It seems Lippincott’s Nursing Solutions has caught the “Scorpion Virus.” In a nutshell it’s the backward thinking Arizona/Governor Jan Brewer “every other word is a blooper” virus. Im sure all of you out there have been privy to some of the magical happenings here in the desert–I mean, were all over the media for the stupidest reasons. Well, now, it’s Lippincott’s turn to sit in Jan Brewer’s hot seat.
Just a few days ago I stumbled across some posts on Lippincott’s Facebook Page that seem to have the nurse blogosphere a bit….well….inflamed shall we say. Here is one of them: “A Graduate Nurse wants everyone to know she is a nurse. An experienced nurse doesn’t want anyone to know she is a nurse.” No offense, Lippincott, but what the hell are you trying to do to nurses in the profession? As it is we eat each other up on a daily basis, we bully each other, we do all sorts of horrible unmentionables to each other to the point that we drive each other out of the profession and here YOU are contributing to the “BS.” Have you not read any books out there about incivility/bullying in the workplaces of nurses? Have you not taken the time to read about some of the issues that divide nurses in the workplace??? Education is one of those barriers! Would you like to know why graduate nurses do not stay at the bedside? Turn around and look at your ill-advised not so funny postings pitting “experienced nurses and graduate nurses” against each other. I’d like to ask point blank—just what is your intent behind such rhetoric? It sets a poor example to new grad nurses and it gives those “anti-education” nurses more fuel to feed the fire. I’d like to pepper this blog with a bunch of scholarly references but it seems that would be an inappropriate approach given the one you used to pass judgment on graduate nurses. Let me clear some things up for you:
- Graduate nurses ARE experienced nurses. They have been nurses for years and many times have worked in different specialties
- Graduate nurses teach the newer generations of “experienced” nurses
- Graduate nurses set the tone for what the future of “experienced nursing” will look like.
- Graduate nurses know not to solicit the division of nurses in the profession with language that discourages others.
- Graduate nurses have smart phones and ipads and other forms of technology to use at the bedside or wherever they need it……AND they carry textbooks.
- Both Graduate and Experienced Nurses LIKE people knowing they are nurses—to make such a crass blanket statement just potentiates a division between nurses seeking higher degrees and those who are not. Shame on you for that.
Id like to share with you an example of how this kind of “joking around” influences nurses-–right now—in nursing stations all over the country. This conversation, which took place last night, begins with an RN to BSN student frustrated about having to write an essay and a colleague of hers responding to her thoughts on higher educated nurses. They are both former colleagues of mine:
STUDENT: “Let me just start by saying that while I understand that I need a BSN in order to go further in my career I feel that the articles I am reading are 100% biased. I do not think that because you have to write a million essays as a bachelor nurse that you have better critical thinking skills than a nurse with an associates degree that has many years of experience. Now I will get back to writing my essay”
Coworker: Agreed,!, I’m finding that nurses who have their associates are more clinically experienced than the ones with their bachelors. Woo hoo you can play dr and figure out statistics and deal with ethics, but can you make a bed? Put in an Iv? Change a dressing? Or drop an NG? Not that I’ve found yet. Just from what I’ve experienced so far.
I answered by emphasizing that my advanced degrees don’t hold me back one bit from starting an IV, dropping an NG tube, making a bed, or changing a complicated dressing. What does one have to do with the other? I was one of only two nurses working on the floor at that time with a Masters degree. (My response was deleted too. So its clearly apparent that graduate nurses cant even mentor other nurses without them getting offended) I mean, once you get a graduate education you’re devoid of all your clinical skills and your brain turns to mush? Does getting a graduate education mean an automatic assignment to a of category of nurses labeled “clinically useless,” or that you get treated differently in the workplace? Why can’t the terms “experienced nurses” include everyone who has done some time in the profession? Now all of a sudden we are taking graduate nurses out of the mix and setting them aside as nurses who “don’t belong” with the rest? Do they go out to pasture or something?
