People confusing and mixing titles

Students CNA/MA

Published

Hi room! I am happy to have input from anyone and everyone. My topic is about people around me who mix titles of healthcare professionals. We all have a role in healthcare. The moment we decide to take that first day of class/ training for what our goal is, we are important and vital to the community. But something puzzles me every time I go into work.

There seems to be a fad about becoming a nurse. Everyone is so unsure of what they want to study, so they immediately say nursing. It comes off as if that is a simple thing like saying you love someone so early and you haven't been giving enough time to sort out your feelings for a person. I try to be enthusiastic however, as well as supportive because I hated when people shut me down and told me "you know that's not easy, right?"

But back to the part about switching up titles of professions--I have friends who are siblings that work/ed with me at some point. One of them we'll call sister A, studied to be a medical assistant. The person who still works with me, let's call her sister B, is still very undecided. Now all of her group of friends at work are also in the same boat. They wanted to do nursing but keep changing to ultrasound, then cna, then so on and so forth , all the way back to nursing. So now, sister B is telling people who ask about her sister(A), what she is called now. She says to her friends, "She's a Nurse." That caught me a bit off guard because I already knew the answer. I knew that friends around her where going to continue on to ask about how to proceed if they were to take the nursing route....So I felt that as a person who is persuing my RN, and who has completed CNA training I would inform her that she is confused of her sister's title. Keep in mind that the girl who she was telling this to was one, if not my closest friend at work and was working for her RN as well at the same institution as me. I stated that her sister was in fact an MA, and that they are two different careers. She then replied that she meant to say MA, even though this wasn't the first occassion she has said this....She then said that CNAs are clearly not Nurses in comparison to MAs. My son sees several MAs at his Dr. They both play an important part in the basics of the basics in Nursing. Was I out of place to correct her? I am working hard, and know what I want, and to be told that what I have done was clearly no match to an MA. They are both important and upper level professionals and patients would suffer without them. I am not targetting anyone. Just wanting to educate people who want to become a part of the healthcare field.

libran1984, ASN, RN

1 Article; 589 Posts

Specializes in Emergency Nursing.

I agree; the distinction between "nurse" and MA/Medical Assistant should be made very clear at each and every encounter. However I did recently meet an RN who was adamant that I not call myself a "nurse" because I am a "Practical Nurse" and should introduce myself as such. Uhm no... I'm a "nurse" according to my state practice act and forget you.

However, when I look at the medics i work with in the ED, who have an extremely comparable skill set, I don't always take time to rectify the patient when referring to the EMT-P. Although... perhaps I do and I just phrase it like this, "Oh! John Doe! He's actually a paramedic! In an emergency, you couldn't be luckier to have anyone else at your side."

Either way... yes... titles are important.

NeoNatMom

1 Article; 676 Posts

I agree. If your legal title includes the term "Nurse" in it, you are, therefore, a Nurse. You may not be an RN, but if LPNs do almost everything an RN does, just under RN supervision, then you are still a Nurse. I think people can get a complex once they have earned a degree. It's sad really. That nurse trying to dilute your title that you worked hard for and earned without his/her help no less is just like many Drs nowadays. God-like complexes with an attitude that doesnt belong in a medical profession if you ask me.

To add to that, I was guilty of this at one point in my life. I was naive and thought I was too good to "babysit" residents of a LTC facility. I took it personal since my grandmother was neglected and left by family who never visited her. Now I think differently and would do anything to benefit my growth in the field. Renwing my CNA liscense in the beginning of 2014! Excited to get back in the game before I start my program.

systoly

1,756 Posts

Specializes in LTC, Memory loss, PDN.

to answer your question

yeah, you were

but then again. i wouldn't care if someone

called me a CNA, as long as they realized

i was a darn good one :)

NeoNatMom

1 Article; 676 Posts

Are you an MA?

Esme12, ASN, BSN, RN

1 Article; 20,908 Posts

Specializes in Critical Care, ED, Cath lab, CTPAC,Trauma.

A nurse is someone who has gone to an accredited nursing program and passed NCLEX...LPN or RN. A MA is not a nurse and it is illegal in most states to call oneself a nurse without the proper credentials and is punishable by law.

I had this conversation recently at a physicians office as a patient with MA. I clarified it for her and reminded her that the BON would be very interested if she continued to call herself a nurse.

She wasn't happy...but i was more unhappy with her attitude that she somehow was entitled to call herself a nurse and misrepresented herself as one to the uninformed public.

I know I was "talked about" when I left but what is right is right.

CCBuck

1 Post

I myself am a CNA at a local hospital. When patients refer to me as "nurse" I feel a bit guilty if or when I don't correct them. I'm not exactly sure why, but I don't think I should be given titles that I have yet to earn. Maybe she says "She's a nurse" to boost her image or saying nurse is less of a mouthful than saying MA (which those outside of the field probably do not understand so you'd have to explain) or medical assistant.

Specializes in Med-Surg/urology.

I was a CNA for three years, and I never heard other CNAs refer to themselves as nurses. However, I met many medicine technicians and medical assistants refer to themselves as nurses...

NeoNatMom

1 Article; 676 Posts

Yeah in my case she called her sister a nurse. Several different times. I just feel wrong not correcting her because so many people at my work come to me and have everything all confused. Then they go off and do the opposite of the advise they constantly ask of me. Can't help some people I guess. I love helping my coworkers know about what I have been through already. But then they disregard it anyways. I'm the farthest of anyone else at my work pursuing an rn and am holding a 4.0 yet they come back and blame me that they failed anatomy while I told them not to overload.

systoly

1,756 Posts

Specializes in LTC, Memory loss, PDN.
Are you an MA?

no, I'm a nurse

and i understand all the legal stuff,

but im just not that much into titles

especially when someone is bragging on

a family member, just let them have it

without reading them the rights

it's not like someone is actually impersonating

funtimes

446 Posts

MAs do a job similar to LPN in SOME settings, but the training is vastly different between the two. LPN training is more extensive, more standardized, and has more prerequisites. An MA to me is just a medical office clerk who draws blood and does a few other relatively simple procedures. They don't work in LTC facilities like LPNs, and on hospital inpatient units are basically just nurse aides, at least where I work.

Deuceswild1

35 Posts

Male RNs have it the worst, Patient: "Oh hi doctor" Male RN; "No mam I am your RN today" Patient: "why didnt you stay in school to become a doctor?" Male RN; "Being an RN allows me to have a life"

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