If you have reached this article, it is because you are not very clear about what the true functions of a nurse are. Perhaps you have always thought that she is the “doctor’s assistant” or that she “just follows orders”, but that is far from reality.
The nurse, according to the RAE, is a person dedicated to caring for the sick , but that too falls short. It is true that the main function of the nurse is to help sick, injured or deathbed people, but she is also responsible for assisting healthy people . As you read it, the nurse is also in charge of promoting healthy habits in the general population in order to prevent disease. It is, for example, who teaches sexual and reproductive health, or first aid in institutes, and who educates a diabetic or hypertensive person on how to manage their disease in a healthy way.
As you may have noticed, the concept that people have about nursing is far from reality, and today, on International Nurses Day , we are going to disprove myths about this wonderful profession.
Myth 1: ATS is another name by which the nurse can be called
Formerly, nursing did not require university studies, and the profession was learned by doing, so they were known as “practitioners” . Around the 1950s, training schools were created in Spain that certified “practitioners” as technicians (what is now known as modules). These “nurses” with non-university studies were called ATS (Health Technical Assistant), but since 1977 this name has been obsolete , since with the creation of university nursing schools we became known as DUE (University Diploma in Nursing), a title Valid for both graduates and current graduates.
Currently, the ATS category no longer exists, since when university nursing studies emerged, ATS had to validate their studies with a diploma.
Myth 2: Nursing is a female profession
It is true that, historically , the nursing profession has been closely linked to women . They were the ones who took care, while the men were in charge of providing and defending. Although currently women are still notably predominant in nursing, it is absurd to believe that a profession is specific to a gender, we are in the 21st century!
Although the years go by, there is still a social stigma towards male nurses, since there are those who assume that since they are “strong” and “firm”, they cannot exercise a kind and affectionate profession. For the same reason there are many people who think that men who are dedicated to nursing are homosexual or effeminate, but nursing does not correlate with anyone’s sexual preferences.
In short, gender is just one more classification, not an impediment to being a great nurse and doing extraordinary professional work.
Myth 3: Nurses wear white uniforms and caps.
We all know the “typical nurse costume” which consists of a (too) short white dress and a cap on the head. I think it goes without saying that this is not the work uniform of a nurse, but a way of sexualizing the profession, but that is another topic.
Obviously, most nursing professionals work in hospitals or primary care centers, and it is common to see us wearing a white uniform with long pants and a short-sleeved jacket, but did you know that not all nurses wear the same uniform ?
The most common, as I have already mentioned, is the white uniform, but there are numerous colors to differentiate the area in which each professional works. For example, in my hospital, you will see me and my colleagues in a purple uniform to identify that we work in critical care, you will see my colleagues in the emergency room in a blue outfit, and those in the operating room in green. And surely you have also noticed that pediatricians sometimes wear jackets with children’s drawings. Unfortunately, the color system is not unified at the national level, so it is common for users to get into trouble if they do not look at the staff identification.
As for the cap as part of the uniform,… Today hardly anyone wears it, although it may be seen in some health institutions as part of the hospital brand, but it is quite unusual in Spain.
And maybe you have thought that a nurse is destined to work in a hospital yes or yes. However, there are many other fields of work where nursing takes place. Thus, people who work in a health center usually wear a white coat over their “street” clothes, or nurses in other fields, such as research, teaching or assistance in schools or specialized centers (mental health, penitentiary, brain damage,…), they do not have to wear a uniform on a regular basis.
Myth 4: Nurses are “frustrated doctors”
If you are a nurse, surely you have been asked countless times: “Why don’t you do medicine now?”. It is sad to know first-hand that there are people who think that nurses are professionals who have tried to be doctors and have failed in the attempt.
It is true that in nursing there are some people whose first option was to study medicine and, due to one circumstance or another, in the end they have dedicated themselves to nursing. But this does not mean that all nurses have this profile, nor that those who do have not developed a passion for their profession. There are many of us who choose to be nurses by vocation , and we never try to enter a medical career, but instead actively decide to be nurses.
For some this may sound strange because “the doctor is more than the nurse”, but that is far from the truth. It is understandable that you think so if your perception of these two professions is still in the last century. The reality is that both careers are closely related within the field of health, but they are different professions with different functions , so it is not surprising that there are people who want to be doctors, while others want to be nurses.
To differentiate them, say that the doctor, broadly speaking, is the one who diagnoses, treats and prevents diseases. The nurse, on the other hand, is the one who cares for and relieves the patients, who controls their stability and pain, who administers medication or performs cures when necessary, and who notifies the doctor when there are complications or their presence is required. . It could be said that it is the eyes and hands of the doctor in terms of patient surveillance.
Myth 5: Nurses are doctors’ ‘assistants’
To finish, we are going to solve the question that has led this article. At this point, you surely know the answer, and that is no, we are not doctors’ assistants . All health professionals form a large multidisciplinary team in which we understand each other.
Thus, roughly , to differentiate the different members of this great team, the doctors are the ones who diagnose and treat, the nurses the ones who care for, accompany, educate and carry out techniques, the nursing assistants who carry out the most intimate care of the patients. , the physiotherapists who rehabilitate, the guards who accommodate and move from one place to another,… and it could go on like this ad infinitum .
Of course, although all these professions have different functions in this enormous chain, they often overlap. For example, the assistants are in charge of the intimate hygiene of the patients, but in critical care it is a joint function, where the caretaker, assistant and nurse participate. It may also be the case that a doctor actively participates in wound care, although it is a nursing function, or that a nursing assistant performs massages or rehabilitation exercises on a bedridden patient, although the function is that of the physiotherapist.
It should be noted that many of these professionals are actively involved in making treatment decisions . As we have already said, the nurse is the one who will be in charge of the patient at all times, monitoring their condition, controlling their discomfort and observing their evolution, therefore, their knowledge and impressions are of vital importance when making therapeutic decisions. .
