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 :)

[Mona Mona, BSN, RN]

OMG! I also did that search....a lot of good paying that extra $5 for unlisted service does me! :angryfire

Wow, this is scary to me. I guess to be pro-active, I will get a PO box and only use cell-phones by the time I am a nurse. That is a long way off though....maybe laws in my state will change by then??

[smk1, LPN]

anyone else try famous people in the search engine. Kinda of scary for them!

[elthia]

The reason I am concerned for our safety is because nurses are at an increased risk of workplace violence and retaliation compared to other professions.

The OSHA document I referred to can be found at:

http://www.osha.gov/Publications/osha3148.pdf

It is very interesting, and I recommend reading it if you are so inclined.

The reference to using ID badges without last names can be found on page 19 of the PDF.

Thank you all for your input so far.

Thank you for the link to the OSHA document...I believe that it will come in handy. I work in acute care, but we care for many psychiatric pt's who are unstable and threatening to staff. I'm going to keep a copy of the OSHA document in my locker along with all my other policy/procedure "cheat sheets".

[fergus51]

:rotfl:

If you wonder what you can do with a last name, try this out.

http://www.zabasearch.com/

OK, I'm not in this database apparently and I don't have an unlisted number. That's hilarious! :chuckle

[elthia]

If you wonder what you can do with a last name, try this out.

http://www.zabasearch.com/

Well that's scary...

Input my name and came up with

my DOB

my current address

my previous address

my high school (different state than I live in)

my college including date of graduation

my previous phone number

hit another button and for a fee it said it would provide more info up to and including credit history, previous addresses, and FAMILY members.

I'm not happy.

[mattsmom81]

Good luck in getting this changed. Last names are not necessary IMO...and until we had significant harassment and stalking issues on the job, my employers resisted protecting us. Finally we were allowed to tape over our last names after several mentally ill patients or disgruntled former patients/familes found out our addresses and phone numbers and terrorized our families.

Personally, I have had two instances. One who fixated on me and left lewd messages on my home answering maching, threatening to kill my husband. My small son was traumatized overhearing one of these.

The other was an angry spouse of a patient who was a staff bullier, and when I stood up to him and called the police, he retaliated by stalking me for months.

[Tweety, BSN, RN]

Well that's scary...

Input my name and came up with

my DOB

my current address

my previous address

my high school (different state than I live in)

my college including date of graduation

my previous phone number

hit another button and for a fee it said it would provide more info up to and including credit history, previous addresses, and FAMILY members.

I'm not happy.

I think zaba is the website that will even give a satellite picture of your home. One of our state representatives did it on a news show and was appalled. "We'll have to look into this, it isn't right".

[TweetiePieRN]

If you think http://www.zabasearch.com is bad check out http://www.ancestry.com.

I have a membership to this for geneology reasons. They used to only list the deceased. Guess what? Now they list living people. If you type in any name you come up with the entire first middle last names, DOB, MOTHERS MAIDEN NAME!!!!, and county of birth. So basically, now anyone can get my birth cert and use it get other nasty things done!!! It also lists my address and phone number (unlisted!!). If you look up someone deceased, they now list their SS#!! Talk about moving fraud right along!!

[sbic56, BSN, RN]

I think the issue of professionalism certainly comes into play here. If nurses want the professional respect and standing that physicians have, going by first name is not the way to do it.

People in professional or business settings are normally known as Mr. or Ms. Jones, or whatever. We don't identify adults by their first name. We call children by their first name, and sometimes adults we consider "beneath" us. But someone we respect is known by their last name. If we wish to be identified by our first name, because of some over-blown fear of harassment, we should not be surprised that we are not treated as professional colleagues.

Jim Huffman, RN

I have to disagree. I am a professional nurse, not a doctor with a practice whose pateints need to know the full name of the doctor in order to receive care. After all, you can't enter "John D." as your physician contact. The patient does not need to know my identity past the end of that shift. If my patient needs me, they can find me by asking for Sue (add the B if need be.) Knowing my last name has nothing to do with the care they receive from me. First name, last initial and photo, so I can be identified as an employee of the hospital, is all that is necessary for the pateint and it does help to keep the nurse safer from nusance contacts or stalkers.

[TweetiePieRN]

I have to disagree. I am a professional nurse, not a doctor with a practice whose pateints need to know the full name of the doctor in order to receive care. After all, you can't enter "John D." as your physician contact. The patient does not need to know my identity past the end of that shift. If my patient needs me, they can find me by asking for Sue (add the B if need be.) Knowing my last name has nothing to do with the care they receive from me. First name, last initial and photo, so I can be identified as an employee of the hospital, is all that is necessary for the pateint and it does help to keep the nurse safer from nusance contacts or stalkers.

Totally agree with you sbic56!! You couldn't have said it better. Mr. Huffman has a pretty common name, but I don't have a common first or last name. If someone looked me up...it would be ME and not another someone with the same name.

[sbic56, BSN, RN]

I think zaba is the website that will even give a satellite picture of your home. One of our state representatives did it on a news show and was appalled. "We'll have to look into this, it isn't right".

There are several ways to find out just about anything you want about anyone online. Much about you has always been public info, but harder to find. The internet has opened all that up. Another reason to hold on to a little bit of privacy where you can.

Sue B. RN :)

[pricklypear]

I have to disagree. I am a professional nurse, not a doctor with a practice whose pateints need to know the full name of the doctor in order to receive care. After all, you can't enter "John D." as your physician contact. The patient does not need to know my identity past the end of that shift. If my patient needs me, they can find me by asking for Sue (add the B if need be.) Knowing my last name has nothing to do with the care they receive from me. First name, last initial and photo, so I can be identified as an employee of the hospital, is all that is necessary for the pateint and it does help to keep the nurse safer from nusance contacts or stalkers.

Took the words right out of my mouth. It has nothing to do with professionalism. My behavior and my clinical skills (among other things) define my professionalism. I'm sorry, but I think calling someone "Nurse Brown" harkens back to the beginnings of time. I'm just fine with my first name only. That's all they need to know in the setting in which I work.