Don’t Dismiss the Nursing Profession

It is one of the most common clichés in the book in my opinion – the male nurse, who is mistaken for a doctor when he is in fact “just a nurse”. And while many people tend to focus on just the gender-related undertones related to the fact that a male is in a profession that is typically more associated with women, that masks the underlying issue and misperception at hand, which is that being a nurse is somehow lesser than being a doctor.

And that is what I wanted to focus on today. I see so many people still dissing the nursing profession, regardless of if you are a male nurse or a female nurse, and that honestly has to stop right now. Even Joy Behar made the outrageous comment a few years ago asking why nurses are holding medical devices when they aren’t doctors.

Well here’s a harsh reality check to Joy Behar, and to anyone else who thinks like her: nurses are highly qualified medical personnel, so much closer to a physician in terms of medical training compared to that of a random bystander on the street. Although the path to becoming a nurse takes about half the time of that for a doctor, we are a wholly integrable part of the medical field, despite what ignorant people like Joy Behar have to say. And if you don’t believe me, just think about how much different your time spent at a hospital would be like if there were no nurses around and you’ll start to see what I mean.

Nurses do a lot of the quote-unquote “dirty work” that physicians just don’t have the time to do. That includes administering medicine to and taking care of patients, as well as simply communicating with them in lieu of their actual physician, all of which cannot be done by just any person who feels like it. In fact, the nursing profession is one of the largest in the world, meaning that without nurses, most hospitals, nursing homes and other similar facilities would fail to function even at the most basic level.

According to numerous studies, the physician shortage is continuing to get worse with each passing year, at least as far as the United States is concerned, meaning that nurses are even more critical when it comes to filling the gap and helping to support doctors while they do what they do best, which is to treat people and help keep them healthy. But even if the growing physician shortage weren’t the case, nurses still have a huge role to play in the healthcare industry.

Just because you may not know how vital a nurse is to the success of the healthcare system, it doesn’t give you the right to erroneously belittle what nurses bring to the table, especially when compared to doctors who I can fully admit have more qualifications than nurses. Although it pains me to say this, anyone who goes about spewing nonsense when it comes to the value of nurses is no friend in my book, and you should feel the same way. And if you are one of those people, hopefully my words have shown you just how wrong you have been about nurses this whole time. The nursing profession is quite a prestigious one, and one people should acknowledge as not just integral to the healthcare industry, but truly vital to it as well.