Ok folks, I'm just about ready to lose it and I know it's a little silly..or it may seem petty...but just take my feelings into consideration.
I am SICK to DEATH of SOME Medical Assistants, CNAs, and Respiratory Therapists (etc.) calling themselves NURSES, or allowing themselves to be called nurses...or saying that they are getting their "RN". Are you KIDDING ME?
Before I start, let me begin by saying that I respect ALL health care workers and think you should be proud of what you are doing, going to school for, and what your title is. However, I have LOW tolerance for people who break the law and throw around a professional title/license. It's beyond ignorant and I'm wondering how it can be stopped.
I would NEVER in a million years, call myself a Doctor...or a Nurse Practitioner..because I am NOT one. I did NOT go to school for it. I am a Registered Nurse and PROUD of it. If anyone calls me Doctor, or ANYTHING else, I quickly correct them with a sweet smile on my face.
Examples of what I have heard/seen/witnessed/etc.:
" Can I speak to the nurse?" Medical Assistant" Speaking, How can I help you?"
" So excited for my first day of school, we did injections!" says the medical assisting student..friend asks "OH, nursing program?!"...medical assistant student says "Yep, sure is!".
"Nurse Sarah, when do you finish school?". Sarah says, "In 2 months"...Sarah is in a RESPIRATORY therapy program.
My friend says to me," I went to school to become a nurse and finished, but I decided I prefer Social Work." I ask, "Really, so you're a nurse, where did you go?" Friend replies "Yes, CNA Tech Institute".(fake name) Uhm, that's a well known 6 month CNA school. SERIOUSLY?
"I actually teach the nurses on my unit everything. I know more than them and have more experience.", says the Medical Assistant after I ask them why they are referring to themselves as "Nurse".
I can't even go on to tell you how much more I have witnessed. MANY of this is coming from my friends. I'm going to be REALLY honest with you guys. I am just heated. I worked my BOTTOM off in nursing school. I applied to a program with 600 applicants in line (which is STANDARD) and was accepted into ONE of 20 seats. I killed myself not to be flunked out and passed with an average 3.5 GPA. It was four years of GRUELING work and I feel I have earned the right to refer to myself as a Registered Nurse. I'm very proud of it.
I feel like other health care workers are SERIOUSLY making a JOKE of the nursing field throwing around the title as though we are a dime a dozen. Why can't they be proud of what they do? EACH of those fields is JUST fine..but WHY are you breaking the law and calling yourself a Nurse?
Can you imagine what would happen if I called myself a Doctor? Sorry, but that's ignorant and pathetic. I would NEVER do it. If this thread offends you, then please don't reply. It shouldn't be offensive unless you are one of the few health care workers who live a lie and call yourself a nurse.
How do we address this and stop this? Medical Assistants are the BIGGEST group I have witnessed this by. I have a LOT of respect for them and envy their position. They ENJOY their jobs...but why do SOME (not ALL), throw MY nursing license value around like that by claiming they are a nurse?
What do you do when it's a friend doing this?
What do you do when it's a health care coworker?
I already know what I would do if I was going to a Doctor's office and they did this. That's easy. It's the friend part that is hard. I KNOW it's silly to be upset..but I have never seen so much ignorance. Why did I work hard if someone else can call themselves a nurse and only went to school for 6 months? What did I work for? Other than the obvious paycheck and passion?! ha :)
YOUR patients is a common distinction made by CNAs. Pts they care for are never THEIR patients. You have a specific job to do for THE PATIENTS. You are not doing anyone a favor, that is YOUR job for the patient. You are a nurse ASSISTANT, not a nurse. You can wear a comfort nurse assistant uniform that clearly identifies you as a CNA, dont pretend to be a NURSE when U R not.
I've never claimed to be a nurse. Are your patients not your patients? You seem to object to my terminology, but certainly you, as the nurse, regard your patients as yours for your shift.
I've never been that person who says, "That's not my patient," but I also can't do everything alone.
I'm really glad I don't work with you. I don't need to interact with any more people who look down on aides. When I become a nurse late this year, I promise never to become THAT nurse.
Here in the UK it's silly, because Healthcare Assistants are being called 'Auxiliary Nurses'. I think this is partly so the government or the trusts can trot out the old 'but we've given you more nurses!' line when in fact they haven't actually given us REGISTERED nurses.
It sounds petty, but if I'm going to university for three years and working my orifice off someone shouldn't just be able to walk in off the street and be called 'nurse'.
I was a cna before becoming an LPN but never referred to myself as a nurse. Personally it does not bother me when someone refers to them self as a nurse even if they are not. I would obviously object if they were misleading patients and attempting to practice outside of their scope.
Working in a ltc facility, sometimes it is much easier to tell the resident their nurse will be with them then trying to explain nursing assistant, helper, care assistant. They will just keep saying "huh,who?" So most employees just say nurse to the residents. It doesn't take away from what I do as a nurse.
