Does being addressed as "Nurse" annoy anyone?

[JBMmom, MSN, NP]

I'm good with nurse. Been called way worse, at least they're putting the effort to recognize an attribute rather than just "hey" or "hey you". 

[Emergent, RN]

It doesn't annoy me at all.

[VivaLasViejas, ASN, RN]

I was honored to be called “Nurse”. I had worked long and hard to earn that title and it didn’t bother me at all when patients/families/doctors couldn’t remember my name. (Well, it did bug me a little when the hospitalists with whom I worked forgot to call me by my name, but this didn’t happen very often.) On the other hand, there was a resident in one of my assisted living facilities who called me “Doc”. I gently reminded him several times that I was a nurse, not an MD, but his reasoning was that I was the closest thing to a doctor that they had there and so Doc I became and Doc I remained until I left that job. ?

[hppygr8ful, ASN, RN, EMT-I]

I too work in psych where patients don't always have the ability to express their needs. I don't think being called Nurse bothers me one bit. The past five years I have worked with adolescents and they usually call me by my first name. If they new my last name they could Google my house which I don't want.

Hppy

[Wuzzie]

I prefer "nurse" to the myriad of other things I've been called by patients. Most of them not allowed here per TOS. ?‍♀️

[mtmkjr, BSN]

That doesn't bother me.

What does bother me is when people use "nurses training"  instead of nursing school. Or so and so is "training" to be a nurse instead of studying to be a nurse. 

Training: "The action of teaching a person or animal a particular skill or type of behavior." (First Google definition)

[Susie2310]

On 9/28/2022 at 5:25 PM, mtmkjr said:

What does bother me is when people use "nurses training"  instead of nursing school. Or so and so is "training" to be a nurse instead of studying to be a nurse. 

Training: "The action of teaching a person or animal a particular skill or type of behavior." (First Google definition)

Well, we do train, or at least I hope that we still get to implement clinical skills/clinical teaching that we have been tested for competency on in skills lab along with use of the Nursing Process, on patients in clinical settings eg. acute care hospitals, under our clinical instructor's supervision.  So the definition of nurse "training" is apt. The great majority of nurses provide direct, hands-on, nursing care to patients. Training to be a nurse involves practical application and critical thinking, not just studying, and if students today are earning their licenses by just studying material without practical application on actual patients, in my view this is a big problem. "Training" doesn't mean that one is just practicing rote behaviors; if this is how one is approaching hands on nursing care on live patients this is a serious problem.  

To go back to the OP, I can't imagine being upset at being called "nurse."  Nurses do have names but patients are not always informed of them or may be too sick to remember them, so it makes sense to me for patients to call a nurse "nurse."  "Nurse" isn't a dirty word; it's the quickest and most certain way of attracting a nurse's attention.

[nursel56]

I agree with everyone else strictly on an intellectual basis regarding their reasons for being fine with being addressed that way, but honestly for some reason it does annoy me, although if I hear it shouted in a movie, it's usually because they really need that nurse right then, and I enjoy seeing that nurse swoop in to save the day.

It's just a gut reaction, similar to when a particular doctor long ago would tell patients to go talk to "the girl".  I was in my twenties so I couldn't 100% tag him on the age thing.

 

[Lynker, LPN]

I've always loved hearing that I'm "the nurse". It can be a little bothersome at times, but most of the time it warms my heart.

I can see why it'd make someone uncomfortable or annoyed, though.

[Tenebrae, BSN, RN]

Doesnt bother me. 

I also get called 'Miss' they are usually the ones who have a forensic mental health history and its a requirement that corrections officers are called either 'sir' or 'miss"

I do say 'please call me Tenebrae'. The patient nods goes on their way and next time calls me "miss"

Its better than some of the things some patients can call a nurse

[Gold, BSN]

I have no problem with it. Although I've always worked Paeds the last 13yrs so often children don't remember names. But if I float, or if parents call me Nurse I'm fine with it. I think it's the tone on whether something annoys me or not. If they're yelling/demanding Nurse! In a disrespectful way then yes that's irritating. Also personally ever since young I've always struggled myself to retain names. I need to check a persons name on the chart or practice it over and over to say it right. So I'm rather soft on people using nurse or avoiding my name altogether LOL.

[NRSKarenRN, BSN, RN]

Been called "Nurse Karen" for 45years... or "My daughter the nurse" or "Miss".

In the good ole days, might be called by type of nurses cap or told didn't want a "college nurse"

My  Our Lady of Angels now Neumann Univ. cap: 

"I want that PGH nurse" = Philadelphia General Hospital whose distinctive cap well known.  Facility closed at start of my career; their diploma program known as producing tough but well respected nurses.

PS:  Visit the The Museum of Nursing History housed at La Salle University  cap collection