Fredrik Broden for Scrubs Magazine

Myths and misconceptions abound in every profession, and nursing is no exception. Sometimes these myths come from colleagues, sometimes from people outside the profession—either way, they don’t serve us well.

So, the next time you hear a stereotype you know is nonsense, use your know-how to clarify, inform and enlighten.

Myth: “Real” nurses work in hospitals.
Fact: More than half of all nurses work in hospitals, but that doesn’t make them more “real” than the rest of us.

I used to work in an emergency room, and I can tell you for certain that I am every bit as much a nurse since I left as I was in the hospital (I’ve done everything from conducting medical exams for insurance companies to preparing nurses to take their boards for an education company). Yet from the day I stepped out of the hospital into the world of nontraditional nursing, the questioning (“Why did you leave nursing?”) started. And it has never stopped. I always give the same answer, very calmly and very proudly: “I never left nursing. I’m still a healer, teacher and nurturer.” I have a very broad view of who a nurse is and what a nurse does. While many of us wear scrubs, there are still nurses who wear uniforms, business clothes, even overalls. Being a nurse is about who you are, not about what you wear or where you work.

Myth: You can always tell a good nurse by how much she (or he) knows.
Fact: An excellent store of information and experience is essential in a nurse, no question about it. But a deep sense of empathy and compassion are equally important. A nursing instructor at a community college told me that she always explains to new grads, “Patients don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.”

Myth: Patients like to be called by their first name. It’s just friendlier.
Fact: With all the available techno-communication—from email and text messaging to Facebook and Twitter—we’ve become an increasingly informal society, and sometimes we automatically address people by their first name. Many patients are more comfortable with formality in the health care setting, and the use of surnames and titles helps maintain the professional relationship. Plus, there are many people, especially older individuals, who consider it disrespectful to be addressed by their first name. The bottom line: Be sensitive to your patients’ preferences. It’s probably safest to start out with formal forms of address and progress from there.

Myth: Apart from the language issue, most foreign-trained nurses find that working in an American hospital is not much different from working in their home country.
Fact: Foreign-trained nurses now account for about five percent of the total United States nursing workforce, and are an intrinsic part of our health care system. Thank goodness, because there are some parts of our country that are suffering from a nursing shortage. Most foreign-trained nurses, despite their high skill level and excellent training, still have to sort out a host of cultural issues and professional expectations that they often hadn’t expected.

Nurses from the Philippines, for example, who make up nearly half the foreign-trained nurses, usually find they have much more responsibility here. They also have to be more independent and use more critical thinking skills. Why? Because in the Philippines, most hospitals are teaching hospitals, and the residents and medical students do most of the procedures. When they get to the United States, nurses find, for example, that they’re required not only to start IVs, but are also supposed to interact with doctors and patients’ families, even if they’re not the charge nurse; additionally, they’re responsible for discharge planning and case management. Add to all this a brand new language, and you can really see what foreign-trained nurses are up against.

Myth: One of a nurse’s main responsibilities is to help doctors do their jobs better.
Fact: Nurses are not secondary caregivers, but highly educated, skilled and autonomous members of the primary health care team who make independent critical decisions about the care of their patients. While it’s true that some nurses are extremely deferential to doctors, and some doctors are domineering types, those roles are rarely, if ever, the norm.

To read more myths—including the ones about male nurses, nurses eating their young, and the hierarchies of nursing specialties—read the complete story in the 2010 Winter Edition of Scrubs Magazine, available at your local scrubs retailer. Find a retailer who carries Scrubs Magazine here.

Additionally, some facilities simply don’t have the financial or human resources to spend on new graduate orientation. And while some of these trends are predicted to be temporary, you can’t necessarily afford to “ride it out” and stay unemployed for any length of time.

So what’s a new graduate or a laid off nurse to do in challenging times? Here are five surefire ways to successfully launch your career.

1. There’s more than one horse in the race. Ride one.

If hospital work is what you want, keep looking—but in the meantime, seek other opportunities in nursing. Extended unemployment wreaks havoc with your confidence and psyche, and does nothing for your resume or marketability. You can always make a change down the road.  These opportunities could be: A clinic, school nurse position, any doctor office, public health positions, medical staff in a gym, nursing home, health educator in a community setting, etc.

2. Volunteer somewhere health-related.

Volunteering while you seek paid employment has many benefits. You can get some great experience and make good contacts. It also gives you something to discuss in an interview and can help to beef up your resume. Additionally, volunteer positions sometimes turn into paid employment. Consider a blood bank or local public health department.

