Oppression of nurses

In the article ‘Patriarchy, the system: An It, not a He, a Them or an Us’, the author, Allan G. Johnson defines ‘the system’ as “any collection of interrelated parts or elements that we can think of as a whole” (Johnson, n.d). He compares it to a car engine where various parts are fit together and allows it to function as a whole so as to serve its intended purpose. In order to understand the system, Johnson points out that one needs to stop viewing various elements in society or the world as single entities but rather the sum of a whole that functions alongside each other. Although some elements in society may be different, they contribute to what happens in society in the long run thus contributing to the overall condition of society and the world. The ideologies that Johnson expresses in his paper go a long way in explaining the plight that nurses are forced to endure as is described in Susan Gordon’s work titled ‘Profits and prejudice: The Undervalued work of Nursing”.

            According to Gordon (2000), nurses in the medical profession are greatly undermined and their duties are only classified as giving information and instruction of what steps patients should take in their journeys to recovery. Despite it being one of the health care professions, nursing is greatly undermined and those practicing it are greatly underestimated and discriminated against. In his work, Gordon discusses a section published in the New York Times addressing the issues that nurses go through in the healthcare department on a daily basis. The paper points out that, despite clear indications that the population will be more dependent on the services that nurses offer, the nurses still continue to struggle to be accepted and respected in the health care system (Gordon, 2000).

            When nurses provide services that end up saving a patient’s life; help them to cope with the nature of their ailments; educate them on the types of medication to take; or help them to prevent serious medical complications, most patients are amazed by how much medical knowledge the nurse possesses (Gordon, 2000). The way that patients react after realizing how helpful, learned and qualified nurses are is an indication that nurses are greatly underestimated and undervalued in the health care industry. Such traits are explained by Johnson (n.d) where he points out that individualistic models exist in society where people treat various issues as single entities rather than part of a whole. In the case of the health care system, society views doctors, nurses and other care givers as individual entities who are at different levels of importance.

            Since medical doctors are the ones who treat patients and help them in their journey of recovery, they are viewed as being more superior to other medical practitioners such as nurses. As a result, society develops the notion that doctors are superior to nurses and therefore more important. As a result, nurses are greatly underestimated and treated as being inferior because the individuality complex that exist in society alienates the important role they play in assisting the patient. Since society has been taught that it is the medical doctors who treat, they fail to see the important role that the nurse plays and this result to them being undervalued (Gordon, 2000).

            Gordon also points out that society also has a role to play in how people relate and treat one another. The way people interact and behave in society acts as the root that determine how individuals behave because they grow up thinking that it is a social norm (Gordon, 2000). When an individual reveals that they have spent five years learning to become a nurse, most people ask them why they did not spend those years studying to become a medical doctor. Society has taught people that medical doctors are better than nurses and as a result, nurses are considered to have made a wrong choice for taking up nursing over medical practice (Johnson, n.d). Society has cemented the belief that medical doctors are better and as a result, nurses are greatly undermined and underestimated in the health care industry.

            Such impacts are better explained by the four components of oppression as is evident in the articles. The ideological component has it that people oppress others on the idea that a specific group is better than the other (Kulis & Marsiglia, 2015). The undermining of nurses is as a result of the belief that they serve as separate entities from medical doctors and that doctors are more qualified and give better care. The notion is supported by Buresh and Gordon (2013) who point out that the idea that one group is superior leads to the inferior one being underestimated. The second component, which is institutional points out the role that institutions play in cementing ideologies that lead to oppression of others. If the media and health care system treat doctors as being better than nurses, the idea becomes part of society and the result is discrimination of nurses (Gordon, 2006).

            Another component is interpersonal oppression where doctors feel that they have the right to oppress nurses since society has deemed them superior to nurses (Kulis & Marsiglia, 2015). As a result, nurses are forced to endure harsh working conditions because they are treated as less important than their doctor counterparts. Lastly is the component of internalized oppression where nurses result to undermining themselves and feeling as if they are actually inferior. The mistreatment from doctors and discrimination from patients and society in general leads nurses into believing that they are inferior. As a result, they end up losing interest in their profession and fail to reach their maximum potential (Paludi, 2012).

 

 

References

Buresh B. and Gordon S. From silence to voice: What nurses know and must communicate to the             public. Cornell University Press

Gordon S. (2000) “Profits and prejudice: The undervalued work of nursing”

Gordon, S. (2006). Nursing against the odds: How health care cost cutting, media stereotypes,    and medical hubris undermine nurses and patient care. Ithaca, N.Y: ILR.

Johnson G. (n.d) “Patriarchy, the system: An It, not a He, a Them, or and Us”

Marsiglia, F. and Kulis, S. (2015). Diversity, oppression, and change: Culturally grounded social             work 2nd ed. Chicago, IL: Lyceum

Paludi, M. A. (2012). Managing diversity in today's workplace: Strategies for employees and       employers. Santa Barbara, Calif: ABC-CLIO.