Nursing is one of the oldest and well-known professions within the healthcare field. Nurses and the job roles they perform are key to offer high-quality medical care. Without the presence of qualified and skilled nurses, it is unlikely that many of us would get the kind of treatment that we deserve at different healthcare facilities.
That said, developing countries often have the notion about nursing being a less important job. This impression can be changed by studying nursing in abroad and understanding the versatile nature of it.
In fact, nurses are well-educated and professionally trained individuals. They complete nursing degrees and diplomas, to further take the licensure exams conducted by regulated bodies to prove their competencies. Once they are successful at proving their credibility, they spend many hours in the hospitals while taking care of people.
Public knowledge of the nursing field holds many misconceptions that hinder the nurse recruitment process. In this blog, we will look at the common misconceptions related to the nursing profession and the truth behind all of them.
1. Nursing Is Only For Women:
Ever since the beginning of the nursing profession, women have predominantly been employed as nurses in comparison to men. However, in the last decade, more men have entered the nursing profession than ever before. This means that even though it is true that most nurses are women, the number of men joining the profession is increasing steadily which is something that has the ability to improve nurse recruitment.
To attract more men into the profession, efforts are being made to accept applications of male students who wish to study nursing courses to become a registered nurse in Canada. In addition, many healthcare facilities are also recruiting qualified male students who are passionate about the nursing profession.
Male nurses in the field prove themselves to be highly proficient at their jobs just as their female counterparts. The perception of nursing as being a women’s job has been a real problem in the modern world of nursing.
The misconception that a nurse’s work is feminine holds many men back from pursuing a fulfilling nursing career. It also fosters many negative perceptions about nursing if we look at things comprehensively. Hence, it is time we addressed and acknowledged the fact that nursing is not gender-specific in any possible way.
2. Nurses are Dependent on Doctors:
Yes, an important part of nursing is assisting the doctors while offering personal care to patients, but there is a lot more to it. Being a nurse is about being a part of a multidisciplinary healthcare team that allows you to work together with all healthcare professionals while ensuring that patients receive suitable care customized to their specific needs.
Nurses are advocates of their patients and have an independent and vital responsibility to offer the best possible medical care to their patients. The entry requirements to study nursing in Canada are in no way academically similar to that of doctors. Despite this, being a good nurse relies a lot on having a profound base of medical knowledge that comes from training and experience.
Nurses diagnose and treat patients every day, administer tests, and offer life-saving healthcare services. It is not a doctor but a nurse who makes sure that you know how to care for yourself after leaving the hospital or medical center. In addition, nurses have to use their problem-solving, initiative taking, organizational and personal skills to do well professionally.
3. Nurses are Less Intelligent:
Most people assume that nurses were those medical students who couldn’t become doctors or they are not quite intelligent enough to get a medical degree. This fact is completely untrue. Almost all nurses choose nursing as a career that requires them to go through rigorous nursing programs.
In addition, nurses also need to pass the NCLEX exam to practice nursing in Canada. Becoming an RN (Registered Nurse) or a Nurse Practitioner is not easy. Many nurses have to advance their education and study postgraduate nursing courses.
A nurse is just as intelligent and competent as a doctor. Today, nurses teach, lead, manage, research, publish important papers in medical journals, treat illnesses, diagnose patients, administer medication, participate in surgeries, and do much more. Hence, we must not underestimate their abilities or think of them as any less as compared to doctors.
4. All Nurses Are the Same:
This is yet another misconception that is very common when it comes to nursing. It is commonly known that doctors study to gain a specialization in different fields of medicine, but so many people are not aware that nurses do the same. The postgraduate nursing courses in Canada enable nursing students to gain a specialization in different fields.
The difference in the role played by nursing professionals is related to education. Specialized education changes the path of nurses entirely and allows them to play different roles in their profession. For example, nurses who study nursing leadership and management in Canada are responsible for managing their fellow nurses while taking care of themselves.
Nurses possess a distinct set of skills that enables them to perform specific roles across the healthcare industry. Even in big hospitals, nurses do not really do it all. Every nurse has a role that he or she is passionate about.
Since nurses are recruited for a wide variety of positions, this is why becoming a specialized nurse is a highly recommended way to a rewarding career. Anyone Can Become a Nurse:
As opposed to the common misconception, nursing is not meant for everyone. It requires an unflinching commitment, extensive knowledge, compassion and desire to care, polished skills, and a natural ability to look out for the patients. A normal working day for a nurse is full of multitasking and this is something that became more visible at the time of COVID-19.
Nurses are not just employed to do basic chores linked with patient care. They are required to put in their best physically, emotionally, and mentally as they stay on guard while offering many healthcare services. With so many stories on the shortage of nurses and misconceptions that nurses are just medical helpers, most people get the wrong impression that anyone with minimal training and skills can get a nursing job.
The kind of nursing courses that registered nurses complete and the experience they have makes a lot of difference. Regardless of the nursing situation, facilities that need nurses do not just hire anyone. Only the nurses who are truly qualified and passionate about what they do, succeed in making the cut.
5. Nursing Is Easy:
Regardless of common misconceptions, nursing professionals are not just employed to do chores such as giving vaccinations. The basic tasks are done by assistants and technicians. The profession of nursing requires accomplishing many complex activities during a shift, which includes performing life-saving and difficult tasks to completing mundane paperwork.
Similar to most professions, nursing includes some unpleasant tasks such as maintaining the patient records, but that is just a very small percentage of the work done by nurses. Nursing is a challenging career many times, but that is not just because nurses run errands all day long.
Rather, it is because of the challenging, thrilling, significant, and highly skilled work that nurses do in a high-pressure environment where precious lives are struggling to overcome diseases. Hence, nursing is not as easy as people consider it to be and it is definitely not just a profession that requires nurses to do basic chores.
Conclusion:
Nursing is an incredibly important profession, and so it is unfortunate that so many misconceptions about nurses cloud the worldview of the public. It is necessary that everyone recognizes the work done by nurses and respects their expertise in the medical field.
In case you are considering a medical career, do not let any false perceptions about nursing limit a potentially rewarding career for yourself. The world needs qualified nurses and if you think you have it in you to become one, you must enroll in a suitable nursing course in Canada so that your dreams become a reality.