3. Explore job options.

You can get good experience in acute and long-term rehabilitation facilities, long-term and sub-acute care, and a new type of care facility known as long term acute care (LTAC). Interested in pediatrics? Consider a pedi rehab facility. Does OB-GYN intrigue you? Consider a birthing center or Planned Parenthood clinic. Ismed-surg what you crave? Seek out an inner-city medical clinic or large cardiology practice. There are many ways to enter the profession.

4. Join your state chapter of the American Nurses Association (www.ana.org).

Immerse yourself in the community of nursing. Join the ANA and attend meetings in your local area. Not only will you create a support system in your new profession, but you’ll also learn about trends and issues. Get active by joining a committee or working on a special project—it helps you to become known and develop opportunities to seek feedback, advice, mentoring and job-search help from experienced nurses.

5. Continue your education.

Look for interesting clinical courses offered by professional associations, education companies and others. Use online continuing education to expand your knowledge base and stay sharp. Consider IV and ACLS certification programs. Just because you don’t have a paying job yet doesn’t mean you have to languish in inactivity. And while you don’t need to immediately jump back into college, you should look into BSN or graduate school options for the future.

With traditional hospital jobs scarce, both new graduates and experienced nurses have to look in new directions for employment. Fortunately, nursing offers many challenging, interesting and rewarding specialties and types of employers. Shed your preconceived notions of what your career should look like and start moving forward.

What’s more, jobs doexist for nurses at all levels of experience and in all specialties in the current market. Nurses, however, may just have to look in new places for employment and be more proactive with the job-search process.

HIT THE PAVEMENT, NOT JUST THE ‘SEND’ BUTTON

Mailing out resumes and submitting online applications just isn’t enough—ask any nurse who is currently relying on this method of job search. Here are a few tried-and-true ways to explore options, make connections, and find and get a job:

1. Networking. This is your best source. Word of mouth is well known to uncover unadvertised jobs and lead to introductions and referrals. Get out regularly to career fairs, facility open-house events and professional association meetings, as well as nursing conferences and conventions. Get on the phone, too, and get in touch with everyone you know, both in and out of healthcare. Let them know you’re looking and ask for their help.
2. Agencies. There are healthcare temp agencies, nursing staffing agencies and regular employment agencies that offer job opportunities for nurses. Certain nursing agencies offer nontraditional options and, in some cases, even training for high-demand specialties such as case management.
3. Informational interviewing. This is where you talk to someone currently doing the thing you want to do, or someone working in an industry you’d like to learn more about, enabling you to gather information on their background and the company/specialty. This helps you get the inside scoop on trends, issues, opportunities, etc., and can lead to job opportunities.
4. Professional recruitment firms. If you’re looking for something beyond the traditional bedside position, this may be a good way to go. Also known as “headhunters,” these folks find qualified applicants to send on interviews with their primary clients who have job openings.
5. Volunteering. This is a great way to get your foot in the door somewhere. It’s also the smart thing to do while unemployed and “looking.” And volunteering often leads to paid employment. Where to volunteer: a blood bank, clinic, public health office, etc.

This is just one story from my favorite charity, Nurses House. In my work as a nursing advice columnist and career coach, I have often referred nurses to Nurses House when they needed help.

Originally a seaside mansion donated by nurse advocate Emily Bourne for the purpose of allowing nurses to rest “between cases,” the home is now a national charitable foundation dedicated to providing short-term financial assistance to nurses in need as a result of illness, injury or disability. In keeping with the origins of the foundation, fund recipients are still referred to as “guests.”

“Diagnosed with breast cancer in 2006, she underwent a mastectomy in December and was receiving chemotherapy and radiation when she applied to Nurses House. Living in a rural area, she had to travel over 70 miles to receive her treatments and was unable to work. Short-term disability was not available through her employer, and long-term disability benefits didn’t kick in for six months. Guest had no sick time or vacation time accumulated and had not received a paycheck for over a month when she applied for help. She had applied for public assistance, and Nurses House was able to offer assistance until it was approved.” —Nurses House, stories from 2007

There are many other nurses who turn to Nurses House every day: the single-parent nurse diagnosed with a chronic illness and in need of financial support to pay her utilities; or the nurse on the verge of eviction while recovering from a work-related injury, his wife diagnosed with cancer. In the latter case, his worker’s comp barely covered his living expenses and his wife’s mounting medical bills.

Nurses House only has enough funds to help about half of those who seek assistance each year. You can support the organization in several ways:

• Make a donation to Nurses House in lieu of holiday gift-giving or in memory of a loved one.
• Collect money at work during Nurses Week and throughout the year.
• Honor a coworker or mentor with a donation.
• Petition your professional associations to have fundraisers for Nurses House.

Nurses are always busy taking care of everyone else and are often the last ones to ask for help ourselves. This is one way for nurses to take care of other nurses.  Please join me in supporting Nurses House by giving what you can and encouraging others, both nurses and non-nurses, to do the same.