Registered Nurse or Attorney - You be the Judge

While both nurses and attorneys are professionals, the profiles of the two professions are completely different. This impacts not only the nature of the person in the profession, but also how they look at the world and how they will serve in public office.

To their credit, attorneys are success oriented people and tend towards leadership. However, these positive qualities are tempered by a psychological profile that shows a lack of empathy and understanding. In fact, studies show that attorneys tend to exhibit lower levels of empathy than dentists. Given the reputation of dentists as people who cause great pain for a living, this is a terrifying indication. In addition, attorneys tend to prefer solitary activities, such as reading, to social activities. While an attorney may be good at handling power, they tend to use their power for its own sake, and can be less responsive to those around them.

Nurses, on the other hand, enter their profession out of a desire to help others. Within their position, they must work on an very hands-on basis with a wide range of people and attend to many different, but always, urgent needs. Their skill at talking with and responding to people makes them excellent public servants who will put their constituents first.

Some claim that the inherent goodness of most nurses makes them weak and a bit Pollyannaish. However, nothing is farther from the truth. Nurses have the mettle to, when necessary, cause their patients discomfort to help them feel better. They deal with the limited resources of today's healthcare system to provide excellent patient care which goes beyond just the menial tasks. They are also skilled at thinking on their feet and effectuating solutions in seconds.

Lawyers, on the other hand, live in an analytical world which is worlds away from where you live. In the real world, you avoid putting a hot cup of coffee on your lap when you are driving and, if you get burned, it is your fault. To an attorney, a spilled cup of coffee is an opportunity for a complicated legal argument to put the blame on the party that sold the coffee. Lawyers also came up with arguments for why a homeowner who was away on vacation would be responsible for a burglar who got injured breaking into their house.

A nurse draws on the information that he or she has available to make a quick decision and to act on it. Those actions can save a life or make someone feel better. Attorneys are trained to analyze situations and minimize the need for challenging decisions. At the end of the day, they do not take action. Their client ultimately has to act, and, in many cases, has to pay their attorney whether or not they get a good result. 

While most attorneys can hide in an office surrounded by books, nurses live in the middle of many of the problems affecting this district. Of course, nurses have hands-on experience with healthcare, but their knowledge goes much deeper. Because everyone gets sick, nurses have the opportunity to work with native-born Americans and immigrants, men and women, adults and children, and poor and rich people. They deal with family challenges, work-related injuries and economic hardships on a daily basis. After all, for most patients, the nurse is the face of their healthcare. This type of hands-on experience makes them much more aware of the problems that you are facing, and makes them a better representative of your interests.

Finally, nurses work harder than most people. Their job requires them to be active for the entire shift, and they know that if they do not do a good job, someone might die. Furthermore, at the end of their shift, if a replacement is not there, they cannot go home without losing their license. They know that the needs of the people they take care of come first. Attorneys, on the other hand, set their own hours around their convenience, and usually get paid whether or not they do a good job.

There are good reasons that the American public loves and respects nurses. In fact, a 2009 Harris poll ranked nursing as the fourth most respected career. 54 percent of people polled considered nursing to have great prestige. Lawyers ranked 13th, with just 26 percent of people finding the position worthy of great respect, and their ranking has been dropping over the past 30 years. America knows who they trust, and you do too. Nurses are not only good people, but have the ability to be great public leaders.



Source:  http://www.harrisinteractive.com/vault/Harris-Interactive-Poll-Research-Pres-Occupations-2009-08.pdf