Call yourself a nurse?

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Call yourself a Nurse?

Long post warning

I know this issue has come up before but I have a problem with an individual who is apparently doing the above, calling herself a Nurse when as far as I can see she's not.

The situation is complicated, I'm in the UK, though not British by birth, and this person is American, now I've 'lurked' here a bit and occasionally posted but I confess that I really don't always understand some of the abbreviations and distinctions made in the threads.

We both work for a private Company,in the UK, and in this role have no patient contact, which is why I haven't made a big deal of this before.

I'm part time in my private role and also work as a senior nursing sister in the NHS, and I will say that the company has been very good to me, they have been very flexible towards me as regards my days of work (I'm contracted to work two set days but their attitude is once I work the hours I'm contracted to they don't mind too much which days I work, I acknowledge that I am very fortunate in this and this is part of why I'm pi**ed off as I feel that she is conning them too)

There is also the issue that she claims (ok I was trying to be very good, but giving away gender isn't too bad is it?) anyhow she has on her CV that she served in the forces, which also really gets me. But if she is ever asked about it the story changes each time and has actively denied been in the forces to another member of staff. (This is a sore point as my partner is in the forces and served in Iraq but that's another story)

Anyway to get to the points this person claims that

1.She was active in the armed forces

2.That she is a nurse

In her CV she has that she was a "Health Care Administrator" and claims that this means she's a nurse? Is this right?

Nowhere does she give where she gained her RN? Now I worked hard for my RN qualification, but if I'd had to pay to do my training it like you do in the USA, I'd have it tattooed on my forehead.

She has stated on numerous occasions that she's 'the same as a nurse ' but that the UK won't recognize her as such.

Now I've worked with a lot of nurses who trained in other countries (Spanish, French, Swedish, Philippine, Irish, Indian, Japanese, Chinese, Aus NZ as well as some from the US) and ALL of them say that it is a lot easier to be recognised in the UK that in the US, and a lot of the nurses from the Philippines come here to work while studying for the NCLEX.

As regards nursing education in the UK, you can either go the Diploma or degree route; at the end of each you are still a RN. The reason most nurses go the Dip route is that it has an attached bursary, yes, not only do you not have to pay tuition but the government also give you approx £5305 a year/ $10435 a year to train as a nurse.

To do degree level you still come out with an RN but also with student loans, so most so the Dip route and once they decide the area they want to stay in, do top up courses in order to specialise in that area

Anyway this person has told other staff that

-I cannot be a nurse because she's looked at my CV and I 'only' have a diploma in nursing.

-That my partner can't have been in Iraq, because she's seen him and doesn't recognise him. I mean really?

-Has given medical advice to other members of staff that is frankly dangerous, some of them have got annoyed with me because I say I can not diagnose, I advise you to go to your GP, the reply is 'but ***** said I should ..............'To which I bite my tongue and say I can only say I would not do that personally and would see my GP

-Has confused basic medical terminology, now we all have bad days but bad weeks? But recently spent hours claiming that Atrial Fibrillation and Atrial Flutter were the same thing? When another member of staff asked me to 'adjudicate' she then claimed that in the US the two terms are interchangeable, I find that difficult to believe.

Now we review info from drug trials, if you had the choice of giving / taking a drug that has the possible side effect of A. Fibrillation or a drug that has the same outcomes but has the possible side effect of A. Flutter which would you choose?

-She appears to recognize that in calling her self a nurse that she is doing wrong. In that I started work at the company a few months after her, until then she was claiming to various members of the team that she was an RN waiting to register in the UK and once she did she was going to start looking for work at the local hospital. (You do not need a nursing qualification to hold my current post, so I didn't really make anything of me being a nurse when I started mainly to avoid been asked questions/ told histories about colleagues medical issues.) How it came up was that one of her team trying to be helpful (and get her to leave) told her what my other job was and suggested that I could help her with getting her registration and finding a job.

