Nurse Follies: What A Nurse Is...And Isn't

There are a couple nurse-specific sites I frequent, but usually just the message boards. One particular area that captures my attention is nurse activism. I'm not talking about lobbying for safer nurse-patient ratios. No, that's a good thing and I'm all for it. I'm talked about those obsessed with the image of nursing. I go between rolling my eyes, laughing out loud, and just wanting to find the ninnies and beat them with a bedpan.In 2004, Sketchers ran a series of ads featuring Christina Aguilera. She was dressed as a cop/criminal in one, a sexy teacher/student in another. And then there was this ad. It immediately raised the ire of nurses everywhere, and then some who wished they were nurses. There were letters, threats to boycott, and blah, blah, blah. They claimed that this ad was demeaning to nurses and all that other feminist bullshit, and the end result would be that no one would take nurses seriously because this ad portrayed nurses in an unflattering and undignified way. Eventually, Sketchers caved and pulled the nurse ad. The cop and teacher ads were not pulled because, apparently, teachers and cops are no where near the prudes that nurses are.

Those shoes are entirely inappropriate for floor nursing.

I personally loved this ad, and I could only wish I looked half as good in a nurse get-up. Anyone who makes a decision to view a nurse poorly because of a shoe ad has the IQ of a cat turd. Anyone with half a brain knows that Christina Aguilera in a nurse outfit does not equal a real nurse. When you've managed to blow your meth lab up with you in the vicinity, who do you want to take care of your stupid, crispy ass? Naughty Nurse dressed in lingerie? Or the veteran nurse in wrinkled scrubs who knows what the hell she is doing? Wait...don't answer that...


In our flannel pajamas, perhaps.


Say the word "nurse" and someone will inevitably put the word "naughty" in front of it. Tell a guy you are a nurse, you will get the whole "give me a bed bath" proposition (and the answer is still no).

I don't know when nurses became "naughty". I don't know what it is about my profession that makes us "naughty". While it's nice to be in a profession that is considered "sexy", most days, when I'm in my wrinkled scrubs covered in various body fluids, I feel anything but. I once dated a guy who went out with me just because I was a nurse, and he thought that was hot. It amused me because he had a high-profile job and he thought he was teh shit because he bagged a nurse. In fact, he was always begging me to wear my nurse cap. I never did (packed away).

Even so, this shoe is totally awesome!

Just because I'm a nurse, doesn't mean I'm automatically naughty and sexy. I was naughty and sexy long before I became a nurse.

When I am at work, I am the furthest thing from naughty and sexy. And in the end, that's best for everyone.