Are you a "Sister?"

Nurses General Nursing

Published

  1. Should we keep the "sister" designation?

    • 12
      No, it's antiquated and unnecessary
    • 11
      Yes, it's part of our tradition
    • 74
      I have never heard it used in nursing
    • 3
      I don't know

100 members have participated

In many areas of nursing, I hear nurses call each other "sister". As a man in nursing, they call me and other male nurses "brother." I work in the U.S. but I know it's actually more common in other countries. From what I have read, the "sister" designation comes from Catholic nuns who ran hospital wards and were referred to as "the Sister." Also, I read that in some countries in Europe nurses are not called "nurses" but "sisters."

Regardless of the origins, what do you think of this practice? Is it used where you work? Should it be kept? I think it helps keep nursing a unique and tightly-knit field by conveying the idea that fellow nurses are sisters, and brothers.

I've never heard the terms 'sister' or 'brother' used at all in the healthcare field. However in the unionized manufacturing plants, it is used all the time..

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It's funny you posted this, because I've been thinking about it lately.

I'm from New Zealand and every nurse is called sister. Everywhere hospital/department I've ever been in nurses call each other sister. It's not the offical term. Just what we call each other.

I actually quite like it. It's a sisterhood. (I often hear nurses referring to the profession as a sisterhood) Really gives a sense of unity, like everyone's got your back.

Every nurse? What about guys? Brother?

Can't tell you the etiology, but in Israel, women are sisters, men are brothers, at least in Hebrew.

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Specializes in Surgical, quality,management.
Just curious, what's the difference between a ward sister and a matron?

A ward sister manages a unit (commonly referred to as a ward). A matron is similar to a DON i.e. responsible for a number of wards - there may be a number of matrons in a hospital, one for each division- however the hospital is divided up for clinical management.

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I've not heard of this before. Sounds fairly antiquated, but whatever. I think choosing our own titles would be better.

I think I would choose to be refered to as "Lord Humungus"

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Specializes in retired LTC.

I worked in a NH with a male CNA who emigrated from one of the African countries. He used to call me 'Sister' which made me uncomfortable. It just caught me off guard. I finally decided to talk to him about it.

He explained that in his country supervisor nurses were called 'Sister' and it was a title of respect for the position.

I felt better after our talk. But it took me a while to get used to it.

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Specializes in Emergency Department.

I am from Scotland, the old fashioned name for the boss of the ward was "Sister" with a male being know as the Charge Nurse. As we moved into more enlightened times and we became more professional we have Senior Charge Nurse as the boss of the ward - male or female. We got rid of Matrons years ago and now have Clinical Nurse Managers.

Matrons to me are an outdated, stupid title - sorry XB9S. Matrons tended to be bullies and very set in their ways - and a few were clinically insane. Things were done matrons way despite research or evidence based practice. I would not under any circumstances call any manager "Matron" as I have no respect for the role or previous holders of that role.

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That term is not professional. Can you imagine doctors referring to other doctors as brothers/ sisters?

I think the patients could get confused during hand off at shift change. Introduce me as the day nurse/ night nurse taking over your care.

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I'm in the US and even worked at a Catholic hospital, but the only women called "sister" actually belonged to religious orders.

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Specializes in NICU, Infection Control.

I worked in a hospital where the nurses in L&D, MBU and Level 2 nursery called themselves, "the Sisters of the V". No, it wasn't an official title! We didn't have any male nurses. We addressed each other by our 1st names, and introduced ourselves, Hi, I'm xxxxx, I'm your nurse for today, writing our names and phone #s on the board. The nursing assistants did the same.

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I work in a multicultural environment and hear "sister" quite often. I like it when I'm called sister. Makes me feel accepted.

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In many areas of nursing, I hear nurses call each other "sister". As a man in nursing, they call me and other male nurses "brother." I work in the U.S. but I know it's actually more common in other countries. From what I have read, the "sister" designation comes from Catholic nuns who ran hospital wards and were referred to as "the Sister." Also, I read that in some countries in Europe nurses are not called "nurses" but "sisters."

Regardless of the origins, what do you think of this practice? Is it used where you work? Should it be kept? I think it helps keep nursing a unique and tightly-knit field by conveying the idea that fellow nurses are sisters, and brothers.

Do you live in Louisiana or something? That is not a thing, even in Catholic hospitals in my area of the US. What you're describing is completely foreign to me.

Also, just wanted to say that it has been fascinating reading everyone's responses on this.

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Specializes in Peds/outpatient FP,derm,allergy/private duty.
In many areas of nursing, I hear nurses call each other "sister". As a man in nursing, they call me and other male nurses "brother." I work in the U.S. but I know it's actually more common in other countries. From what I have read, the "sister" designation comes from Catholic nuns who ran hospital wards and were referred to as "the Sister." Also, I read that in some countries in Europe nurses are not called "nurses" but "sisters."

Regardless of the origins, what do you think of this practice? Is it used where you work? Should it be kept? I think it helps keep nursing a unique and tightly-knit field by conveying the idea that fellow nurses are sisters, and brothers.

I attended Catholic schools, and my high school was affiliated with the hospital next door. "Sister" was a term reserved for those nurses in the religious order.

One of my fondest memories was the sister who was an EKG tech. She was always busy trundling her EKG machine down the hall, smiling pleasantly at everyone all the while. Every item of her habit was completely blindingly white at all times. As we all wore white then, I really wanted to ask her what her laundry secret was, but "how do you keep your whites so darn white?" perhaps inappropriate.

I like the idea of calling each other sisters and/or brothers but as that is not likely to happen a close second would be the ability to choose our own informal title. I'm sure my imaginative co-workers could come up with some funny stuff.

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