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so, i don't want to sound catty at all. (great way to start a thread lol) anyways, does it bother anyone else when people who are not nurses call themselves a nurse? now i am not talking about when for example a cna is caring for a dementia pt. really they aren't going to say no i am not a nurse i am a cna and then the pt will ask what that is and maybe it will confuse them and that's not good for the pt. i get that! 100% what i don't get is how other people will tell fully functioning people that they are a nurse when they aren't. they aren't even a student nurse. they are an assistant of some sort. i just feel like that isn't right. i am an lpn/lvn student. i would never try and get someone to think i was an rn student you kno? nursing to me is not just a career it's a total lifestyle. i have given up so much to be an lpn student and i am very proud of my chosen path and find no need to represent myself as anything other than what i am. i don't know why people feel the need to pretend to be a nurse? is it just me? i have friends who are ma's and cna's and we will be out to dinner or shopping or whatever and they will tell people they are nurses. im like what?!?! i feel like nurses work very hard to earn the title! and the title "nurse" is protected in my state so it is illegal to say your a nurse if your not. but i am not going to call the bon you kno?!!? how does everyone else feel about this???? i just feel like people should be proud of whatever they are! there is nothing, nothing wrong with being an assistant! what would healthcare be without them?! so i think they should just be proud of who they are. period!
I work in a clinic with a lot of MA's and i had an experience lately that made me think about this topic. A man came in that was an RN. My coworker said to him, "Dr. ______'s nurse will be out to get you soon". The man then went on a rampage about how she was a MA and did not earn the title and he was going to sue our office because we commited a felony by calling her one. when she came out to get him he told her, "I know you are not a nurse, you know you are not a nurse so stop pretending to be one". really scary situation actually.
Moral of the story: Going rabid over someone being called a nurse is a bit rediculous. I do see the frustration though. Everyone knows their position when the paychecks come out. If(when) i were(am) a RN, i dont think i would stress too much about it knowing that i was being compensated for being a nurse and they, as an MA. feel free to disagree.
IMHO, and from a patient's perspective at least, a "nurse" is anyone who is caring for them and who is not the doctor. RN, LVN, LPN - unless you're in the medical field, those abbreviations can be meaningless and confusing. So while I agree that someone who is an LVN/LPN should never misrepresent themselves as an RN, being called a nurse or calling yourself a nurse is okay by me. After all, they all have the word "nurse" in their title. FWIW, I'm a BSN student starting this Fall.
well i have been thinking about this a lot since i posted the question and i think that i am so bothered by it is because i feel like when my friends who are ma's or cna's lie to other people and say they are nurses i feel like they are saying it to put the person they are talking to down. almost like rubbing it in. let's face it. being a nurse is a huge accomplishment! nurses are very well respected. maybe it is their own insecurities that cause them to lie?! i don't know! i just think it is a little bit odd to call yourself a nurse when you aren't one. i feel like it would be like me saying i am in rn school when i am in lpn/lvn school. i just don't think it is nice to intentionally lie like that. and trust me they do it on purpose! yuck!
OB-nurse2013, BSN, RN
1,229 Posts
I think what you said about nurse=someone who provides care or assists an MD is why it is so annoying because thats a misconception, at least you have to pretend to believe that in Nursing School..One of our first projects was what it means to and what it is to be a nurse and what misconception about our profession is out there.