Is Your Last Name On Your Badge?

MikeRN1 · Dec 10, 2005

I never really had a problem with last names on badges until a cooworker did have a problem. A paramedic who was picking up a patient read her name badge and called her at home numerous times to ask her out and even showing up at her house. She ended the problem with a restraining order and changing her phone number. I personally haven't had any problems but I do cringe everytime I here a patient read someone's nametag. My last name is covered for this reason.

Mike

RNforLongTime · Dec 10, 2005

I don't think that I should have to show my last name on my badge. There are too many sicko's out there nowadays. I work in a Trauma ICU and some of our nurses have been threatened by family members. One of my co-workers even requested a security escort to his car after his shift cause the family member threatened to beat him up. :eek:

And as far as being professional goes, I show my professionalism all the time in the way that I interact with the pt and how I carry myself. I have my last name covered. We have to protect our pt's privacy and all but how about MY privacy??? We as nurses have rights too.

elizabells, BSN, RN · Dec 10, 2005

I'm a student, but we have the same style ID badges that the staff (nurses and doctors) at our hospitals have. First and last names, including psych and ER, EXCEPT I met one med-surg nurse with Mrs XXXX on her badge, and all the staff called her this. I also met one peds Dr with only his first name on his. I requested to cover my last name on my badge during my psych clinical and my instructor looked at me like I was a particularly icky sort of bug. Then again, she also didn't wear a breakaway lanyard for her ID, so whatever.

HappyNurse2005, RN · Dec 10, 2005

Our ED and neurotrauma nurses can have first name last initial only on badges. rest of us have first and last name. Only time i've ever covered up my last name was when my pt was a prisoner. I didn't know what he was in for.

James Huffman · Dec 10, 2005

And as far as being professional goes, I show my professionalism all the time in the way that I interact with the pt and how I carry myself.

Being "professional" is about more than being competent and pleasant to your clients.

"Professional" is a description of certain learned fields: medicine, law, and nursing among them. And being a professional is about more than us as individual nurses: it's about how we as a group interact with the public. And part of the way any professional group acts is with open, honest, public interaction. And that includes having the guts to put your name on your practice.

As an earlier post put it, in our society only children and pets don't have last names. If -- except under very rare circumstances -- we don't have a last name by which our clients know us, we are not professionals. Period.

I know a judge in my area. I know where he lives. I see him out jogging. Do you suspect that criminals he has sentenced to prison (and perhaps their families) don't despise him? Absolutely. But there's not a chance in hades that he would ever been known in court as "Judge Ernie H." The very idea is silly.

Heck, folks, even the judge who is presiding over Saddam Hussein's trial is all out there with his name and picture. And we're afraid of a patient's nephew/niece calling and asking for a date? Please.

Likewise there are lawyers who make enemies every day by what they do as professionals. But, hey, they have their names in public, even in the yellow pages.

And that professional group closest to us, physicians: how many docs do you know who go by "Dr. Nancy," to the exclusion of their last name?

The way to deal with annoying people is to firmly, resolutely say NO. No, I'm not interested. No, don't call me again. If they do, call the police. This is really not all that complicated. If someone is threatened by ANYONE what that nurse needs is not "a security escort" but a restraining order. Do NOT allow ANYONE to threaten you without making the consequences very unpleasant for that individual. I am serious. If you are threatened in ANY way, call the police, right away. If you need to file charges, file them. Don't call security; call the police. If you need to bring the police on to the unit where you are working, do so. If your supervisors grumbles about your doing that, too bad. Predators feed on fear, and we need to show them that we are not afraid.

And if we're really all that frightened, another thought: get a gun, learn how to use it, get a concealed-carry permit (if available in your area) and carry the gun in your purse or pocket. As our friends in Texas sometimes say, "Better judged by 12 than carried by 6."

Fear can ruin our lives. Don't let it.

Jim Huffman, RN

Marie_LPN, RN, LPN, RN · Dec 10, 2005

If -- except under very rare circumstances -- we don't have a last name by which our clients know us, we are not professionals. Period.

Then i guess i'll be unprofessional for the rest of my career, for the sake of personal safety. That is just one step i take to ensure this.

And if we're really all that frightened, another thought: get a gun, learn how to use it, get a concealed-carry permit (if available in your area) and carry the gun in your purse or pocket. As our friends in Texas sometimes say, "Better judged by 12 than carried by 6."

They won't let us have guns on hospital property. That includes the 4 block walk i have to my car every day.

Marie_LPN, RN, LPN, RN · Dec 10, 2005

Likewise there are lawyers who make enemies every day by what they do as professionals. But, hey, they have their names in public, even in the yellow pages.

That is their decision, though.

KrisRNwannabe · Dec 10, 2005

Not on ours. Mine says "KRIS" in big letters and than a smaller E underneath for the first letter of the last name. I am new (Nov) and I didn't have a choice about the last name. they did however ask what I wanted my first name to be. since my first name is kristina. but I don't ever use it!

MMARN, BSN, RN · Dec 10, 2005

Ours is. We have requested that our badges only show our first names, but the Powers That Be feel like our patients should know our full name.
I'm a psych nurse and we get (usually empty) threats from patients now and then. Occasionally we do get assaulted on the unit. I think the last names on the badge is a major safety issue. You?

Unfortunately, yes. I'm not thrilled about it either. However, my full first name does not appear on the badge and it would give whoever wanted to do something HELL to try to find me. So, I'm okay.

Whispera, MSN, RN · Dec 10, 2005

I'm an advanced practice psych nurse. In my private practice I don't wear a badge, but my clients know my full name (most doctors, lawyers, engineers, and lawyers don't wear badges, do they?). When I go into the psych hospital I wear a badge but my last name is not on it. I take students to the psych hospital for their clinical experience. I have them cover their last name on their badge for safety reasons. This is the practice everywhere I've worked in psych., in fact it's been a requirement at some sites. The psych hospital mentioned above gives staff the choice of using last name or not on their badges. While it is a client's right to know the full name of caregivers, they almost never ask (in the hospital), and I tell them if they do ask. I agree it's more professional to be identifiable by entire name, but sometimes safety is more important. I've been stalked by a patient. I wouldn't want that to happen to anyone, and don't want it happening to me again.

FloridaCCRN, CRNA · Dec 10, 2005

Where I work, the ER nurses have only their first names on the badges, the other nurses have their full names:rolleyes:.

I notice that most nurses cover their last names with a piece of tape or stickers of some sort. Thet tend to get very creative with covering up their last names :chuckle

I disagree wth putting full names on badges.

following_faith · Dec 11, 2005

I would not want it-not in this day and age.