Are You Really a Nurse?

Who should be allowed to call themselves a nurse? Is it important to protect the title or is it no big deal? Nurses Announcements Archive Article

  1. Take this short true / false poll to test your knowledge. Select all that are TRUE.

    • 39
      Nursing Assistants are licensed
    • 0
      Medical Assistants are nurses because they can give injections
    • 0
      Office Staff who assist doctors in their practice are nurses
    • 107
      Graduates of approved nursing schools are nurses
    • 3
      All of the above are true
    • 279
      All of the above are false

407 members have participated

Test Your Knowledge

Before reading the article, take the short true or false poll at the bottom of the article to test your knowledge.

Do you cringe when people use the word "nurse" loosely? Or worse, refer to themselves as a "nurse" when they are neither a Registered Nurse (RN) nor a Licensed Practical (or vocational) Nurse?

I do. I cringe. As an RN who worked hard to pass the National Council Licensure Examination (NCLEX) and just as hard to pass the pre-requisites of organic chemistry, anatomy and physiology, I support protecting the title of nurse and restricting its use to those who have done the same.

Nursing Assistants

Technically Certified Nursing Assistants (CNAs) are certified, not licensed, although the terms are often used interchangeably.

Certified means the person has received specialized training. Certification requirements vary state-to-state but usually the person has received 12-16 weeks of training and taken an exam.

Licensed means the person has passed a standardized nationwide exam (NCLEX) and may practice nursing under a scope of practice defined by state law.

Medical Assistants

Medical Assistants are trained to work in office settings, but they are not licensed and are not nurses. Medical Assistants may give injections, change dressings, and more because they perform under the direction and supervision of a doctor (or other licensed provider).

In other words, they cannot perform these functions independently.

Office Staff

The term "nurse" is often used to include anyone employed in a doctor's office.

The perception of nurses as handmaidens led to any female associated with a doctor in a helping capacity being called a "nurse".

Ironically, doctors rarely employ RNs because of the cost.

Receptionists in a doctor's office have been known to refer to themselves as "nurses" or allow patients to do so. They should politely correct people who refer to them as "nurse", the same as teacher's aides should correct those who call them teachers and paralegals should correct those who call them lawyers.

Graduates of approved nursing schools/programs

Persons who have completed an approved nursing school but have not passed the National Council Licensure Exam (NCLEX) are not nurses and may not refer to themselves as nurses.

Completing an approved nursing program of study is required in order to sit boards (NCLEX) but does not confer a nursing license. A nursing license is issued after successfully passing the NCLEX.

It's possible to hold a Bachelor's degree of Science in Nursing (BSN) and not be a nurse.

A BSN is an academic degree, but schools do not issue nursing licenses. States issue nursing licenses.

Licensure

Practitioners of nursing must have a license to practice nursing and to represent themselves as a nurse.

A license is a state's grant of legal authority to practice a profession within a designated scope of practice.

The only people that are licensed to practice nursing are:

  • Licensed Practical Nurses (LPNs)
  • Licensed Vocational Nurses (LVNs)
  • Registered Nurses (RNs)

Nursing regulates its profession through licensing in that the NCLEX is uniform across all states.

A nursing license is like a driver's license in that it is:

  • Issued by the state
  • Granted to those who meet requirements
  • Renewed at regular intervals
  • Required to drive (practice)

"Restricting use of the title "nurse" to only those individuals who have fulfilled the requirements for licensure as outlined in each state's nurse practice act is a protection for the public against unethical, unscrupulous, and incompetent practitioners. Nurse practice acts describe entry-level qualifications such as education, practice standards and code of conduct for continued privilege to practice nursing." American Nurses Association 2013.

Public safety

Licensing is intended to protect the public.

Many do not realize that it is a punishable offense to represent one's self as an RN, LVN, LPN, if not licensed by the state. Impersonating a nurse is a crime.

For example, California Business & Professions Code states:

"In the interest of public safety and consumer awareness, it shall be unlawful for any person to use the title "nurse" in reference to himself or herself and in any capacity, except for an individual who is a registered nurse or a licensed vocational nurse"

Real Problem

Part of the problem is that the public does not know what nurses do. Even doctors do not always differentiate and refer to medical assistants as "my nurse".

The concept of what nurses do is vague, and so is the term "nurse".

We will never be fully respected as a profession as long as we are not successful at articulating to the public just what it is we do. Do you agree? I'd love to hear your thoughts because I think it's material for another post.

References

American Nurses Association. 2013. Title "Nurse" Protection. Accessed December 16, 2016. Title "Nurse" Protection

California Business & Professions Code. Division 2. Healing Arts. Chapter 1. General Provisions. Article 7.5. Health Care Practitioners Cal Bus & Prof Code 680 (2003). Accessed December 16, 2016. Title "Nurse" Protection: Summary of Language by State

I know someone who was a BSN but failed boards multiple times. She would sign her notes as NT (nurse tech) BSN.

