Clients? Are they no longer patients?

[bassadict69]

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.

[doublehelix]

all of our cdn texts will say "patient/client or resident"... different terms applies to the area of care. Meh, I *prefer* to call them all patients!!

[christyness, BSN]

I hate the word "client", and my experience is the same - my instructors usually use the term "patient", but all my books use the word "client" for the most part.

My book explains the two terms in this way:

"Some nurses believe that the word patient implies passive acceptance of the decisions and care of health professionals. Additionally, with the emphasis on health promotion and prevention of illness, many recipients of nursing care are not ill. Moreover, nurses interact with family members and significant others to provide support, information, and comfort in addition to caring for the patient"

It then goes on about the word "client":

"The term client presents the receivers of health care as collaborators in the care, that is, people who are also responsible for their own health."

While I completely understand the reasoning and I see a lot of sense in it, I still find the word "client" to be cold and impersonal. If any healthcare provider referred to ME as a "client" I would feel they were seeing me as a paycheck rather than as a person.

Quotes taken from page 12 of Kozier and Erb's Fundamentals of Nursing, 8th Edition, 2008, published by Pearson/Prentice Hall.

[ADPIE2008]

I hate how the textbooks refer to patients as clients. I'm glad to read here that the term is not used in the real world!

[Fuzzy]

I have a different take on this as I work in veterinary medicine as a cetrified technician (CVT). When I was in school, I was taught that the animal was the patient and that the owner was the client. The reason for this terminology is not just economical but also concerns who makes the decision as to care and treatment.

The veterinarian presents the diagnosis and treatment options.

The client makes decisions as to the options of treatment as presented by the veterinarian.

The patient really has no say in the matter.

At one time the mental health system also called patients/clients consumers. They did in this state anyway. I told them that I did not consume anything except food and water. I asked them if I was a consumer because the disease consumed me or did I consume it. Finally I asked them where that demeaning term came from. Of course no one could answer that question. I saw the term as someone who was consuming services that someone else needed like a fire consuming a forest. Glad that, that term is no longer used in this area.

Fuzzy, CVT

[WoosahRN, MSN, RN]

Our hospital started calling our patients 'customers' about two years ago. It wasn't an obvious switch but I started noticing it. I decided then and there that when I start seeing my patients as little walking dollar signs, I need to leave nursing. I understand there is a bottom line to everything, it's unfortunate, but if all they want are 'customer service reps' to take care of their 'customer' I'm gone. Not too many of my patients (kids) decide to stop breathing and shop around before they come into my PICU.

[Boognish]

My understanding is that "client" is a general term, referring to anyone in any setting that a nurse might care for. In a clinical setting, patient is the appropriate term. In long term care, resident is. It makes sense to use the word client in literature when the health care setting isn't specified- after all, nurses do more than work with "patients"- people who are sick. They also work in settings like long-term care where people are simply at a life-stage where they need support with their ADLs, in which case the term resident makes sense.

I agree that using "client" as a specific term in a clinical setting in place of "patient" definitely emphasizes the economic relationship between the clinic and the patient- none of the nurses at the hospital where I'm doing my med-surg rotation use the term client, and my instructors often use the terms patient and client interchangeably in class.

However, I believe that for in-home care, the term client really does make more sense than any other. If I needed someone to come into my home and take care of me because I was getting older, I wouldn't want to be referred to as a patient. I might be a patient in relationship to my physician and the nurses working at his/her clinic, but not in relationship to the caregiver or CNA who comes into my home, or the nurse coordinating my care. Resident wouldn't make any sense, because I'm a resident of my own home- not of the agency or individual providing my care.

[harleyz]

It is definately a concern that hospitals and the medical industry consider "patients" nothing more than an account #. What ever happened to "patient" care?

[MHalleck]

Agreed. I'm no frothing republican, but the PC stuff is going way overboard. Heck, we've moved along from "clients" which I didn't like to begin with, to "consumers," which is even worse and which the patients don't even like. I'm not entirely sure where this is going to stop!

[LMC621]

I'm sorry but I want my medical care with a side of personalization, the term client seems so business like & cold. Insurance companies want hospitals, doctors & nurses thinking like them. If we in the medical profession begin thinking like insurance companies we begin treating just symptoms not the whole patient.

[Streamline2010]

"Client" is a better deal for the book publishers, who crank out new their editions every 4.87 months now. Before, when they were called "patients," the auto-spellcheckers would let "patience" slide by, thus embarrassing the publishers every once in a while. I see they've quietly found a way to resolve this formerly-persistent issue. (As a service provider, sarcasm is just another service that I can offer. snicker) >;-)

[jennafezz]

My nursing text actually talked about this.. it said something about how 'patient' implies that the person is sick or needs care, but 'client' doesn't really imply that, and lots of nurses work in community health or preventive care where the people aren't really sick, so my book said it would use 'client' most of the time because of this.. but it still uses 'patient' sometimes.

Sorry if someone has already mentioned this, I didn't read all six pages of the thread.

[aanwyn, BSN, RN]

I absolutely agree! They're not clients, they're patients or resident I think is appropriate in a nursing home or assited living facility. However, client definitely denotes "money." Honestly, when I'm at work (LTC/skilled nursing), the administration is constantly concerned about the census. It really is all about the money. Sad state of affairs that healthcare has been reduced to being a business.