A Mumsnet user provoked some strong responses on the parenting discussion forum after saying that nurses should be renamed to something less “old fashioned”.
The anonymous user took to Mumsnet’s popular Am I Being Unreasonable? forum to spark the discussion, asking fellow users whether it was time for a big change in the nursing profession. They reasoned in their post that the term was no longer fitting considering the qualifications needed to be a nurse - a sentiment many disagreed with.
“Is calling it ‘nursing’ a bit old fashioned?” they wrote. “You now need a degree to be a nurse, and they often are pretty much doing junior doctor jobs."
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The user went on to suggest: “Calling it something else that recognises its academic demands, and is also more inclusive to males wanting to work in the field”. They added that the term nurse was “insulting to people with degrees and especially males”.
Mumsnet users were quick to share their opinions on the subject, with the thread racking up almost 500 comments. However, the majority were critical of the original poster’s viewpoint - with a number of nurses offering their own take.
“I’m really proud to be a nurse,” one person wrote in reply. “I work hard to be able to call myself a nurse and would be really upset if that got taken away.”
Another nurse explained: “All nurses are trained to examine their clients and provide rational thoughts/opinions as to what is going on. And some of us go on to train to do more diagnostic work.
“But the crux of our training is care and that is where the title comes from,” they added. “My male colleagues will agree with me.”
Several more people left comments adding that there was nothing wrong with a man being called a nurse. “Every male nurse that I know is equally proud to be a nurse,” one said.
“Nurses do not do the job of junior doctors,” another Mumsnet user argued in response to the original post. “Doctors should not be ashamed to say that they provide a totally unique role. Nurses also provide a totally unique role they should be proud of.”
Others agreed that nurses deserved more recognition - but that renaming the profession wasn’t the right way to go about it. “You’re right that some don’t give nurses the credit they deserve,” one person wrote. “Changing the title isn’t going to change the views held by those people though.”
What do you think? Let us know in the comments below.
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