This is when her story changed from I'm a nurse to I'm the same as a nurse. And then claimed to various colleagues that they had misunderstood her and that they didn't understand the difference between US and UK nursing

As I said at the start this is a long post, but what I really want to know is does having a

'Bachelor of Science Honours in Health Services Administration'

mean that you are a RN?

To be honest at this point she is not only giving nurses a bad name but really giving US nurses and their training a bad name.

Specializes in Orthopaedics, ITU and Critical Care Outr.

Oh Kittagirl, I would be *so* annoyed in your place.

I'm a UK nurse who went the degree route...still paying off the loans 5 years later!

Your colleague clearly knows she is wrong, as she changed her behaviour around you.

I sometimes get fed up with NA's / HCA's calling themselves 'nurse' (ooh, controversial topic...I know they're all part of the team and have a very caring / nursing role... don't flame me) and they have far more of a right than your colleague, with an admin degree?!

Stay calm, stay away form her. If people realise she's not right (=lying) about some things, they'll soon learn to take everything she says with a pinch of salt.

Good luck.

I agree with all other posters about earning the right to call yourself a nurse. I worked hard for it, I earned it, I have the scars, degree, and liscense to prove it!!!

But, I also wanted to respond to the OP comment about her co-worker claiming to have been in the armed forces. I am a veteran and do take offense to those that make false claims that they have served, let alone making false claims to having served in a war zone. Too many kids in my very small community have come home in body bags for me to tolerate that kind of malarkey. If the OP ever does decide or have the opportunity to confront this colleague, please let her know that those that really do or have served have the honor and dignity not to lie about it.

Sorry, just a slight pet peave of mine. Good luck with this situation. God does sort it all out in the end.

bachelor of science in health services administration is not a nursing degree program in the us but rather an education program to teach managment of healthcare businesses.

federal government info: medical and health services managers

drexel u niversity's description sums up degree:

the health-services administration bachelor of science (b.s.) degree program, which consists of 180 quarter credits (120 semester credits), is designed to give students a foundation in general management and economic principles and policies related to health care and enables students to qualify for administrative/managerial positions in hospitals, managed-care organizations, health-insurance companies, and health-marketing firms. the program exposes students to the quantitative and qualitative aspects of the health-care industry by means of health-services-administration courses related to policy, law, economics, management, and marketing, as well as interdisciplinary courses dealing with religious, ethical, psychosocial, political, and historical perspectives on health-care practices.

lol!! i'm reading this, and have two thoughts:

1. yes, she apparently does have a degree in bs! ;)

2. sounds like a pretty respectable degree, and puts you on the admin side of healthcare.... why on earth would anyone pretend to be on the blood and guts side?!? heck, health services admin would at least have a better wardrobe and less mess. ;)

good luck in dealing with this one. you have two choices, too. leave her to hang herself (sounds like she will eventually) -or- get a hold of those who check such things for your company and let them know what is going on before she gives bad advice and hurts somebody.

i know in the us, there was something about that in ethics: if we know someone to be doing something dangerous, we actually are supposed to say something, to protect our licenses. i don't know that this would be covered for a wannabe-nurse.

i have run across several cna's who said they were nurses. one even had personalized tags on her car. i respect the job they do, it's major. but it really bothers me.

oh, and i'm an lpn going for my rn/bsn now, and eventually my np. i may have to get a tattoo when i'm done! (may throw a dnr tattoo in there, at the rate it's going!!! :D

smiles,

mel

Specializes in CVICU, PICU, ER,TRAUMA ICU, HEMODIALYSIS.
Before I became a nurse I loved to play doctor and give people medical advice. Since getting my RN I have seen the error of my ways and no longer give medical advice. It just isn't safe. I always tell every one they need to see their doctor. I worked too hard for my degree to chance loosing it. No one ever gets mad at me for not helping them and most are amazed and happy when I tell them to see their doctor.

