Nurses are not second-rate physicians!

I am a nurse who absolutely adores my profession. I have no idea what I would be doing if I weren’t a nurse. There was no question in my mind which major I would declare when I began filling out my college application. I only applied to one school, and I chose one major—nursing. Each time I returned to school, it was to obtain another nursing degree. At one point, I entertained the thought of pursuing an EdD, but it was because I wanted to be the best possible nurse educator. No matter where I work once I obtain my PhD, I am a nurse first. I will always be a nurse. My passion for the nursing profession fuels my disdain for the idea that nurses are second-rate physicians.

People sometimes make the most asinine assumptions about why nurses go into nursing. I have heard it all. We weren’t intelligent enough to go to medical school. We didn’t want the liability that comes with being a practicing physician. We didn’t like science enough to become a premed major. Medical school is too expensive, and we didn’t want to spend a lifetime paying back the loans. I can’t speak for all nurses, but I take offense to these assumptions. I, for one, did not choose to become a nurse because life’s circumstances prohibited me from becoming a physician.

Nursing is not a steppingstone to a medical degree. In fact, the two disciplines are quite different from one another. Nursing is one discipline, medicine another. Physicians do not supervise nurses, nor is it required that physicians vet nurses. Nursing is a profession, not a trade. We have our own theories, schools within universities, professional organizations, and state boards. Physicians do not teach nurses, and they do not regulate our practice. A physician has never hired me and, unless I choose to work in a private practice, never will. Unbeknownst to the general public (or maybe just unbeknownst to me until I went to nursing school), nurses write their own assessments, diagnoses, and care plans. Nurses work with physicians, and, in most circumstances, not for them.

I know of a few nurses who decided to become physicians. There is nothing wrong with this, but it is not the norm. And I know very few nurses who went into the profession desiring to become a physician, but not doing so because of lack of intelligence or money. I have had a few physicians encourage me to go to medical school, but why on earth would I want to do that? I didn’t become a nurse to test the waters of the health care industry; I became a nurse because I wanted to be a nurse.

As a huge fan of the television show “The Waltons”—yes, my favorite TV show is one that went off the air before I was born—it upset me to no end that the writers decided to make Mary Ellen Walton a physician when she was already a nurse. Why was nursing not good enough to stick with? Did the character have to become a physician to gain status? What subliminal messages were the writers trying to send the show’s viewers?

I didn’t learn that Mary Ellen had decided to become a physician until I was already an RN. As a child, I saw Mary Ellen attend and graduate from nursing school, and I saw nothing wrong with that. To confirm her love of health care and her ability to act as an autonomous, intelligent, and caring health care provider, was it really necessary to change the character’s profession? Of course not! Nurses are all these things and more.

No matter how many times nurses are compared to physicians, I am not swayed to leave the profession I so dearly love. If I want to work as a primary care provider, I can do this as a nurse practitioner. If I want to work as part of an anesthesia team, I can do this as a nurse anesthetist. If I want to deliver babies, I can do this as a nurse midwife. Nurses can even become certified to work as first assists in operating rooms.

The profession of nursing offers so many possibilities. The ability of a nurse to move seamlessly from one specialty to another is unmatched. Nursing is a rewarding profession. Nursing is a well-trusted profession. Nursing is a profession in high demand. There are many things nursing is. A second-class profession behind the medical profession it is not.

For Reflections on Nursing Leadership (RNL), published by the Honor Society of Nursing, Sigma Theta Tau International.