may, ABCD
i have been reading michelle au’s blog for a while. she is a new anesthesia resident/new mom. she writes with such honesty and wit that i find really entertaining. her latest entry (”weekend catch up”) was interesting. a part of it was about her “dilemma” of the OR freezing. she has to choose between wearing the expensive disposable gowns, or wearing a nurse’s jacket. a little conscientious about the cost, she is considering wearing the jacket, but was concerned that people will think she is a nurse. what to do?
a nurse was offended by that issue. some doctors were offended that the nurse was offended.the comments section was unbelievably entertaining. doctors and nurses laying their cards on the table is a fascinating read.
i honestly don’t know how i feel.
what is it about the letters after our name? are we arrogant or proud if we insist on making sure people notice it? or do we truly deserve to validate the fact that we went through our own hells trying to get that license and actually add those letters to our name?
the issue left me in a retrospective mood.
if you are an RN, are you offended if people thought you are a CNA? is it the same offense if you are mistaken as an MD?
if you are an MD, are you offended if people thought you are an RN? is it the same offense if you are mistaken as a president of a hospital?
or should we even think about this stuff like it is something important?
i bet you some RNs or MDs do not really care.
hmmmm… i don’t really get offended if the patients make a mistake… what offends me here in the philippines is when they say, “pssst” to get my attention.
Comment by Rygel — September 23, 2005 @ 7:32 am
We live in a society that has very strict class distinctions.
As we have lately seen, these class dictinctions sometimes cut along racial lines. That is to say, these issues run deep, and people have strong feelings about this stuff.
It can hit people right smack in the center of their inadequacy issues. Or so they think.
Comment by shrimplate — September 23, 2005 @ 12:20 pm
As far as the clothes of the medical profession, in every hospital and doctors office I’ve been to in recent history, everyone is so casually dressed you can’t tell the medical professionals from the food service staff. Please don’t think I begrudge anyone their title or disrespect their education, but it’s hard for the civilian patient/consumer like me to tell who’s who unless I look at their name badge, which usually shows their title and/or department.
Comment by junebee — September 23, 2005 @ 12:39 pm
Once upon a time, nurses wore starched white uniforms with awful little hats.
These days, it’s scrubs with cartoon characters on them.
Personally, I’m an LPN, but to the patients, I’m a “nurse”. They know that there’s a difference between nurse me and nurse RN, but it makes no difference to them. We are their nurses and we provide help. No nurse should be so hung up about their letters that they can’t provide assistance. I’ve heard of DONs helping CNAs give baths when staffing was short.
Ultimately, it’s to help a patient return to a point where they are free to perform their ADLs. Those are the only letters that should really matter.
Comment by Nurse Kit — September 23, 2005 @ 1:40 pm
I work as a nurse and there are several times that people thought I was a CNA or some other staff. Why? 1)I look really young and dammit, I AM YOUNG, 2)maybe coz I’m of a different race (I won’t even get into that). In the beginning, I didn’t really care, but it started to irritate me and piss me off.
Other times, people seem impressed/awed that I’m an RN and they say stuff like, “now you can become a doctor” or “so will you be continuing with medical school? you should.” I’m like hell no–I’m not enough of an asshole/egomaniac to be a doctor. I’m in a different aspect of healthcare which is patient focused and that’s what I choose to do now.
Usually,I just brush these comments and attitudes aside (but a few times I came home crying because of some hurtful comments) ; if people are ignorant or are not comfortable with me that’s basically their problem.I’ll just keep on doing my thing the best way I can.
Comment by Anonymous — October 5, 2005 @ 2:48 am
Business and Personal Finance
I couldn’t understand some parts of this article, but it sounds interesting
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