nurses do not have the intelligence to utilize "medical reasoning". When I was in nursing school, at a large class, an instructor got up before the same and stated: "Good nurses don't make good doctors. Good doctors don't make good nurses." The class room burst out in applause. This was over twenty years ago. This statement had sexist and classist stereotypes implying that nurses must not be of the social class of doctors which must come from a higher social class than nurses. Two of my nursing instructors ( in this same educational institution) stated to me that they thought that I would be a good doctor but not a good nurse. I come from an upper class or upper middle class back ground. Nurses and the nursing profession must insist on being treated as "professionals" and discard the perception by the public, other medical professionals, and the managerial class as per the aforementioned  such that they receive that respect and those rewards, including economic rewards, which they truly deserve as professionals.

....

Nurses are working-class, in the same way that teachers are, both in terms of the nature of the job and the cultural background of the demographic largely drawn toward careers in nursing. So what? What is wrong with that? It's great that middle-of-the-road professions exist that can be used as a channel for upward mobility. Nursing and teaching are a couple of college-educated 'professions' that kids from working-class families, in which they are often the first to attend college, can wrap their heads around, and that's very much because of the public visibility involved. Other middle-of-the-road professions on the same level, but which often don't require college education, are police officers and firefighters. There's no shame in being in a middle-of-the-road profession. In fact, today when that level of job has increasingly become a rarity and serves as a bridge between 'working' and 'middle' class, being in this level of profession should be admirable, either because the person has "made it" or because they have enough humility to do what they enjoy and take on a "less than" job despite the snotty rhetoric. Now, with your upset that nursing is a working-class profession, it seems like you're being a bit snotty and need a dose of humility. Look, nurses (and teachers) use labor unions. They need collective bargaining and can't bargain individually the way a doctor, lawyer, and other true professionals can based on their education and scarcity. They work long and odd hours. They do many repetitive tasks continuously. They work with their hands and physically. THAT is 'working class'. Nurses are not doctors. Nurses do the physical and simpler work for doctors, much like an assistant or secretary does for other professionals. Doctors work with their mind and conceptual ability and are truly in the professional (true middle) class and in doing so instruct nurses on what needs to be done. Nurses ARE subordinates to doctors. If a person doesn't like that fact, nursing is not for them. Look, there are semantics at play here, as well. 'Working class' can mean one of at least a couple things - 'working' as opposed to 'capitalist' and the definition you seem to be going for, which pits one side of the masses against the other and isn't what America is about. 'Middle class' also has multiple meanings - it can mean middle income, which has nothing to do with college education or a line of work one is in, or it can be cultural, which would include educational attainment as well as cultural background of the family, in which case a person from a working-class family who attains a degree is still working class, even if they become a professor, doctor, lawyer, or any other true professional. See the UK for how that works. I'm tired of seeing kids in this country treat their working-class backgrounds (familes, culture, etc.) as if they are trash to be disposed of and doing everything they can to distance themselves from their past. In my opinion, that is a disgusting, elitist, anti-American way of being. To be firmly entrenched in the 'middle class' culturally, one needs to have a family history of college graduation and professionals. It's not something that happens in one generation, no matter how hard these mislead kids try to change themselves. There true colors will shine through - see 'nouveaux riche'.

So I guess my question to YOU is, WHY does it bother you that nursing is a 'working class' profession? What is wrong with that? Do you realize your attitude is elitist?