My Strong Medicine

I am a nurse. For those of you that know me I don’t hide this. In fact I am very proud of my profession and my choice to become a Registered Nurse. I must confess before I pursued my nursing career my ideas of what a nurse is, what a nurse does, and what a nurse represents were very misguided and … well frankly just plain wrong!

I was like the rest of society. My impressions and opinions were formed from what I had seen and heard from the media, from what little knowledge I gained through my own schooling, as well as my own personal experiences.

“A nurse passes pills and cleans up poop right?”

“A nurse is the doctors subordinate right?”

“A nurse wears that funny white outfit and hat right?”

“Women are nurses and men are doctors right?”

Yep, I’ve heard most of ‘em. The sad thing is I hear this more than I ever hear anything that resembles the truth. What a nurse is, does and represents?

Here’s an even more upsetting fact. I did a Google search for the term ‘nurse’. Take a look at the first image that was listed:

That tells you what the public’s image is of a nurse. The stereotypical ‘naughty nurse’.. oversized breasts and an undersized mind and personality. I sit here shaking my head at what kind of battle we nurses face every day when it comes to not simply doing our job, but to have to defend our career and our profession on a daily basis from definitions like the one I just listed.

It’s either the ‘naughty nurse’ or the white-capped subordinate that most people will think of instead of the independent, critical-thinking, aggressive, compassionate healthcare professional that I work with and work as every day. (Check out some other thoughts on this subject at Head Nurse or About A Nurse)

Oh… and I didn’t even touch on the ‘male-nurse’ subject.

Carpe Diem