Nurse’s Brilliant Response to Being Called “Just a Nurse”

Nurses provide nearly 90 percent of the world’s healthcare services. Yet despite our overwhelming reliance on nurses, there’s still an unfortunate stigma they can’t seem to shake. Using the word “just” to describe a nurse – someone so critical to our continued well-being – is flagrant and rude. And one nurse had heard it for the last time.

This Australian nurse took to social media to express how she felt. Her response is frankly better than any defense we could have conjured. Enjoy:

Caitlin Brassington - October 7 at 1:47am · Instagram ·

‘Just a Nurse’. I am just home from a busy shift, looking very ordinary in my scrubs. On the way home today I stopped at the shop for milk and saw an acquaintance. She has never seen me in uniform and said that she didn’t realise I was ‘just a nurse’. Wow!

Over my 18 year career I have heard this phrase many, many time, but today it got to me. Am I just a nurse?

I have helped babies into the world, many of whom needed assistance to take their first breath, and yet I am just a nurse.

I have held patients hands and ensured their dignity while they take their last breath, and yet I am just a nurse.

I have counselled grieving parents after the loss of a child, and yet I am just a nurse.

I have performed CPR on patients and brought them back to life, and yet I am just a nurse.

I am the medical officers eyes, ears and hands with the ability to assess, treat and manage your illness, and yet I am just a nurse.

I can auscultate every lung field on a newborn and assess which field may have a decreased air entry, and yet I am just a nurse.

I can educate patients, carrers, and junior nurses, and yet I am just a nurse.

I am my patients advocate in a health system that does not always put my patients best interest first, and yet I am just a nurse.

I will miss Christmas Days, my children’s birthdays, and school musicals to come to work to care for your loved one, and yet I am just a nurse.

I can take blood, cannulate and suture a wound, and yet I am just a nurse.

I can manage a cardiac arrest in a newborn, a child or an adult, and yet I am just a nurse.

I can tell you the dosage of adrenaline or amiodarone based on weight that your child may need to bring them back to life, and yet I am just a nurse.

I have the experience and knowledge that has saved people’s lives.

So, if I am just a nurse, then I am ridiculously proud to be one! #justanurse #love #nurse #mum #happy#taganurse.

What do you think? Since posting, she’s received over 24 thousand likes and the story’s gone viral.

Have you ever been called just a nurse? Share your own story in the comment section on our Facebook page.