This thinking and these tactics are holding back the advancement of our profession and undermining our great potential. Personally I am working my damndest to push for workplaces that are more tolerant to diversity—diversity in culture, religion, age, beliefs and values, and education. Lippincott: What your immature and unprofessional posts do is exacerbate open wounds all over the nation and they give permission for nurses to continue the childish teasing and bullying amongst each other about “who’s the better nurse, or what nurse knows more.” What is the purpose of this Lippincott? This certainly cannot benefit you because Im just one of many nurses who will no longer purchase from you or speak positively about you to new grads or graduate nurses. Any company that addresses nurses has the responsibility to do so in a manner that is professional and in such a way that each nurse can walk away from interacting with you feeling like they learned something great that they didn’t know before, something that made them a better practitioner . Your tacky posts leave many of us so called “graduate nurses without experience” with a pretty bad taste in our mouths.
*A quality nursing solutions company recognizes the talent and diversity of the world’s largest workforce and seeks to develop products that can only serve to enhance the toolbox of a nurse.
*A company not interested in improving nursing care so as to improve patient care outcomes, applies labels to ignite little fights among people as a means of generating some attention to their site instead of adding to the professional growth of the world’s largest workforce.
I highly recommend you cease these little comparisons that have the potential of further dividing a profession that already fights, with vigor, amongst its members. You do nothing but throw gasoline on fire by posting such judgmental “funnies.” We’re not laughing.
Yes Lippincott, I AM A GRADUATE NURSE. I AM AN EXPERIENCED NURSE. I HAVE AN IPHONE, A LAPTOP, AN IPAD, *AND* I STILL CARRY AROUND CARE PLAN AND NURSING DIAGNOSIS BOOKS.
And Im all too proud to let people know that I’m BOTH an EXPERIENCED AND A GRADUATE NURSE.
…and there isn’t a damn thing wrong with it either
Uuuuhhhhh, maybe I’m not up on my “lingo,” but I’ve always understood “graduate nurse” (GN) to refer to a new grad, not a nurse with a graduate degree. Thus the comparison between “new grad” and “experienced nurse” would make more sense on the Lippincott page. But again, I’ve not been privy to any of the conversations referenced above, so I can’t comment on specific intentions of them…
Thank you for responding
…I have always understood a new nurse to be “new graduate or new grad.” Regardless–Lippincott should not be making statements that compare either one….its in poor taste and it pits nurses against eachother, something generation x and generation y nurses are already having to deal with in the workplace far too much.
When I hear the term a new graduate nurse, I think of anyone that recently finished nursing school. I don’t think the public or others often realize nurses can obtain higher degrees. In terms of the comment r/t how experienced nurses often do not want others to know they are an RN. I take that as, we are often bogged down then with the public asking us all sorts of questions r/t their ailments or their uncle’s such and such symptoms. I must admit myself I don’t often want to even stop at a gas station in my scrubs as I rather fear being asked about some symptoms from the public. Where I often see new grad nurses being so proud they have completed school and so ready to tell the world this. I may be reading this the wrong way??? I think the continued fighting with Associates vs BSN nurse will continue. I think the best nurses are those that respect the clinical skills and YET understand the need for the higher degree and yes writing papers. Being able to research and understanding the professionalism required of nurses today. We as nurses will never be fully respected as long as there is the great divide in understanding the need for a baseline to be considered a professional in nursing. Whereas other professions do understand it, for some reason nursing does not. We have created this mess ourself.
but see in their posts they say “graduate nurse.” Its very easy to take it either way—but its something they shouldnt be doing anyway because it makes both feel judged right?
If you are in touch with nursing, you don’t take it any other way than the way it’s intended. The term graduate nurse has been the same for the 35 years I’ve been in nursing. Although it’s use is less common now that with the advent of the fast turn around on NCLEX results, there aren’t any graduate nurses working the floors any more.