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 :)
Specializes in L&D; GI; Fam Med; Home H; Case mgmt.
whoa not reading all that,
that reminded me of something funny my 17 year old just taught me. i had written kind of a long note on theology on facebook and my son replied with "tl;dr". i had no clue what that meant. then i thought a little harder and figured it out. "tl;dr" = "too long; didn't read". hahaha. i guess it's "text speak" or maybe just internet lingo. nice kid.
lpn's calling themselves rn's? ive never heard that one. i apoligize for what i said earlier. i went back and read the original post. i said it was rude, i was wrong.
everyone in our office wears a nametag with title. but some patients dont read it. we had one patient asking everyone if they were a doc. (she was a little wacky)
I fortunatley have not come across an MA referring themselves to the nurse. I've come across MAs who think they know it all, but you find that in every profession. Now, I am not yet a nurse I am an LNA(licensed nursing assistant...and I do hold an actual license) however I am in My last year of nursing school and love to tout that to ppl who think they're so smart. I'm damn proud of the fact that I am an LNA and even prouder f the fact that I am a nursing student. Off topic but I love when I go to the Dr and I get to talking t Tue nurse and telling them that I'm a nursing student and they start quizzing me lol. Anyway, I would never refer to myself as the nurse. I have a home health client that refers to all of us as her nurses, but her generation providing any care in the way we do, everyone was a nurse. Her family know s I'm an aid, and with others I quietly correct. But big I do like telling people I am a nursing student in my senior year
Not too long ago, my aide told one of our pt's that she was "one of the nurses". After she exited his room, I confronted her.."Did you actually just tell him that you were a nurse?" and she said yes. I politely told her that its illegal to call yourself a nurse when you are not licensed as one. She told me "oh what's the difference, get over it" I said when you go to nursing school and then sit for the NCLEX exam, you may call yourself a nurse.
Just recently this same aide asked a patient who told her she was in pain to rate her pain on a 0-10 scale. Um..yeah, Confronted her on that one too and told her that ASSESSING pain is a NURSE responsibility and she wasn't permitted to ask them to rate their pain but to simply report to me, the RN that the patient is complaining of pain and I'll take it from there.
This aide and I have lots of issues...I take issue with the fact that its almost impossible to get her to do her JOB and since we don't have a direct nurse manager, there is no one to hold her accountable. Upper management feels that if I complain about her it's simply "sour grapes" since they know we do NOT get along! SO FRUSTRATING!!!!
Specializes in Management, Emergency, Psych, Med Surg.
My husband works as an RN in a large neuro ICU at a very busy large hospital. All nurses are required to wear an attachment to their badge which says RN in big bold letters. It helps to identify who the nurse actually is. It is very confusing for patients these days. We all dress alike and usually name badges are so small that people cannot read them.
Not too long ago, my aide told one of our pt's that she was "one of the nurses". After she exited his room, I confronted her.."Did you actually just tell him that you were a nurse?" and she said yes. I politely told her that its illegal to call yourself a nurse when you are not licensed as one. She told me "oh what's the difference, get over it" I said when you go to nursing school and then sit for the NCLEX exam, you may call yourself a nurse.
Just recently this same aide asked a patient who told her she was in pain to rate her pain on a 0-10 scale. Um..yeah, Confronted her on that one too and told her that ASSESSING pain is a NURSE responsibility and she wasn't permitted to ask them to rate their pain but to simply report to me, the RN that the patient is complaining of pain and I'll take it from there.
This aide and I have lots of issues...I take issue with the fact that its almost impossible to get her to do her JOB and since we don't have a direct nurse manager, there is no one to hold her accountable. Upper management feels that if I complain about her it's simply "sour grapes" since they know we do NOT get along! SO FRUSTRATING!!!!
I agree that assessing is an RN role, but now I am a little concerned because where I work has a space on the vital signs chart where you write patient pain down, and you have to have them rate it between 0-10 to write in the pain score. So I'm wondering if we (as HCAs) should be filling in that part or not... I guess that is something that needs to be asked of our manager but I am just thinking "aloud" as it were as your post made me think of it.
We wear different colour uniforms here in the UK. RNs: Royal blue. Charge nurses: Navy blue. NAs: Light blue. Patients get a handout on admission telling them about the job role of each "colour".
***Disclaimer - not a nurse, just a nursing student***
This came up in class today... (not this article, the topic)
Teacher was explaining legal issues regarding delegation. She mentioned that delegation should be appropriate and that support staff (ie MAs or CNAs) should only be given tasks that are within their scope of practice... but that ultimately the NURSE is responsible for ensuring tasks are done properly because responsibility falls on the nurse's license.
Fellow student (who is a CNA) says something to the effect of "but CNAs aren't practicing under the nurse's license, they're practicing under their own license."
Teacher follows with "they're not licensed. They're certified... there's a difference."
*sigh*
This bothers me too, even though I'm not even a nurse yet. It's more than a pride thing... yes, nurses EARN that title... in school and after. But it's more than that... We must protect the trust that patients put in nurses. The relationship between nurse and patient relies so heavily on trust and it is damaged by non-nurses giving advice or practicing inadequately. Even if no harm is done, we have a responsibility to PREVENT harm... which includes standing up for the privilege of calling oneself nurse after being properly trained and licensed. (I use 'we' with full acknowledgment that I am just a student.)
One should not represent oneself as a nurse unless one is properly trained and licensed...
You can also question their judgment, keep them on their toes. Show them what a Nurse really knows and ask them medical questions. When they don't know the answer say.. "That is the difference between a nurse and a CNA or MA. If you really want to portray a nurse, then go get your RN".
Ok, I am off my soap box.
Hope this helps!
Uhm, I'm a nurse, thats what the N in LPN signifies.
CFitzRN, ADN
386 Posts
that reminded me of something funny my 17 year old just taught me. i had written kind of a long note on theology on facebook and my son replied with "tl;dr". i had no clue what that meant. then i thought a little harder and figured it out. "tl;dr" = "too long; didn't read". hahaha. i guess it's "text speak" or maybe just internet lingo. nice kid.