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Discussion

Business Cards?

I have a bone to pick with most hospitals and other institutions that employ staff nurses. As a second career RN, I am utterly dumbfounded that staff nurses are not provided with business cards. Are we not professionals worthy of "professional" symbols? I realize that nursing field employs a lot of temporary/traveling workers, but why can't workers get the recognition they deserve? Any thoughts?

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  • Experts

Interesting question. I guess the reason would be that inpatients shouldn't call back after being discharged - they should have followup made. And they would have a number of different nurses during their stays - a lot of people to keep track of.

I can't think of a lot of instances working as a floor nurse in a hospital where a business card would have been useful. Has your experience been different?

Well...do you really want to hand out business cards to your patients so they can call you 800 times with medical questions after discharge? I'd rather have that responsibility laid on the physician. If you want cheap business cards though, http://www.vistaprint.com/vp/ns/bchome.aspx is a good deal, and they do a pretty good job. I've had cards made out through them when I was agency, and was happy with what I got.

The best way to view business cards is that they are miniature billboards, a means to advertise oneself to clients.

I guess I'm not sure why employed staff RNs in a hospital setting would be needing the advertising. I'm self-employed, and I use a lot of cards (and vistaprint.com IS a good place for cards) but I'm in a different position. I need to let my customers know what I offer, and how to contact me. Do employed staff RNs need that?

Jim Huffman, RN

  • Experts

I've spent most of my career in CNS, administrator, and educator roles and have had business cards provided by the hospital. I hand them out to colleagues at conferences, students, etc. However, I have almost never handed them out to patients -- for all the reasons suggested above.

Can you imagine the poor patient collecting dozens of cards for each hospital visit? ... all the nurses, the pharmacists, the PT, the OT, the nurtritionist, the social worker, all the residents, etc. for all the different shifts .... They couldn't possibly keep them all straight!

Unless you are in a specialized role in which it is appropriate for the patient to call you back personally -- then handing out business cards is not only not necessary, but it might also be inappropriate.

llg

RNs on the floor may not need business cards, but I will have some made up just for the times I am out and want to exchange email addresses with someone, or whatever. Or if I write articles or send out queries I may want to attach a business card. That sort of thing

I have some that I give to staff that I wish to keep in touch with after I finish a travel assignment or that I give when networking at seminars.

Give them to patients...I don't think so.

We had business cards at the hospital I used to work at. I can honestly tell you I never received a phone call about any medical questions and such. We also kept the managers cards in each patient room but I can not speak for her. I think it shows the families that we really care. I can see your concern about interuptions during work with questions that should be directed to the doctor.

no thanks.

i don't want to work "off duty".

i have great pride in what I do but I do it on my own terms.

good luck with your quest for the right card.

I am not quite sure why a staff nurse would need or want a business card? I can see case managers, social workers, etc., needing business cards with just their office number on it for the patient and families. Why a staff nurse?

  • Experts

We were mandated to use the "business cards" provided for us. It was not an optiion. On the card was our name, job title, a blank for our beeper of the day # or cell phone #, and the charge nurse's name. Across the top was the hospital name, address, phone number and the NM's name.

It wasn't any problem. They stopped this after about a year as it didn't seem to make any difference in the feedback from past patients.

The patient population on our floor can be down right scary at times, with violent histories, etc. I don't want some of those people or their family members even knowing my last name, let alone my cell phone #.

In these days of cost-cutting, I don't see how any hospital would be willing to pay for business cards for the unit staff nurses. But.. it would be nice for the patients to know our name to send us real cool thank-you gifts and money that we can't accept anyway. Or maybe a nice box of chocolates to help us on our way to the middle-age spread! Sorry for being sarcastic. I'm just considering who I would want to give a business card to. Of course, I would love to give cards to the patients I enjoyed working with and thought I was doing a good job. The patients who I suspected didn't care for me, I'd rather they didn't have a card to rip up and throw in the trash.

Just MHO. :rolleyes:

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