[left footed whooten]

CN: some douchebag misunderstands an article and nearly undermines nursing students and both male and female nurses by writing a nearly libelous letter to the editor. Thanks for making a mockery of our efforts as students and our school's and professor's efforts as well. I hope you have to be intubated one day. The professor in question is the best in the department and has played a huge role in my own education and career as well as many others over the past 15+ years she has been there.

Some of you may have read in RGJ the article from 12/9 about winter graduation "UNR student nurse eyes future in the OR". If not, please read, then proceed:

In addition to intelligence and self-assurance, Jamie Souba has another quality that will make her a great operating room nurse.
"She has beautiful eyes," said Peg Farrar, one of Souba's instructors at the University of Nevada, Reno's Orvis School of Nursing.
"In the operating room, everyone is wearing a mask and all you can see are their eyes," said Farrar, who was Souba's faculty mentor. "You have to help people who are usually pretty scared, and you can't see all the usual facial expressions. You can't even touch patients because you have to keep your hands sterile, so you have to use your eyes to reassure them."
Souba is one of UNR's six Senior Scholars who will be honored for their academic achievement during the university's winter commencement ceremony today at 9:15 a.m. in Lawlor Events Center.
More than 1,200 degrees are scheduled to be awarded to 959 bachelor's degree candidates and to 319 graduate students who will receive master's and doctoral degrees and education specialist certificates.
Souba (pronounced "shoe-bah) graduated from Churchill County High School in Fallon.
The eldest of Jim and Lori Souba's three children, the 21-year-old soon-to-be graduate said she wanted to become a nurse because she has always been interested in helping people and in the health care field.
"A doctor comes in and sees what's wrong with the patient and then leaves. A nurse is there the rest of the time and it's a much more personal relationship, and that's what I'm interested in," she said.
"Compared to a doctor, a nurse can have a life, too, and I do want to have a family some day," said Souba, who is engaged to David Ernst, a band teacher at Cold Springs Middle School.
Souba said she met Farrar, her faculty mentor, when she first began her educational journey to become a registered nurse.
"Peg Farrar was the professor of my first class on my very first day of nursing school, and she has supported me ever since," Souba said. "She taught me what nursing is, and has gone above and beyond to help me succeed. If there were more nursing instructors like Peg, we wouldn't have a nursing shortage."
Nevada ranks among the lowest states in the nation for the number of nurses per capita.
Farrar said nurses are in "desperately short supply" in Nevada, but the shortage is even more critical for operating room nurses, which is what Souba plans to become.
"It takes one to two years to train an operating room nurse to do every surgery," Farrar said. "There are very few OR nurses who are on faculty, and we don't have any here now at the Orvis school, so students get very limited experience."
That's why Souba trained at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Reno, where she plans to work after she passes the state board examination to become a registered nurse.
"My goal is to become a nurse first assistant someday," Souba said. "That's someone who has a master's degree and is specially trained to assist doctors in surgery. It's not just someone who passes instruments to the doctor, but a nurse who actually assists the doctor in doing surgery."
Carrie Bilslend is the preoperative nurse manager at the Reno veterans hospital who supervised Souba during her training there.
"I think she's going to be an awesome nurse," Bilslend said. "She's high-energy and very smart. She has asked for a position to train in the OR here, so we are going hire her when she graduates."

So, some douche decides to completely miss the point and write a libelous (in my opinion) letter to the editor at RGJ about UNR/ Orvis school of Nursing/ Prof. Peg Farrar:

Re: "UNR student nurse eyes future in the OR." [Dec. 9]
Quote: "In addition to intelligence and self-assurance, Jamie Souba has another quality that will make her a great operating room nurse.
""Š'She has beautiful eyes,' said Peg Farrar, one of Souba's instructors at the University of Nevada, Reno's Orvis School of Nursing."
If the student nurse had been male, would Peg Farrar have made the same comment?
Or is this just a back-door way of UNR saying men should not be nurses because they do not have beautiful eyes?
Or was this just a lame excuse on the part of the Reno Gazette-Journal to make a pun of the headline?
No matter. It was sexist and worthy only of a grocery store tabloid.
David Johnston, Reno

Am I the only one (since I'm a bit biased and more well versed in the workings of Orvis and Nursing both) who thinks that this guy took this artcile, misunderstood it, and ran with it like a retard with a popsicle? He pretty much chaps the ass of all of us, male and female alike, who are busting our asses to become nurses.