Clients? Are they no longer patients?

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Just curious about this...all my literature refers to the patients as clients now, has this turned into more of a business? When I think client, I think business, customer, etc.

Im in my psych rotation and my psych textbook never used the word "patient" once, its ALWAYS "client". It makes me so angry!!! They are NOT clients, they are PATIENTS! And thats what I will call them!

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Specializes in Emergency, Med/Surg, Vascular Access.

Good news, guys--"patient" is now the PC term - AGAIN. At least that's what our nursing professors said last month. The books just haven't reverted back to it yet. "Client" drives me nuts too, but it should be out of the new editions soon.

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The movement to "client" instead of "patient" actually started in mental health many years (decades) ago, and it has nothing to do with money. The point of it was that "patients" are sick people lying in bed, waiting for someone to do something for them, whereas as "clients" are people who are active participants in making choices and decisions about their care. The idea was to use the change in language to get the mental health community (providers) to start seeing our clients as active participants in their care rather than people we were doing stuff to. I've never had a problem with it; I've used "client" consistently for a couple decades now (I've been in psych/mental health all my career). It just took the rest of the healthcare community a loooong time to decide to use the same terminology, for the same reason, and the rest of healthcare has never been consistent about it (and I don't really care what the rest of the healthcare community calls the people with whom they're working).

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It's true. The new literature refers to pts as clients. :down:

In keeping w this commerce focus, I suggest the new standard abbreviation for client be $$.

Example: $$ requests gourmet coffee w/ 10 packs of sugar for all meals.

dollar-signs.jpg?0

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It's true. The new literature refers to pts as clients. :down:

In keeping w this commerce focus, I suggest the new standard abbreviation for client be $$.

Example: $$ requests gourmet coffee w/ 10 packs of sugar for all meals.

dollar-signs.jpg?0

(Once again, the original point of the change in terminology had (has) NOTHING to do with money or "commerce" -- it is about clients being active participants who are consulting with professionals about their care rather than sick, helpless people lying in bed waiting for us to fix them.)

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Hmmm interesting. An attorney's $$s pay for legal advice. My financial advisor and stockbroker friends's $$s pay for financial services/advice. My banker cousin's $$s...that's right they pay for banking services/advice. My loan officer roommate's clients? There's a pattern here can you spot it? Yes, it is a "commercial" transaction.

Sure, we can pretend to forget about dictionary definitions (client = customer paying for goods/services). Let's also forget about common usage of the word while we're at it (pretty much same thing btw, client = customer).

Let's just ignore the "commerce" aspect of it and say that these $$/customers statuses have "NOTHING" to do with money or "commerce" also. We can ignore the obvious and say they are also "being active participants who are consulting with professionals."

There, I can ignore the obvious too. Yay me.

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Specializes in LTC, Psych, Hospice.
The movement to "client" instead of "patient" actually started in mental health many years (decades) ago, and it has nothing to do with money. The point of it was that "patients" are sick people lying in bed, waiting for someone to do something for them, whereas as "clients" are people who are active participants in making choices and decisions about their care. The idea was to use the change in language to get the mental health community (providers) to start seeing our clients as active participants in their care rather than people we were doing stuff to. I've never had a problem with it; I've used "client" consistently for a couple decades now (I've been in psych/mental health all my career). It just took the rest of the healthcare community a loooong time to decide to use the same terminology, for the same reason, and the rest of healthcare has never been consistent about it (and I don't really care what the rest of the healthcare community calls the people with whom they're working).

I agree with this. While in LPN school, I worked with the DD/MR population and the people we worked with were referred to as "individuals". I'm back in school, so I refer to people as "clients" because my instructors do. As most of my hospice pts are sick people lying in bed, waiting for someone to do something for them, I still refer to them as "patients". I really don't think it has anything to do with money.