While I agree with the substance of what you are saying, I must state that when I hear a non-medical person say something that sounds medically dangerous or unsound I WILL make a comment. Like they say, "It's all in the delivery". We have an elderly man who sprays our house for insects (we live in the mountains of AZ with scorpions, centipedes,etc) monthly. This month he mentioned he had cataract surgery and that his surgeon had had to aspirate blood from his eye a couple of times; I know this man pretty well over the past 8 years, and know that he also takes aspirin prophylactically due to previous CAD. I merely mentioned to him that he should make sure that his surgeon is aware that he is on aspirin and any anticoagulants or NSAIDS. Another time while shopping at the local food coop, I ran into a young mother who had a 14month old who had had a severe case of croup; she said she had been scared to death when her infant started the typical "crowing sounds" of croup and seemed to be having some difficulty breathing. She said she took her to the ER and they told her to get a humidifier so she was using an old hot steam vaporizer that her mother had. I suggested that the cool mist humidifiers were more effective with decreasing the swelling that occurs in croup; I also mentioned what we used to tell mothers in the ER where I used to work: If your infant develops the symptoms of severe respiratory distress at home, take them out into the night air if its cool or as a last resort, while waiting for EMS, open the freezer and stand so the baby can breathe the cold air. It has saved more than one infant's life that I know of. Call me crazy, but when I know that someone is in need of some simple medical knowledge that could make a real difference in their life, I cannot withhold it and back off and tell them just to see their doctor. I always end ANYTHING I do tell them with, "But make sure you see your doctor about that", or "That's something you really need to let your Doctor know about." I have worked as a RN for more than 30 years and have never had a complaint or incident report against me for any reason.

Specializes in Trauma, Teaching.
Call me crazy, but when I know that someone is in need of some simple medical knowledge that could make a real difference in their life, I cannot withhold it and back off and tell them just to see their doctor. I always end ANYTHING I do tell them with, "But make sure you see your doctor about that", or "That's something you really need to let your Doctor know about."

:yeahthat: I just consider it patient education, which is one thing we are all supposed to do. I only share "common sense" type stuff, fluids, rest, Acetaminophen or NSAIDs. I always say, if your child is having ANY trouble breathing, go in! Follow up with your doctor. But there are a lot of new moms that just don't know what to do for babies, since we don't usually live with our moms and grandmothers nearby to help out and teach.

At church, I get asked a lot of things, but not advice as much as to get stuff explained well enough to understand better.

Fortunately, I haven't run into too many people who claim my title, but it still burns me up. People have been surprised when I tell them "nurse" is a legally protected title.

Specializes in Me Surge.

Off the topic but after the recent death of Anna Nicole Smith. The media were reporting that a nurse was in the room when she died. (I guess this nurse failed to notice that her patient had STOPPED BREATHING.) Later it turns out the body guard is an EMT. Later I'm sure we will hear that the bodyguard took a CPR course once. But for days it was reported that "a trained nurse was in attendance." That irritated me most of all, nurses aren't trained, nurses are educated.

Specializes in LTC, cardiac, ortho rehab.

hmmmm, if she doesnt have lvn or rn after her name, shes not a nurse. health admin isnt the same as nursing and it will never be. someone needs to put her in her place before she gives the wrong advice and puts someones life in jeopardy.

Hi--I enjoyed reading through all the posts--the outrage is mine as well about someone claiming to be a nurse who is not. I also hesitate to give any advice. Here is when I go completely off topic...sort of. I have an older friend who last year told me he had just stopped taking his cardiac/HTN meds. I was curious what he was on, and he said that he had just sort of stopped...I was horrified and concerned, and I began to nag. Now this wasn't medical advice, really, just take the prescribed meds b/c you have family hx, htn, blah blah. He didn't listen and ended up in the cath lab with a stent in Aug. Big old blockage, MI. Lucky guy, really. Now, he tells me he is taking lots of aspirin for headaches. (On top of the anticoags for the stent, etc.) I really just want to kill him to end the suspense of when he will die. What to do with people in your lives like this? Where is the pt education if it isn't with us out there in the community?

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