Clients?

[NeuroNP]

Just curious, why do nurses refer to patients as clients? I'd never heard this until I got into nursing.

[JVanRN]

The word "Client" kind of reminds me of an instructor that would not let us use the word "diapers" when refering to adult diapers...we had to say "briefs" or "Incontinet briefs".I understand the rationale behind it (trying to maintain the dignity of an adult)but most of the time when I said "brief" I just got a strange look usually followed by "Umm...I wear diapers"....So instead of "diaper" I'll just say "Depends" but I still say patient (for adults) for babies I just say "my babies" or the infants' name if I'm talking to parents or doctor. I think some of the euphamisms we have to use are stupid...I've never seen anyone get that offended by the term patient as long as you treat them as an individual person and not an object.

[Gompers, BSN, RN]

As for "residents" in LTC facilities, every time I see that on this board I think for a couple seconds people are talking about MD's :chuckle.

Me too!!!!!!!

Called them our "clients" in school and never got used to it.

Now I work in NICU, so we just call them our "babies" instead. Don't think I've used the word "patient" in a long time.

[kitty=^..^=cat]

Some research studies (I don't know specifically which ones - I have the info somewhere from a customer service workshop) that most "patients" actually prefer to be referred to as "customers" or "clients", because those are considered neutral terms that don't imply illness.

I think it's pretty darn funny (and ironic and so unsurprising) that nurses are more offended by the terminology than the "patients" involved.