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Specializes in LDRP.

a question on one of our exams once was something like:

The term patient implies that someone is:

(A) sick, helpless, and unable to make their own decisions

(B) receiving medical services

© independent and able to make their own decisions regarding healthcare.

it wasn't worded exactly like that, it was like a year ago, but it was something along those lines and the answer was A. We always used the word "clent".

i ork at an MR facility and I use "client", but I hear a lot of people saying "individual".. i dont think anyone says "patient" though.

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Hmmm interesting. An attorney's $$s pay for legal advice. My financial advisor and stockbroker friends's $$s pay for financial services/advice. My banker cousin's $$s...that's right they pay for banking services/advice. My loan officer roommate's clients? There's a pattern here can you spot it? Yes, it is a "commercial" transaction.

Sure, we can pretend to forget about dictionary definitions (client = customer paying for goods/services). Let's also forget about common usage of the word while we're at it (pretty much same thing btw, client = customer).

Let's just ignore the "commerce" aspect of it and say that these $$/customers statuses have "NOTHING" to do with money or "commerce" also. We can ignore the obvious and say they are also "being active participants who are consulting with professionals."

There, I can ignore the obvious too. Yay me.

But people do pay for healthcare services -- if "client" equals "commercial transaction" and a "commercial" transaction is inherently crass and evil, does that mean that you and your employer treat your "patients" for free???? I doubt that v. much ... :)

You want to talk dictionary definitions? From the Merriam-Webster site:

patient

noun

Definition of PATIENT

1a : an individual awaiting or under medical care and treatment b : the recipient of any of various personal services

2: one that is acted upon

Origin of PATIENT

Middle English pacient, from Anglo-French, from Latin patient-, patiens, from present participle of pati to suffer; perhaps akin to Greek pēma suffering

First Known Use: 14th century

Patient - Definition and More from the Free Merriam-Webster Dictionary

client

noun \ˈklī-ənt\

Definition of CLIENT

1: one that is under the protection of another : dependent

2a : a person who engages the professional advice or services of another b : customer c : a person served by or utilizing the services of a social agency

Origin of CLIENT

Middle English, from Anglo-French & Latin; Anglo-French client, from Latin client-, cliens; perhaps akin to Latin clinare to lean

First Known Use: 14th century

Client - Definition and More from the Free Merriam-Webster Dictionary

I prefer to be a client, engaging the professional services of various healthcare providers and being served by or utilizing healthcare services, rather than a patient who is suffering and waiting (patiently :) -- from the same root) to be acted upon by healthcare providers. But to each her or his own. I really have no interest in what anyone else wants to call their clients, except I feel a certain obligation to set the record straight on the origin of the usage every time someone starts a thread here kvetching about how the point of using "client" instead of "patient" is part of some insidious plot to make healthcare more like commercial business. That's just not how or why the usage of "client" got started.

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I agree that in SOME situations client is appropriate. Mental health for sure. And I would never call a person living in an assisted care facility a patient...surely resident or something else would be more fitting. But using the term "client" in all situations is just as inappropriate as using the term "patient" in all situations. I'm not sure why if "patient" wasn't acceptable, they thought, "Oh, well yeah, we'll just substitute another broad sweeping term. That should fix it." You can argue all you want that it has nothing to do with $$$, but it's one of the oldest marketing strategies on the books...change the name, and maybe they'll think it's new and improved.

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at my school its ok to use client or patient interchangeably, but client is the preferred term and it's definitely what our text callls them. i like the term patient better, and in clinical i usually say patient not client, but thats just me.

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Elkpark,

"The idea was to use the change in language to get the mental health community (providers) to start seeing our clients as active participants in their care rather than people we were doing stuff to."

Did it work?

It seems it might in that context but what I've noticed about politically correct terms is that the new term is considered better somehow (less insulting, more empowering, or whatever)..... up until it becomes the accepted term for that condition or segment of the population. Then it means the same thing the first term did and they find a third term, a fourth term, .....

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