It's as though no one understands the difference! I've heard patients say one of my nurses in reference to the C NA. The CNAs nowadays do not correct them either in most cases. Medical assistants try and take nursing credit as well. It's actually a federal crime as an act of fraud when they do not correct the patient and allow the paying consumer to believe they are being serviced by a registered nurse if they truly are not licensed as one! Thanks for putting this out there.

I agree with your statement but I really hated when I was an LPN and people would ask are you an RN? when I said LPN they acted like that title was " Not" a real nurse still irks me.

1 Votes
Specializes in med-surg, IMC, school nursing, NICU.

This is so important, I wish everyone would read it. It's definitely dangerous and a little offensive to allow others to incorrectly assume you're a nurse. There was a unit secretary in the trauma center at my old hospital job who called herself a trauma nurse. BIIIIg leap there.

When I was in college, one of my friends called the lady who drew her blood at the Red Cross blood drive a nurse. I corrected her and she went off on me, yelling "It's still an important job!!!" I mean, yes of course it is. But so is firefighter, dentist, garbage collector and veterinarian. We don't call those important people nurses, do we?

I completely agree. I knew a lot of my classmates who did not pass the NCLEX exam but because they had graduated, still called themselves nurses. Another peeve of mine is when CNAS call themselves nurses because "It's in their name". So I've been told. They always want to be included in "Nurses" meetings.

Specializes in LTC, Rehab.

I think it's important. Although in my nursing home/rehab place, I rarely correct a resident or their family member when they refer to a CNA as a 'nurse'.

Diploma, LVN, LPN, RN=NURSE

MA, CNA, Techs=No

Specializes in Rural, Midwifery, CCU, Ortho, Telemedicin.

i thought you could be called nurse after taking exams but before receiving results and be employed as interim nurse until results received and license. issued.

Nursing, recently very apparently. is under attack as a profession. many are calling themselves or allowing the designation. But far more perpernious and insidious is the chipping away at nursing from some of the offsprings of nursing uch as social workers who now state that nurses are "just" nurses and therefore are not licensed or capable of advising,educating, nor counseling patients; requirements for specialized. additional certification for which RN and in many cases LVN training and ability was necessary for graduation from school such as drawing blood, catheter insertion, IV starts, medication administration, even bathing patients. As an RN I find such extremely insulting. My education spanned more. than 12 years of schooling and I meet and greatly exceed CEU requiements routinely. Yet I find each of the last 10 years that nursing role and "ability" has schrunk as to basic practice, true while expanding. in other ways. Though, too many times our "expansion" has been to be handed clerking duties because we are "just"" nurses after all.

Specializes in Crit Care; EOL; Pain/Symptom; Gero.

The veterinary techs at my vet's office are referred to as "nurses".

I asked the vets why this is - their mumbled incoherent logic for this amounted to the techs being "female helpers".

Aaaaaaarrrrgghhh

Specializes in Only the O.R. and proud of it!.

I, too, believe that one should be a licensed RN or LP/VN in order to call oneself or be referred to as a nurse. But after almost 20 years of practice as a nurse and prior to that being a pharmacy technician I am accustomed to most anyone who is not an MD in the medical profession calling themselves a nurse. I have come to terms that without sweeping laws and changes this will not change. I will be happy so long as they don't sign any unearned credentials after their name. I earned my RN and I earned my CNOR. I am proud to use those credentials.

Legally, yes, there can be issues. Personally? No. I don't care if Raggles the Wino huddled in the parking lot calls themselves a nurse. It doesn't make my job any harder, nor does it affect compensation for doing my job, so I don't care. I did not become a nurse to satisfy any aspect of ego.

I agree with this and in the grand scheme of things, think that this line of thinking will help us keep our sanity more than fighting the truly good fight of who can/does call themselves a nurse. It doesn't affect anything about my job on a day to day basis but there are many, many things that do that management and healthcare regulatory bodies don't seem to care at all about.

We need more non-nurse staff such as Aides, Transport, Dietary, Phlebotomists who are actually held accountable to do their jobs and have their job descriptions re-written to be more helpful to the nurses. I work at an urban, Level I Trauma Center with 800+ beds on a very busy med-surg (with more post-ops usually) unit with the typical ratio of 5:1 during the day and 6:1 at night. The lack of this type of help is what is causing huge turnover- including me! I'll be leaving as soon as I find something that's a good fit.

I know someone who was a BSN but failed boards multiple times. She would sign her notes as NT (nurse tech) BSN.

I worked with an LPN who turned out to have never taken any state boards and she worked for a year! Two years later, her sister who claimed to be a BSN was also found not to have even finished the BSN program and also did not have a license. And she had been made a DON. It was a nightmare for the facility. And they both had felony records!! It was bad.