Nurses are among the most trusted professionals in America. But one Redditor didn't hold back in saying… maybe they shouldn't be.
In a post on the r/UnpopularOpinion subreddit, shared four years ago while COVID-19 was still a major concern but no longer at its peak, one woman threw a sharp jab at a profession many considered untouchable at the time. Her comments stirred up hundreds of replies—not because people hate nurses, but because the timing made it practically sacrilegious to criticize them.
"Nurses are overrated and a huge chunk of them are pretty obnoxious," she wrote.
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She explained that after visiting emergency rooms and her great-grandparents in retirement homes, she noticed a pattern—and it wasn't good. "Literally 80% of the rude and obnoxious people I have dealt with were nurses."
Her most viral line?
"I interact with people who make minimum wage and they treated me with more respect than a nurse who makes $40-$60/hour."
She went on to describe being dismissed in the ER while in severe pain, judged for owning a home, and dealing with nurses who were passive-aggressive, impatient, or outright rude. "They get touted as some kind of hero but they get paid high salaries for it," she said. "These people aren't f***ing WW2 soldiers risking their lives… stop treating them like one."
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The post got immediate traction in the thread, with commenters split down the middle. One said, "It's a 50/50 mix with my experience… I've seen plenty of amazing nurses… I've also seen some of the most uncaring people I've known." Another wrote, "So many of them were just comically nasty. You'd have to exert effort to be as mean as they were."
One user claiming to be a nurse even chimed in to agree, writing simply: "I'm a nurse and I couldn't agree more."
Others pointed out that it's hard to judge someone in the middle of a 12-hour shift surrounded by trauma, exhaustion, and chronic short staffing. "You typically see nurses in the most stressful moments of your life," one user replied. "So when they're rude, it probably stands out more."
Still, the conversation inevitably veered into money. So, just how "highly paid" are nurses?
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According to the most current data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the median annual wage for registered nurses was $93,600 as of May 2024—about $45 per hour. In some parts of the country, especially in high-demand regions like California, travel nurses can reportedly earn over $110,000 a year. Other industry estimates place the national average for 2025 around $94,480, or roughly $47 an hour, depending on location and specialty.
That far surpasses the median U.S. individual salary, which remains around $62,000. So yes, nurses are paid well. And yes, the expectations for how they treat patients are high, especially in a system where trust is a key part of care.
Still, not every nurse will be Florence Nightingale—and not every patient will be reasonable. Even the original poster admitted her experience was personal. But the thread opened the door to a conversation people often avoid: when it comes to high-stress, high-stakes jobs, is compassion a guarantee—or a luxury?
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Image: Shutterstock
