Time for a name change

iStockphoto + Scrubs

I think if ‘nurses’ were called something else we would have a lot more male ‘nurses’ in the world. I prefer to say that I am an RN for a couple reasons. One, it lets others know that I am a professional REGISTERED NURSE and two, it takes the dreaded ‘nurse’ out of the equation.

So many times people say they are a nurse and then when you get down to the heart of the matter they are really a secretary at a doctor’s office or something. Not to discount secretaries at doctor’s offices but you can see how that is just a smidge misleading.

But I digress.

Some of the BEST and MOST WONDERFUL RNs out there are males. They bring a different outlook, point of view, strength and dignity to the profession. Plus, it is super awesome to have them around when you need help lifting someone heavy. HA HA! 🙂 How’s that for a stereotype?

I feel like there are so many qualified and interested males who get turned off from being an RN because they don’t want to go around calling themselves a ‘nurse’. I suggest that we should change the name to something more gender neutral…what do you think? Any ideas? Should we start a Facebook campaign? March on Washington? Make a plastic bracelet to show our solidarity? Ideas people ideas, let’s get this gender revolution party started.

Rebekah Child

Rebekah Child attended the University of Southern California for her bachelor's in nursing and decided to brave the academic waters and return for her master's in nursing education, graduating in 2003 from Mount St. Mary's. Rebekah has also taught nursing clinical and theory at numerous Southern California nursing schools and has been an emergency nurse since 2002. She is currently one of the clinical educators for an emergency department in Southern California and a student (again!) in the doctoral program at the University of California, Los Angeles.