Do you identify yourself as a nurse when you or your family are a patient?

Published

  1. Do you identify yourself as a nurse when you or your family are a patient?

    • 1977
      Yes
    • 2195
      No
    • 2755
      Sometimes
    • 363
      Never

7,290 members have participated

We've all been in the situation when either we are the patient or our family and/or loved ones are the patient.

Do you identify yourself as a nurse?

Please answer our quick poll, then share your stories or why or why not.

Thanks

It depends. When I first graduated from LPN school I started at a family practice. I eventually transferred my entire family there. and so they know that I am a nurse- so it works out- they are more willing to do things for me, with me and give me more info. which is great.

My 5 yr old is a severe asthmatic. so I do tell them that I am a nurse so that they can give me more insight when he is in the ER about what they are doing- and the tend to not give me such a hard time about managing his symptoms at home. I heard an ER nurse say to the Dr t he last time we were in the er, I know her, shes a nurse, she can handle t his at home lmao.

it was comical!

Up Vote Up Vote ×

While working at Joann fabrics, it was opening day and we were packed. The line was huge! So this lady comes up to the fabric counter and starts yelling at the manager and this is what she said, "I'm a nurse! I don't have time for this!" I wanted to tell her off so bad. Excuse me, but nobody forced you to come into this craft store on opening day. The manager was way too nice and did everything for her and gave her a huge discount. I would NEVER act like that.

Up Vote Up Vote ×

The best nurse family member I ever had was when I worked on the ortho floor. She ID'd herself to me as an RN, but then went on to say that she worked in L&D and had never even been to an ortho floor and could I please explain this Stryker CBC II drain please because *** does it do? :D I was a pretty brand new nurse at the time (like I'm old & seasoned NOW or something e_e), and it helped me that she treated me as a colleague instead of a hovering nurse family member.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in LTC,out patient clinics, hospital.

No,,i just want to be a family member, at my primary care appointments, I just want to be a patient. unfortunately sometimes my family will tell the staff.

Yet I have been in situations when it was necessary to reveal my Nurse idenity.

You just need to evaluate the situation and then determine what is best.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in OB, HH, ADMIN, IC, ED, QI.
While working at Joann fabrics, it was opening day and we were packed. The line was huge! So this lady comes up to the fabric counter and starts yelling at the manager and this is what she said, "I'm a nurse! I don't have time for this!" I wanted to tell her off so bad. Excuse me, but nobody forced you to come into this craft store on opening day. The manager was way too nice and did everything for her and gave her a huge discount. I would NEVER act like that.

One of the things you'll learn about people in time, is that those (like doctors) who insist upon unjustified special treatment, are really insecure, usually attention seeking idiots!

Your manager acted appropriately, which was much better treatment than that (possible) nurse deserved, but much better than an out and out battle. It was the best customer relations behavior she exhibited, and should be used by all nurses, with patients, who are customers when we care for them. They can be tired, cranky, in pain, regressed, infantile and hard to handle; and that's the mode of response they have to being ill and/or in pain. Grant them that, if not your respect; and be like that manager, cut her some slack. :nurse:

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Peds Urology,primary care, hem/onc.

I don't normally ID myself as a nurse with my family....mainly b/c I have always work with peds and the adult world is a lot different. My family, though tends to tell anyone who will listen what I do. I am from a small town and my Dad is a well known anesthesiologist there...so when they see my last name (which is a little unusual) I tend to get asked if I am related...then people tend to figure it out.

I remember when my grandmother was in the ER, the resident came in to examine her and my grandfather pointed to me and said, "she is a nurse practitioner". This sweet physician motioned me over to include me on all the finer points of her exam, plan etc.... I laughed and told her, "I work with kids...you do your thing and I will just watch." My grandmother was 90 and medically complex, I had NO idea what she needed....she did not need my input!!! :)

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in psych, general, emerg, mash.

agreed! its individual preference as to identify yourself as a nurse in practise! But you cannot control your families pride

in identifying you as a nurse. Some families are proud that you are a nurse, whether you are male or female.

sometimes the staff breathes a sigh of relief knowing you are a nurse to help relief the tension. But when it comes to

the care..you are not staff on duty. I usually help translate what family members do not understand.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Med/Surg, Behavioral Health.

When I become a nurse, which I hope I do (NCLEX July 2nd! YIKES), I'm not going to say anything unless someone asks me ... or if a family member/friend spills the beans. My father is known for coming right out and saying "my daughter is almost a nurse" to just about anyone. :lol2:

But, on a side note, I really hate when nurses throw their weight around and proclaim, "I'm an RN." A family member was drilling me endlessly about a medication her elderly father was receiving and had to stab in "I'm an Advanced Practice Registered Nurse." ... thank. you. so. much. Like I wasn't s***ing my pants already.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in MS, LTC, Post Op.

I found that letting them know that you are an employee, esp a nurse, as they are admitting you, is usually a good thing.

They wanted to take my foley out...I told them to gimme a syringe and I'd do it myself! LoL

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in MS, LTC, Post Op.

But, on a side note, I really hate when nurses throw their weight around and proclaim, "I'm an RN." A family member was drilling me endlessly about a medication her elderly father was receiving and had to stab in "I'm an Advanced Practice Registered Nurse." ... thank. you. so. much. Like I wasn't s***ing my pants already.

