Last names on ID badges and retaliation by patients

[ICRN2008]

I am a nursing student who would like input on her school's policy on ID badges. We are currently required to display our full first and last name on our name tags at our clinical sites.

I contend that this is a significant safety risk to me and my fellow students, especially in light of recent incidents of violence against health care workers.

Would you be willing to share your stories with me? I am specifically looking for instances where a patient or visitor found out your last name and was able to harass you as a result. I may share a few of these anecdotes in my presentation, so please let me know if I can include your story.

I am aware of an OSHA document that recommends against the use of last names on ID badges. Do you know of any other news or scholarly articles I can present to them.

Thank you all for your help :)

[Aquamarine]

I am now an RN but worked as a health care professional in a different field for many yrs. at a medical center. I will tell you of a few instances.

One pt. said something very dirty to a RN as she was bending over. She called security as he had a reputation. He got yelled at. The guy was a paraplegic from a GSW to the back in a bad drug deal. The next week the RN was taking care of him again and he asked her how she liked her car...it had been blown up in her garage the week before. She was so shook up. He got arrested but they could not do a thing to him.

Another pat. in the dialysis center would whisper the RNs address and phone number when they were hooking him up. He threatened me and I believed him. He called the state on us constantly. He got one of the nurses involved in illegal drug use with him and they both died of OD's a week apart, he killed himself after she OD'd....I gues he may have felt bad..hard to believe. I finally felt safe. I always thought he would get me and left a letter about him on the shelf in my closet in case of my death, I wasn't the only one. Even the doctors would say unfortunately there are some patients we would rather shoot than treat! I am not kidding. Some of our pats would give the doctors the finger.....it was wild.

I guess even though we risk our lives to take care of them they see it as the haves and the have nots. Little do they know...we also have problems but try to make better choices...

Another patient just hauled off and punched a nurse in the breast.

It can get rough.....I think they don't need to know our real last names.

I had my car registered to a PO Box for years that I worked there. Now I don't but I am in the suburbs....if I go back to the city I will get a po box again, but that is difficult when YOu use your id.

It is real and it does happen...violence related to nurses last names showing.

[Spidey's mom, ADN, BSN, RN]

When I tried to do the search, it wants me to pay money. Am I doing something wrong? lol

Me too - you have to pay with a credit card first. No thanks.

steph

[grannynurse FNP student]

Granny, I am very glad that you survived your episode! I personally worked with a young single mother who was stalked outside of work. It is even more scary when you think that your small child could witness this behavior or worse.... be injured! Having said that, I do not believe that this could ever be "overblown".

I too have worked ER for many years and completely believe that there are, at the very least, certain areas in the hospital that should require safety first; such as ER, Psych, etc. The other areas should, if they feel in harms way, be allowed to omit their last name as well.

It is not, in my opinion, un-professional to have your first name and title. If the patient needs to identify you, they can certainly get enough info from Barb, RN working ER on Aug, 9th @ 2230, taking care of Joe Smith. Come on, even the large trauma centers can figure out who we are talking about.

Just my humble opinion.

Three years ago I was notified that he was released on parole. Conditions of it include no contact with me or my family. I can only trust that the time he served, in the Florida prison system, made him not eager to return. It came out that he obtained my home address by the use of a reverse directory. My uncle, who was an NYPD detective told me, that if someone wanted to find out who you are and where you lived, badly enough, he could. I believed him.

Grannynurse :balloons:

[Dublin37]

couldn't we just put a piece of tape over our last name?

[Jdon]

"By the same token, there are patients that would probably not want some of us to know their last names and extensive medical issues but we need them to do our jobs."

Do you really need to know the last name of your patient to do your job? I don't even need to know their first name. Many times we don't know anything about the patient, but we are able to do our jobs. It is nice when we know at least their medical history, but a name is meaningless in my ability to do my job. None of our trauma patients have a real name until later in their treatment.

As an ER nurse, I haven't had my last name on my name tag in so long, I can't even remember. I think...Barbara, RN is sufficient. We work with drunks, druggies, psychos all the time, as well as disgruntled family members who think we are not triaging their loved one fast enough. We must work in locked units with 24/7 security closeby. The last thing I want to do is advertize my full name. I think it is a huge safety issue at least in ER.

As far as knowing your MD name versus your nurses name....apples and oranges. How many times have you been in the room when the doc discusses discharge with the patient and they are completely happy, have no questions? Then the moment they leave the room and the nurse is there with DC instructions, they start complaining about not getting this test, not getting enough pain med, not getting a long enough work excuse, etc?? Happens all the time in the ER.

I have been threatened, kicked, hit and spit at over the years. Remarkably, I still love ER and would not want to work anywhere else right now in nursing. But I do think times have changed considerably, and we need to be more mindful of our safety and the safety of our co workers.

Well said!

[onmyway06]

At our small facility, on our badges and picture IDs, only our first name and title are printed.

[chickie]

Using a code number instead of the last name, where it is required, is a great idea. I work in Maine. There was an incident in my hospital where one of the nurses who has a very friendly personality was stocked by a patient's son. It was pretty scarey. After that episode many of us had our last name removed from our badge. I previously worked in Massachusetts at a hospital where our last name was not required.:chair:

I can understand the consumer protection issue and I am not disagreeing with you at all. But, there are other systems that could be implemented for the safety of the nurses and nursing students. Such as assigning a code or number or number and letters (you get the point). Example: Jane, RN [id# 1545]. and maybe the hospitals initials along with it.

I don't agree with the last name on name tag. I am sure that other healthy, conventional ways can be used.

[Sea Island Yank]

Having been a nurse for 30 years, I have never had a problem with my last name appearing on my badge and it is not a common name. Where I work now however, I sometimes float to a Behavioral Med Unit and the hospital would not put my last name on my badge. This holds true for the ER too.

[AussieTina]

i am a 1st year student doing my RN degree, when we go on clinical we have to wear a card/badge on a lanyard around our neck. It has our full name, photo and which uni we are attending on it.

jThe only problem that i have had is trying to get little old ladies to let go of it and trying to convince a 103 year old patient not to strangle me with it, who would of thought they would have such strength. :rotfl: