Client or patient?

Nurses General Nursing

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I was looking at another thread and thinking about the amazing intimacy of nursing, and it occured to me that I really don't like refering to patients as clients. Hey, I'm not helping them pick out a set of drapes, here! This is way more serious than business.

I know administrations would like us to be more aware of customer relations--sometimes to the point that it interferes with good nursing, IMHO--and I know nursing leaders want us to get away from a paternalistic/maternalistic attitude toward those for whom we care, but I tend to see nurse-patient as more than a relationship. To me, it's a covenant. (Yes, I am still in nursing school, and yes, I will become jaded and cynical, but I hope I never lose that belief, even if it does have to adapt a bit to daily reality.)

So, what do people think? Can we call people patients and still encourage them to be participants in the process, or am I just old-fashioned?

Client = One who seeks out advice and enacts their own change

In todays medicine/nursing, patients are more active. They must sign consents. They must learn about thier illness. They are taught how to take care of their illness after discharge. They are taught about general health practices. They are an active partner in their care, not a passive recipient. This is why they are called "clients".

Very well put Slobgob.

This is why we call them clients in Non Medical Home health because they The client helps set up there plan of care and they enact their own change in Care.

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Specializes in Medical.

After a particularly trying night with a confused custoclypat (love it!) his roommate said to me "you should be 'the patience' and we should be 'the nursed." :)

In the acute setting patients are not necessarily well enough to be active participnts int heir own care, let alone in decision-making and care plan formulation. And customer/client makes it sound as though we're there solely to serve - that old hand-maiden concept again (something somecustoclypats are already overly comfortable with).

In residential care I'm all for 'resident' - it's their home - but in acute care I vote 'patient' all the way. And I think if we asked our patients/customers/clients, most of them would ask why we didn't have more important things to worry about.

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Specializes in Specializes in L/D, newborn, GYN, LTC, Dialysis.
I think you guys are approaching this the wrong way.

You haven't examined why the word "patient" should be changed to "client". My interpretation of the two words are such:

Patient = One who seeks out medical treatment

Client = One who seeks out advice and enacts their own change

In the old days of medicine, patients were considered passive participants in their therapy/recovery and most appropriately deserved the title "patient".

In todays medicine/nursing, patients are more active. They must sign consents. They must learn about thier illness. They are taught how to take care of their illness after discharge. They are taught about general health practices. They are an active partner in their care, not a passive recipient. This is why they are called "clients".

(Granted I still use the word "patient" cause "client" sounds cold to me. But I also understand that all new changes take time.)

I get it. But I still call them patients for the very reason you stated here.
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Specializes in Med/Surg, Geriatrics.

In the acute care setting, I always refer to them as the patient.

However, I currently work in an occupational health setting and I always refer to them as clients. The difference is that in this setting, the individual agencies contract with my agency to provide them specific services whether it is physical exams for their employees, health screenings and education, or basic first aid. Prices and specific terms are negotiated and if there's no contract, there is no care. 90% of the time my clients present to me with a specific need for services which they request and based on whether or not it is appropriate of course, I provide it. It feels quite different to me than the acute care setting in which patients often find that there is something wrong and they need to submit to the judgment and advice of their healthcare professionals(most of the time). At that time, their needs are directed and managed by us, and in this setting it is some what reversed. Thus the different terminology.

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Patient. When I was in nursing school, I irritated the heck out of my instructors because I refused to use the word client. I told one of my teachers that when I hang out my own shingle, and people come to me for whatever it is I'm selling/offering, then they will be my clients. But for now, they are hospital patients.

If I was in a hospital, I certainly would not like a nurse referring to me as her/his "client."

Sorry, but I see this change in terminology as just one of the more senseless acts of stupidity in healthcare. There's no purpose to it, no reason for it. :rolleyes:

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Patient. When I was in nursing school, I irritated the heck out of my instructors because I refused to use the word client. I told one of my teachers that when I hang out my own shingle, and people come to me for whatever it is I'm selling/offering, then they will be my clients. But for now, they are hospital patients.

If I was in a hospital, I certainly would not like a nurse referring to me as her/his "client."

Sorry, but I see this change in terminology as just one of the more senseless acts of stupidity in healthcare. There's no purpose to it, no reason for it. :rolleyes:

I agree!! OOoohhh RANT!