Ohhh I had something like that happen to me at the nursing home.

I had a pt. that was not doing well. She'd kept getting out of bed and falling, reguardless of the interventions we put in place. The family never came in.

Well she got to the point that she was dying. Well nothing brings a family into a nursing home IN DROVES, like a family member dying.

I was doing my 4pm med pass and went to give this pt. her meds...I always had my list of vitals so I could check my BP med residents.

My resident wouldn't eat or drink for her family, but she would for me...well I was with her 5 days a week, 8 hours a day, more than I can say for her family. I gave her meds in pudding, gave her a drink, call light in reach...all the stuff I know I am going to be charting on in a while.

Her grand-daughter cops this horrible snotty attitude. She goes "WHAT did you just give her" well...I don't HAVE to tell her cause of HIPPA, she isn't her POA...which I tell her that I couldn't discuss that with her because of something called HIPPA and that girl ripped into me, up one side and down the other, and informed me that SHE was a nurse and SHE had a right to know what her grandmother was being given...blah blah blah. So I tell her that since she is a nurse, she knows full well that I legally can't tell her that information because she knows about HIPPA. :devil:

Later I was outside of the room and I heard her badmouthing Nursing Home nurses, because I guess they can't find "real work" in a hospital.

Well...old girl here...being me...walkes into the room and says "Excuse me, but I don't work nursing home work because I CAN'T find work in a hospital, I work here because I CHOSE to. I did 2 years in a hospital in ashland in post op." and walked out.

Come to find out she was an LPN in recovery...where her job was transporting and wiping off the beds. :lol2:

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Labor/Delivery, Pediatrics, Peds ER.

Generally, I don't say anything unless I find someone is failing to give me info I need, or is dissing the idea that the family/pt needs info. Then I will politely ask a question that gives me away. I can only recall about one instance of that, however. There is no way I'm going to just "flounce and announce" and expect special treatment. Many times, since most of my family hospitalizations have occurred at the hospital I trained at, everyone knew anyway.

Also, a lot of times, medical personnel catch on when you are giving the history. I try not to sound over-technical, but when someone asks what surgery has gone on, I'm not going to say, "Oh, you know, the one where they..." Except, of course, if I have momentarily forgotten the name of the procedure, which happens more and more as I age! :banghead:

I have a special needs son who needed a lot of surgery while young and I did find that it was sometimes helpful to let nurses know I was a nurse when they were busy, and ask about IV protocols, etc., so that I could help them out with the care of my son, especially as it seemed his IV antibiotics and other additives were constantly running out, and he had horrible veins. Of course, I always first asked if they minded if I restarted the main fluid if no one else responded to the IVAC buzzer. However, I didn't overdo it. You can tell when people are busy, and as a mom you get yourself worn out as well staying at the hospital 24/7. I just tried to be very sensitive to my effect on the nurses. If I felt they resented me butting in, I was prepared to butt out promptly. If they stated their appreciation, I did as much as I could within reason.

It's not just nurses who know the lingo, however. Nearly any mom of any sort of special needs child can dish out the vernacular as well as nurses, as she has educated herself as an advocate.

People in general these days are far more informed than in the past. It used to be if you asked paitents for their med list, they were clueless. Now you are just as likely to encounter a patient who knows all about his medications and will give you chapter and verse on the meds as well as how effective they are for him. I had a roommate once who was on a tranquilizer and a sleep med at home. The hospital wanted to change her meds because their formulary offered different meds which they considered interchangeable. She told them in no uncertain terms they were not interchangeable, that the mechanism of delivery of the active ingredient was different, that the active ingredient itself was different, and the substitute they offered would not work for her. And she was correct.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in OB, HH, ADMIN, IC, ED, QI.

My heart goes out to you, RetRN77, for your tactful involvement in your child's care. When my daughter was young, she had "malabsorption syndrome" (for lack of a better term), and became gravely ill at the drop of any hat! I've speculated, as have her care providers at that time, if she would have survived, had I not been a nurse.

She had to be admitted to a children's hospital while we were visiting family in Toronto, when she had a "coxackie" virus and became dehydrated and semiconscious (after the pediatrician she'd seen the previous day said, "No 2 year old gets dehydrated due to D&V!"), and I said, "I'm a nurse". I haven't always been tactful, in fact hardly ever when it comes to outright stupidity of "professionals". I told the admitting department, that the doctor she'd seen was not to come near her. They put him down as her admitting physician.....

The nurses in the ER where I'd had to take her, told me she'd "never forgive you" if I remained present while IVs were started, procedures done, etc. They were schooled differently than I had been, as in Montreal's Children's Hospital, in 1958 when I'd been sent there on "affiliation", parent presence with hospitalized children was encouraged. At Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, it was quite discouraged, a decade later.

Your last paragraph about your roomate's fight to be on her appropriate meds, has been my fight, too - even worse, now that hospital pharmacies choose their stock based on cost. I call what happened to her, and to me "hoodwinking", and despise the manipulative way some nurses try to cosy patients into whatever is the most expedient thing......

Up Vote Up Vote ×
+ Join the Discussion