In the healthcare world, there is a definite hierarchy. Physicians are at the top of the "food chain" so to speak. What follows are Physician Assistants and Nurse Practitioners, Registered Nurses (RN), Licensed Practical Nurses (LPN), everyone else. The American Medical Association (AMA) has long been known as an organization with exhaustive power both in their field and in the political realm. Why is this? Because they band together as a group of professionals, support each other despite differences and vote unanimously together. In the sixties, the American Nurses Association (ANA) started a directive to have all nurses be standardized to a minimum level of an Associates Degree. Their goal was to eventually close all LPN and Diploma programs. It is 2012 and they have been unsuccessful in completing this directive.
Throughout the years, nurses have been portrayed in a poor light. They have been the brunt of jokes, used in comic strips as bimbos, captured in television and movie as "easy" and generally displayed as stupid. They have used the original white dress uniform and shortened the skirt, lowered the collar and added fishnets and stiletto's to show our true "nature". Honestly, it is offensive. There are still practicing nurses today who are wearing the traditional dress with cap and when they are seen, they are mocked. Please don't think I am saying we should return to this way of dress; it's just that it has never been respected. Each passing day, I see more nurses and clinical assistants in the standard scrub pant with a tank top and a little sweater. It is more important that their hair, make-up and jewelry be on target than their knowledge and clinical skills. We still haven't figured out as an industry that how we project ourselves with our wardrobe is directly related to how people think about our intelligence.
I spent many years in school to learn my profession. Total time was about six and a half years with pre-requisites and actual program time. Each day I learn something new. Healthcare, as we all know, is an ever changing field. If you do not keep up with it's advances you cannot function to the best of your ability. It is your obligation to join an association, read journals, take continuing education classes, and stay current with current events. I would even go one step further with this and say continue your education. If you have an AS degree go for the BSN. If you have the BSN then go for the MSN. If we ever want to taken seriously as a profession we must be able to focus on what is important. How seriously we take ourselves, how much we advocate for higher schooling, and how intelligently we talk about ourselves is the only way.
I challenge you to start seeing your Nurse as a professional. Ask what degree they have and what plans they have for further education. Ask if they are a member of any professional organization. Ask where they are going with their career. Encourage them to pursue additional educational opportunities. Above all, when you look at them, see them as a professional and not as a comic strip floozie.
Nurses are the true healers in the field. They are the one who will hold your hand, take time to listen and advocate for you as a patient like no one else. Christ does this very same thing each and every day if you will let him. He will walk beside you and even carry you if need be! Give him the opportunity to heal you from the inside out.
In His service
Mally
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