Do You Keep It to Yourself That Your a Nurse Outside of Work?

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i know this probably sounds crazy but i try to keep the fact that i'm a nurse secret while not at work. only close neighbors, friends, and family members know i'm an lpn. if someone asks what i do for a living, i just tell them, "i help take care of the developmentally challanged". nothing more. i hate it when my boyfriend or mother introduce me to new people and tell them that i'm a nurse. i will kinda laugh and say, "yeah, but only at work." i guess i just don't want others asking me for medical advice or telling me about their medical problems. my young neice, about 16yrs old, even told one of her friends..."my aunts a nurse now and she's rich." i had a good laugh at that one. :chuckle

Specializes in Home Health, Case Management, OR.

I am a super proud nursing student and I love it when my friends ask me questions about things because I can see if I have really grasped the material I have learned. I am sure after I have worked as a nurse for awhile the excitement will wear off and I will just keep my mouth shut!

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Specializes in trauma, ortho, burns, plastic surgery.

Is ok, is me, I am a nurse, why not? I never denied who I am, where I came, but also i didn't make a big deal about these. AND nooooooo I don't have RN on my car's plates, looooool! Is just me and what??? Helloooooooo, open your minds gurls! :D:D:D

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When asked, I usually say that I'm a flight attendant and I'm also a nurse.

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Specializes in Cardiac Telemetry, ED.
I want to say it depends. Of course all of my family know. It's the same old "Do you like it?", "Do you like where you work?", "Why did you leave such and such hospital to go to that other hospital?"...I don't mind telling people I'm a nurse but I don't like talking about work outside work unless it's with a friend who is a nurse because others just don't get it.

I feel the same way. If I were to be really honest in answering those questions, I'm pretty sure I'd be harshly judged by people that hold nurses up to an ideal and have no clue what it's really like to walk in those shoes.

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Specializes in Cardiac Telemetry, ED.

Another thing that happens when people hear I'm a nurse and where I work, is they feel compelled to tell me all about that horrible nurse they had at the hospital I work at.

What's ironic is that I'm always hearing from patients about how great our hospital is and how all the nurses are so nice.

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Specializes in ICU/Critical Care.
Another thing that happens when people hear I'm a nurse and where I work, is they feel compelled to tell me all about that horrible nurse they had at the hospital I work at.

What's ironic is that I'm always hearing from patients about how great our hospital is and how all the nurses are so nice.

Yeah, I don't want to hear those stories too.

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I'm proud to be an RN...so I have no problem telling people at all if they ask.

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Specializes in Public Health, TB.

I don't mind telling people I am a nurse if they ask. Many people, most of my family included just can't figure out what I actually do at work,because I don't work in OR or ED Thanks to TV, those are apparently the only 2 departments in a hospital. Which cuts down on medical questions and that suits me fine.

While I was working on my MN and folks would ask what I was studying, they just couldn't wrap their heads around an advanced degree in nursing. Like, I must have written a thesis on hospital corners or bedpans.:icon_roll

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I usually have no problem telling people that I'm a nurse. If they start rattling off their medical problems and asking me questions about their treatment, I just tell them that I'm a nurse, not a doctor. I usually find that people get really excited when then find out that I'm a nurse....it's like I told them I'm an astronaut or an actress or something. I recently met a girlfriend of my husband's friend and she got very excited when I told her what I do. Fifteen or twenty minutes into our conversation she stops talking and just stares at me and said "I just think it's so exciting that you're a nurse!!" I think some people really think that working in a hospital is actually like working on the set of Grey's Anatomy. :banghead:

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Specializes in Operating Room.

Obviously, family and close friends know and my parents brag about it(how cute is that?:D) but when I'm not at work, I like to go incognito. I don't wear any of those tshirts or sweatshirts that say RN on them and I don't have any bumper stickers or license plate thingies that say it either.

For me, it's part of maintaining my work/life balance!!:clown:

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Specializes in Telemetry & Obs.
I don't wear any of those tshirts or sweatshirts that say RN on them and I don't have any bumper stickers or license plate thingies that say it either.

I went to school with a girl that had RN2BE on her license plate...and she failed out of NS. How embarrassing must that have been at the DMV?!

I'd probably wear a tee shirt if I could find one that didn't say "Nurses call the shots!" Has that been overdone or WHAT?!?

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