Do you tell them you're a nurse?

[JulieRN07]

Hi all! I was wondering if you would tell the staff that you are a nurse when you are the patient? Does it make them treat you differently, or not explain things as well because they assume you already know?

I will be having my first baby as a nurse and wasn't sure if I wanted to share my profession because I want all the help and advice I can get!!

Thanks~

[Drysolong]

As a LPN student, I went to the emergency room of one of our local hospitals. I seemed to get better treatment because I told them I was a nursing student. I told them that only because I was asking a lot of questions about being a nurse.

[Jo Dirt]

I wish I could find the post, but someone once told her story here about being a nurse/patient. If I recall, once the staff found out she was a nurse they more or less left her to do her own care because "she knows how to do it." She couldn't get anyone to answer her calls and they more or less expected her to do her own dressing changes.

I don't think I would say I was a nurse unless the subject came up. I'd want them to just do their job the best way they can.

This reminds me when I had my rhinoplasty (which I regret more than anyone could ever know) but anyway, I had to spend the night at the hospital. I had this smart young nurse who acted like she'd rather be somewhere else. I remember getting sick and throwing up and when I hit that call button and told her I was sick and vomiting she said okay and I never saw her . I often thought it would have been all the same if I had strangled to death.

I wonder if the response would have been different if I had mentioned I was a nurse? Or, I wondered how she would have acted if I told her I sat on the BON? He he...bet her attitude would have been different.

[JulieRN07]

Thanks for your stories! It sounds like it might be best to keep it to myself unless I need to step in and play the 'RN' card!!

And jrsmommy-I would feel the same way about that nurse that came in, the claws come out when it comes to our children, even if she was doing it properly.

[4theBetterGetter, RN]

Wow, that is something I did not know. The few times that I've done peds and had to start an IV, always did w/ the bevel up, and was never told anything. Definitely gonna keep that in mind for the future. Thank you :)

You are welcome! Just a little trick I learned from a Doc. I used to work with.

[eandgsma]

I'm a last semester student RN but I've had to tell a few people that I am studying to be a nurse. One time I had to take my son to urgent care to be rehydrated after not being able to keep anything down for 3 days. I wound up telling them because I had a lot of questions so they asked if I was in healthcare. They were really cool about it and let me look at his labs and talked to me like I had a brain. Just last week I had my MD's office call me because one of my labs was off, they wanted me to get another lab drawn. I asked the nurse which lab, "BUN", then I asked what was the value, she starts explaining to me what it is blah blah blah. I was at work at the hospital and kept saying NO, what was the number..., finally after her telling me a third time what the BUN meant I said "NO, I'm a nurse (i know, not yet but time was of the essence), can you just tell me what the number was? She was like OH, yeah it was 21. MD wants you to have another BMP drawn." Great, i told her, I'll be in as soon as I can. Sheesh, she could have just listened!

I don't like telling to many people though because it can backfire on you. I'd just go with the flow and if it comes up, it does; if it doesn't, nothing lost.

Congratulations on your baby!

- N