If a doctor or nurse that I am paying my HMO to see ..... ever called me their client, I would never go back and would leave IMMEDIATELY, and raise holy he** before I was finished with them.:nono: Then I would immediately go find medical care providers who still had patients! No medical practicioner will ever treat me as a client and get away with it. I go to my doctor and I am his/her patient, and I had also better be a patient to his staff.

This really stupid change in terminology comes directly from the non-medical people that the HMOs and PPOs hired to run their organizations in the 1980s. During that time there was a huge merge of non-medical management to medical management. There were "few to no" degree programs for medical management and the people teaching these first programs were from the arena of business, not medical. Looks like the HMOs and PPOs run by former insurance companies executives, did a lot more collateral damage than the general public was aware of. That's where most of this crap comes from.

The business of medicine is unique to the field of general business, but it looks like it has been de-classified into the same general mishmosh with everything else. Next we'll be rolling through drive thru surgery units, be hoisted on a lift, have our tubes blown out and be rolled back out through the other sides garage doors.

When it comes to doctor-patient and nurse-patient relationships it is NOT business as usual. We are not selling a pair of panty hose, a tube of lipstick, or a can of green beans! Weare not doing someones taxes, selling them an insurance policy, providing lawn care, painting their house or doing a lube job on their car. There is a hell of a big difference here in the services and products provided to the consumer. The medical community is foolish to allow our relationship with our patients to be diminished to that of a customer / client. It may be a customer / client relationship with a company that we work for but the one on one relationship between an individual getting health care and the nurse, doctor, or therapist is a relationship with a patient.

My taxes make me really sick but my accountant doesn't call me his patient! :coollook: I had a pretty awful law suit that made me really ill, but my attorney didn't call me his patient. :uhoh21:

Who made the rule that a patient can't participate in his/her own medical care and still be called a patient? :rotfl:

Just more stupid, Physo-babble. Mark my words ... this is trendy crap that will all swing back and hit the medical community right in the butt.:sofahider

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Specializes in Geriatrics, Pediatrics, Home Health.

PATIENT!!! I absolutely REFUSE to call patients in a hospital 'clients'. Like I told my daughter, I am not a beautician trying to get these people to come to my shop. I am not trying to get a 'clientele'. I am trying to help people get better and understand their health problems.

I REFUSE to write or call patients 'clients'. I the word.

Patients are people who need help with their health, clients are people who go somewhere and spend money on stuff they want. I am NOT walMArt either.

Thank you for letting me vent!!

_______________________________________________

In His Grace,

Karen

Failure is NOT an option!!

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Specializes in ICU,ER.

I agree, too, that the word "customer" diminishes not only the medical profession, but the PATIENTS as well. It sounds as if they chose to be ill or injured. Can you imagine calling someone on an oncology unit a cancer customer???

I remember just a few years ago, working in the ER....nurses rolling their eyes at frequent flyers/seekers, stating "Here comes another customer" It wasn't used in a flattering manner.

If I am sick, I prefer to be called a patient. It makes me feel all warm and taken care of. I am not ordering a steak or shopping for a handbag at Bloomingdale's.

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"patient"- "client" is too business oriented for me.

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I always care for "patients" in the hospital setting but "clients" in the psych setting.

Not really sure why??

If I remember it all correctly...Carl Rogers (1902-1987) popularized the concept of 'client' over 'patient' with the development of his brand of client-centered or person-centered therapy.

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Specializes in everywhere.

patient. period. I hate the client or consumer terminology in the hospital. My hospital is always pushing client satisfaction or consumer reports (Press-Gainey). UGH! When they are admitted to the hospital, they are a patient.

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Patiens!

I am a nurse trained to care for people, not a customer service rep. Yes makeing patients happy and makeing sure they are well informed is important. However makeing them happy is'nt becuse I want repeat or refferal bussiness, it's becuse it helps them to heal or progress threw their situation.

They are not my clients becuse I'm not selling a service/product I am a care providor.

Administration is always tryign to say that we are point of service customer service providors. The sad thing is that some nurses have bought inot this I however I refuse to. If we give into this the next thing they will do is give us all rollerscates and drink trays

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