We are all nurses. Some of us may be nursing assistants and some of us may be licensed professional nurses. The nursing assistant who takes responsibility for most, if not all, of a patients basic human needs is most certainly, in my eyes, a nurse. If a patient identifies the nursing assistant as "my nurse" it means that she must be doing something right and that he or she is an asset to the team.
Specializes in Infection Prevention, Public Health.
I think you unit should create a big photo display on a bulletin board that says: Your Healthcare Team. It should include pictures of everyone from Physicians, RNs, LPNs, CNAs, RT and Ward Clerks. Each Photo should have the staff member's job title included. Patients like it so that they know who is who. When the nursing caps went away (and I am glad they did) patients haven't been able to figure out who's who.
My facility had the poster board with most employees pictures on it. We also have a standardized scrub color to identify our positions. I am a PCT right now about to go to nursing school. Usually when a patient calls for a nurse I am the first person to run in (because the nurses are super busy). I always ask them if there is something I can help them with. I emphasize the "I" part to make sure there is no confusion as to my role. I would never blatantly call myself a nurse when I have not earned that right yet.
We are all nurses. Some of us may be nursing assistants and some of us may be licensed professional nurses. The nursing assistant who takes responsibility for most, if not all, of a patients basic human needs is most certainly, in my eyes, a nurse. If a patient identifies the nursing assistant as "my nurse" it means that she must be doing something right and that he or she is an asset to the team.
But in they eyes of the law and many boards of nursing, the nursing assistant or MA who calls themselves a nurse is breaking the law.
I had an MA answer the phone saying she was "the nurse." She gave horrible advice which came back on me because I was actually the only nurse in the office. The patient threatened to sue. Who do you think would have ended up being called into court even though it was my day off and I had no knowledge of the incident? The REAL nurse.
The orderly is not a doctor. One would likely not be happy being examined or given advice by an orderly who represented themselves as a doctor. That would land them in prison for practicing medicine without a license.
i'm in the UK. we have the same problem with SOME healthcare assistants/ healthcare support workers. i have witnessed them taking handover from paramedics when the registered nurse is standing there waiting for the handover to be given to them. I have called for a doctor because i have been worried about a patient, only to find that the HCA is discussing the patient matter of factly with the doctor in the corridor, without even bothering to tell me the doctor has arrived when i was still tending to the patient. i have with a hca who tried to deal with a severly breathless and cyanosed patient on their own without even alerting me to the fact the patient was unwell - it was another hca that came to get me - not only could i have lost my licence if something went wrong, but they put that persons life in danger because of their over inflated ego. The line between nurses and hca is blurred beyond all recognition now. they are being allowed to do things that are traditionally nursing tasks, but they have no in depth knowledge base to know what to do when something goes wrong.
You all are *still* on this? *LOL*
Let me see we have "RN" embroidered on uniforms/scrubs, printed in big bold letters on name/ID tags and now on boards posted all over the floors... Yet somehow the lines of who is who and what is what keeps getting blurred.
Now if you would just follow my suggestion the problem could be nipped in the bud..... *Hahaha*
The CNA and MA's and what they can/can't do seems to be a blurred line - at least where I live - some places allow them to do draw blood, do injections, remove (but not start) IV's, breathing treatments, yet others don't. There is a Dermatology office that employs only MA's and the MA's do everything from calling in medications, to giving injections to performing punch biopsies. As someone else stated, until there is a Regulatory Board in place that clearly defines duties (and not schools) the lines will continue to be blurred and boundaries pushed - it's much less expensive for an MD to employ a CNA or MA than an LPN or RN and I have no doubt corners are cut on what is allowed and what moves patients through the office faster.
As an APRN, I have to correct nurses and techs all of the time because they refer to me as "the doctor". Their argument is that the psych patients do not understand that I can prescribe their meds. I think sometimes patient education is the key to helping people understand our different roles.
I have had this happen at work also. We have a CNA and one evening I know she is out there getting routine vital signs and I hear her talking with a family stating "His heartbeat is nice and strong". I know my patient is end of life and I think, what could she be doing. Well his heart rate was 153 and he ceased to breath 5 minutes later.
Last week I walked into a patient's room and the family said, "Nurse Susie (name changed) said that my dad is congested and you would be in to give him Atropine. Meanwhile, I have not ever laid eyes on this patient. My shift just started.
I sat her down and had a heart to heart with her. I clearly explained that she is not permitted to assess anything or tell families what the treatment should be but simply report the vital signs of me. She still does it, just not with my patients. It is crazy.
Red Kryptonite
2,212 Posts
I've never claimed to be a nurse. Are your patients not your patients? You seem to object to my terminology, but certainly you, as the nurse, regard your patients as yours for your shift.
I've never been that person who says, "That's not my patient," but I also can't do everything alone.
I'm really glad I don't work with you. I don't need to interact with any more people who look down on aides. When I become a nurse late this year, I promise never to become THAT nurse.