when you are a patient, do you tell the attending doctors/nurses that you are a nurse?
i dont for a variety of reasons
*my proffession is rarely brought up, i would never lie about it.
*my training was 20+ years ago and i stopped working in the hospital system 17+ years ago, there is much i do not know and i would never want not to be explained something with the assumption i knew it, when perhaps i didnt.
*i would not want anyone to think i mentioned it because i was seeking preferential treatment
what are your thoughts and if you have been a patient, what did you do ?(this is ofcourse assuming you were not being attended to by people you have worked with/who know you)
i read this forum and found it very disheartening. that nurses do not tell others in the medical field that they have worked in medicine too is very sad to me. i have been a nurse for over 20 years (and proud of it) and have seen the "intimadating" or "demanding" nurse/patient. i have experienced the "i am a nuse so you better take "better care of me and/or my family or else......" attitude. but in each of them i have always treated them as i do all my patients and give them the respect that i feel we need to give each other. i have tried to find out what field they work in and then together decide what info they need or that they could help me with. i have been in the position as patient and family member and do inform them that i am a nurse. i do this to share info not to intimadate them or scare them. we do not all know everything and only through sharing our knowledge is there true understanding. have we become so paranoid of each other that we feel we can't share and learn from each other? in any other profession would you hide your knowledge from another just to see what kind of treatment you get? and while i am on a roll - why are so many of you who posted so "upset" or aggrivated to learn that a patient or family member is a nurse? is it because you yourself are insecure in your profession / knowledge? again we must realize that no one knows everything and we can always learn from each other if we are willing to share. thanks for reading my rantings and sorry it was so long.
"live to nurse not nurse to live"
my personal observation has been that nurses are trained to critique everyone's performance, unlike doctors, who just do their thing for their patients.
this is because all nurses are trained to be patient advocates, and a lot of the problems with professional nursing unity are built into this enculturation. bullying, hearsay evidence, and gossip are such ingrained dysfunctions of nursing culture that we're all paranoid of each other. just read some of the threads here and you'll see what i mean.
any nurse whose assignment includes a nurse or nurse family member for a patient is dealing with someone who has just enough knowledge to be a potential liability.
they're not all like you, acraftpro, and they do not all understand or believe that my specialty is a specialty and that i really do have a better knowledge base.
(or maybe i'm saying this because i'm just a tad ticked at that family member who said she was a nurse, who actually tried to pull me from a respiratory distressed patient in a near-code situation to give her mother a plavix,:angryfire i don't know.)
:smackingfit depends on the situation. but most of the time i dont say anything about it. what i hate is when my husband or my kids tell that i am a nurse! i have ask them not too, but they still do.
Why are so many of you who posted so "upset" or aggrivated to learn that a patient or Family member is a Nurse?
Because some people say they are a nurse, as if that makes them more special, more of a priority than the others. If that's called insecurity with my job, fine whatever, but i've never had an appreciation for people that try to worm like that.
Of course I let them know I am a nurse. Then they don't have to explain every little thing to me. I have never had anyone anything other than glad to know I am a nurse. They know the questions I ask are pertinent.
The doc's and nurses relate to me better and treat me and my family with a much higher level of care and respect knowing I am a partner on the team to care for them.
The doc's and nurses relate to me better and treat me and my family with a much higher level of care and respect knowing I am a partner on the team to care for them.
I'm not a nurse yet, but most people know I'm a nursing student and I can't think of a great reason why I would hide the profession I've worked hard to attain.
For me though, the biggest thing is for the teaching. We are supposed to be teaching patients on about a 6th grade level. I don't want that level. I want the full, real explanation, with nothing dumbed down and explaining that you are a nurse or nursing student, but this isn't your specialty is the fastest way to let caregivers know that although you don't know about this specialty, you do understand medical terminology and pathophysiology.
I'm always up front about my license. I usually include it in a comment about how it's easier to be the nurse than the patient, and give them permission to remind me of my role if I try to be too helpful.
Like the proverbial gift, healthcare is better to give than receive.
I don't just come out and announce it unsolicited, but I will work it into the conversation. it usually becomes pretty clear that I have some sort of professional background because of the terminology I use, precise drug names and dosages, medical history, etc. I have (respectfully) requested that tests be ordered because I think there is a problem there. I am usually right. I know my body and am not afraid to advocate for myself.
When I can tell the staff at an office is having a rough day, I recognize and acknowledge it. In no way am I trying to intimidate anyone; I am just trying to send the message that I have more than a passing knowledge of nursing, I empathize, and would like to be spoken to on a peer level. To me, it makes a huge difference in teaching if I know the client's professional background and I would like to afford them the same respect.
If I encounter a specialty that is Greek to me (e.g. my DH had spinal surgery; I am a cardiac nurse; I was lost), I am not afraid to speak up there either and say please explain this to me in the simplest possible terms; it's not my area and I am freaked out to start with.
What I hate is when a patient comes to me full of complicated questions, seemingly wanting me to take hir questions to the cellular level and projecting that "Let's see how smart you really are" attitude. I mean, really, just go ahead and tell me you're a Harvard-educated whatever-ologist and you're worried about your mom. I may not be able to answer your every question, but I still feel compassion for you and your mom and if at all possible I will put you in touch with someone who can meet you on your level and set you at ease, take it to the next level, whatever.
I agree I think we should treat ever pt. as one of our closet family member. We all want the best care for our family member and we should all do the same for all pt. but unfourntally it just does not happen always happen. I wish it did happen all the time.
I say that I am an RN, I feel I get better treatment and that the staff can speak frankly with me, and I with them. Time is not wasted on "Medicine 101" explanations.
Thank God I am a nurse. Had I been a lay person, I could have lost my baby last Oct.
UM Review RN, ASN, RN
1 Article; 5,163 Posts
my personal observation has been that nurses are trained to critique everyone's performance, unlike doctors, who just do their thing for their patients.
this is because all nurses are trained to be patient advocates, and a lot of the problems with professional nursing unity are built into this enculturation. bullying, hearsay evidence, and gossip are such ingrained dysfunctions of nursing culture that we're all paranoid of each other. just read some of the threads here and you'll see what i mean.
any nurse whose assignment includes a nurse or nurse family member for a patient is dealing with someone who has just enough knowledge to be a potential liability.
they're not all like you, acraftpro, and they do not all understand or believe that my specialty is a specialty and that i really do have a better knowledge base.
(or maybe i'm saying this because i'm just a tad ticked at that family member who said she was a nurse, who actually tried to pull me from a respiratory distressed patient in a near-code situation to give her mother a plavix,:angryfire i don't know.)