Calling yourself an RN

Published

I am Facebook friends with someone i work with. She lists herself as an RN where we work and she is not. She is housekeeping staff. This makes me crazy!

Specializes in Case mgmt., rehab, (CRRN), LTC & psych.
Interesting! I've never seen or heard of anything like that...
The BON in the state where I reside (Texas) has a list of nurse impostors in their quarterly newsletter. In many of the cases, local prosecutors have filed charges against persons who have fraudulently secured employment as LVNs or RNs when they lacked the education and licensure to legally work as nurses.
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Specializes in Nurse Leader specializing in Labor & Delivery.

But I would like to mention that at the clinic I go to I hear doctors and midwives call MA's nurses all the time. With that going on how are people not letting it go to their head?

I feel the need to give props to my team. I work in a clinic and have MAs (our facility calls them something different but they have the MA scope of practice). I have NEVER heard our physicians or midwives ever call them nurses, and I have never heard the MAs call themselves nurses.

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Certainly that would be the nice thing to do.

...as well as being the proper and ethical thing to do. :)

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The BON in the state where I reside (Texas) has a list of nurse impostors in their quarterly newsletter. In many of the cases, local prosecutors have filed charges against persons who have fraudulently secured employment as LVNs or RNs when they lacked the education and licensure to legally work as nurses.

See, that's the rub. Working as a nurse when you're aren't one is one thing, and as annoying as it is for non-nurses to claim to be nurses, they're not actually harming anyone by just saying they're a nurse.

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Specializes in Emergency, Telemetry, Transplant.
OP, how about just posting on your own wall that it is illegal to call yourself a RN if you don't hold a license? She will see it, and you won't have to confront her.

Even if this "pretend nurse" sees the post, she may not even make the connection that the OP is directing at her….or, if she does realize that it's directed at her, she may not care.

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Is that also applicable to nursing students who claim they are nurses. I saw two nursing students flaunting their personalized bags with their name and an RN besides it. They are two semesters away from graduating.

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Is that also applicable to nursing students who claim they are nurses. I saw two nursing students flaunting their personalized bags with their name and an RN besides it. They are two semesters away from graduating.

I'm apart of a nursing student group on Facebook with like thousands of members. At least 25% of the members have their name on their profile Betty Smith RN.

Then they'll say something like "help I'm failing every fundamentals test"

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That's really passive aggressive.

It is, but if the OP wanted to confront the person she/he would. Sneaking behind the persons back to the BON or a supervisor isn't much better. Neither is dicussing it with others at work. At least posting would get her feelings out without the confrontation.

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Specializes in Vents, Telemetry, Home Care, Home infusion.

Title "Nurse" Protection - American Nurses Association

NC Board of Nursing imposter list: North Carolina Board of Nursing | North Carolina Board of Nursing

Imposter Alerts - Texas Board of Nursing

Published in the April 2015 Texas Board of Nursing Bulletin

Sheila Marie Eyre Vincent had been employed as a Registered Nurse with a clinic in College Station Texas, since 2006. On January 16, 2015, the clinic staff found that the license number Ms. Vincent was using belonged to another licensee. Ms. Vincent was placed on administrative leave on January 19, 2015, pending investigation. On January 21, 2015, Ms. Vincent emailed the clinic a resignation. Sheila Marie Eyre Vincent is not licensed to practice professional nursing in the State of Texas and she had presented forged documents to secure the position of RN. She was using a license number belonging to a licensee who resides in the Dallas area. Sheila Marie Eyre Vincent was arrested January 26, 2015 and then later turned herself in to the Brazos County Sheriff's Department. She was charged with a third-degree felony forgery of a government instrument and fraudulent use of identifying information, a state jail felony. The case is pending in Brazos County.

AZ: TWO NURSE IMPOSTERS PRACTICING WITHOUT A LICENSE CONVICTED OF FELONIES

On October 10, 2003, Carla Moore pled guilty and was convicted in Maricopa Superior Court of Unlawful Practicing of Nursing”, a Class 6 undesignated offense after working in two healthcare facilities as a licensed practical nurse without having completed a nursing program or obtaining nursing licensure. Moore was sentenced to 3 months in Maricopa County Jail beginning March 1, 2004; 3 years probation; restitution totaling over $11, 000 to the two healthcare facilities that hired and paid her as an LPN; community service; and prohibited from obtaining employment or working in any capacity as a care-giver or health-care professional
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Catch Me If You Can! The Art of Identifying Nursing Imposters

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We're talking about "Facebook" people. Really...who cares? Unless she is going to work pretending to be a nurse she isn't harming anyone. People go on the internet and post ridiculous profiles all the time. Boredom? I don't know. I never understood the purpose of Facebook myself and have never created an account. It is an individual's responsibility to research who they are talking to on the internet if they are looking for advise. I would hope that she isn't giving out advise on Facebook, but then the person who is seeking that advise from Facebook instead of a credible source is just about as bright as she is for posting false information for the world to see.

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I'm sure every state's BON does take falsifying credentials and practicing without a license very seriously. What I wonder is if they also take the time to do anything about the people (like the housekeeper in the OP) who simply go around telling their friends they're a nurse when they're not. The laws protecting the title of nurse technically would cover that, too. But it seems unenforceable.

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If you do decide to report her to the board make sure to take a screenshot of her facebook page showing the RN after her name before you do the reporting. Submit this to the board if it is illegal in your state. If you don't have any proof then once you report her she will just change it on her facebook and you will look stupid.

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