Dropping the "Nurse Card"?

NutmeggeRN, BSN · Jun 15, 2018

It's one thing to benefit from some kind of unwritten professional courtesy code when pulled over. If it happens, consider yourself lucky. But the people saying that not only do they feel ENTITLED to speed or break traffic laws without consequences, but also insinuate that they would provide substandard care to an officer should they cross paths while working-unbelievably unethical.
The sense of entitlement displayed by some is unbelievable.

I think the respose about the catheter or IV was purely tongue in cheek. Can you really imagine anyone actually saying or doing that? I can't. This forum is for posting fun, funny and ireverant stuff as well as asking for information and support.

Just my .02

NewRN'16, ADN, RN · Jun 16, 2018

Cops is my area do not care if you are "a nurse". I got in trouble 2 blocks from my house , and me being a nurse meant squad to them.

Horseshoe, BSN, RN · Jun 16, 2018

I think the respose about the catheter or IV was purely tongue in cheek. Can you really imagine anyone actually saying or doing that? I can't. This forum is for posting fun, funny and ireverant stuff as well as asking for information and support.
Just my .02

Nope, I've seen it again and again on AN. Most nurses count their lucky stars if they get out of a ticket for being a nurse. Others consider it their RIGHT and get very ticked off if a cop doesn't give them their due, and these kinds of comments typically follow.

curious nature, ADN, RN · Jun 16, 2018

I was really tired after a double shift, and I was pulled over for going 5 miles over in a school zone (kids not yet out of school, but still), and the officer let me go with a warning after asking me where I was going (to post office, then home) and where I worked. I was so grateful! Not usually a speeder, just really tired. It's never happened again!!

triciam888 · Jun 20, 2018

Once when I got a speeding ticket I was told by the cop that if she had known I was a nurse then she would not have written me a ticket. I mentioned it somehow after the ticket was written. I think I might have thanked her for doing her job ! There used to be a professional courtesy thing between those in the help professions. Docs used to see nurses for free. When I worked in a NICU, I could take my child to work and the docs would see them free or you could run by their house and they would check them out. Many ear infections were treated on week-ends by our neonatologists!

allnurses Guide · Jun 20, 2018

I think it works better if you are in a smaller city with only one hospital; we tend to know most of the LEOs on the night shift. And they know us!

I paused in traffic one time to let a car enter in front of me from a side street, ( close to the light, it would have been a long time before there was an open stretch of cars), didn't think anything of it. 2 weeks later a uniformed cop approaches me in the ER and says "you know that car you let in? that was me, thanks!".

markko · Jun 20, 2018

In 1996, I was drinking while at a casino in Minnesota and finished up and headed home to Wisconsin, a fifty mile drive. A trooper stopped me for doing 72 mph in a 65 mph zone at 10 PM. I fail the field sobriety test and blew at 0.10 on the PBT (the legal limit was 0.10 at the time). He put me in the back of the squad car as he searched my car and found nothing. I worried about losing my nursing license and started bawling. He got back to the squad car and asked what's wrong. I told him I was worried about losing my nursing license. He paused a minute and thought. Then he said he was going to drive me home.

In 2002, I got sober.

allnurses Guide · Jun 21, 2018

I was coming home from a hospice patient's death, I was tired and emotionally drained, and kind of zoned out on a mountain road where I live. I was pulled over for going 70 in a 55 mph zone.

Of course I was in my uniform and my stethoscope was on the passenger seat . . . (as an aside, I wouldn't hang it from my rearview mirror as that seems like it would impede vision of the road) . . . He walked up to the window and looked at me realizing I was a nurse and asked me where I was going. I told him and he said he wouldn't write me a ticket but to please slow down. And thanked me for what I do. I live in a small community so I see him often but we hadn't technically met before he pulled me over.

I didn't "pull my nurse card". He just noticed I was a nurse. There is a professional courtesy here and yes, cops do have discretion. I have two CHP nephews in my family so I get all the straight scoop.

My 16 year old however did not get out of a speeding ticket. Even though he was polite. And I'm glad. Learn early, young whippersnapper! :happy:

As to small town "speed traps" . . . I live in a small town right after a curve on the way into town. It is a 35 mph speed limit and people come roaring around that corner all the time. It is a blind corner and for those of us who live in town, a "speed trap" is a godsend! Sometimes the local CHP will simply park right before that curve and folks see him and slow down. I like that.

allnurses Guide · Jun 21, 2018

No! In fact if I have any encounters with law enforcement (which thankfully I grew out of about 17 years ago) the last thing I want anyone to know is that I am a nurse! If said encounter does not go well one might theoretically be reported to the BON which can be an ordeal of nightmarish proportions

Hppy.

bgxyrnf, MSN, RN · Jun 23, 2018

I am very curious if any of you ever dropped the "Nurse" word to get you out of trouble?

I have dodged a couple of citations *because* I was a nurse in a local ED but I've never "dropped" such information in an attempt to do so in the three times that I've been pulled over for speeding.

However...

Myself and a couple of buddies are new recently hired nurses and we call each other on our way home after orientation.

I have a real problem with your attitude and your behavior. There is a good reason that it is illegal to use a cell phone while driving in most (all?) states... it is needlessly dangerous.

I am a cyclist and it angers me that people such as yourself so callously put my life and limb in danger because you can't wait 30 minutes or whatever to yak with your bros.

What's the deal, man, you lookin' to create customers?

Wheels28 · Jun 23, 2018

I wish I could like the post above a 100x..

There no reason to talk and drive, nothing is that important. The person talking on the phone won't be any good to the person on the other end if they are in jail or pass away from an accident.

A few months ago I witnessed someone in the car beside me texting while driving, I was thinking to myself what so important they can't pull or wait. Cell phones have taken over our lives, long before we somehow managed to live life.

Some will make the argument times have changed,have they really? or have we just been conditioned to think we need everything NOW? Smartphones were designed to be addictive, that tells you everything need to know right there.