How do I tell staff members apart?

Published

I currently volunteer at the L&B/PP area of the hospital. I have to check with the patients' nurses to see if they can eat their meal (when passing out meal trays). However, I never know who to ask! There are way too many staff members, and every time I try to ask someone who looks like a nurse, I get a very rushed answer (the hospital is big & always busy). Is there a way I can tell the lead nurses, RN, LVN, midwives, and doulas apart?

It's only been my second week, and I can only tell apart the NAs (since they wear scrubs).

Specializes in Critical Care.

For further readings on the benefits of color coding read "Brave New World" by A. Huxley or "1984" by G. Orwell. Also the comment about "they love it since they claim that the solid black makes them look slimmer" was quite hilarious. Do you honestly think the nurses tell the administration honestly what they think (or do you even care). Seriously get in touch with reality.

To answer the origional question, when I was in nursing school I tried to remember people's name by the scrubs they wore. (i.e. "Mary"-red scrubs, "Jane"- Scooby Doo), just a memory jogger until things sink in.

Up Vote Up Vote ×

^Thanks to everyone for their replies! I appreciate all of your comments!

I still don't quite get why (some) nurses flip their badges over though. Is there a particular reason for this?

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in CCU, SICU, CVSICU, Precepting & Teaching.
as i stated previously, this was the petition of the patients the ones who pay the salaries of the nursing staff. i been in management for over 35+ yrs. and in a perfect world every nurse or medical staff that comes in into a patient's room will introduce themselves. however, in the real world they don't and most of them do not wear their i.d. badges visually. our facility had no desire to keep us nurses "down" as you stated, our only desire is to help our patients. in addition, 90 percent of our medical staff are bilingual, and in patients rooms we have a board that has the image of each scrub status. moreover, our new employees & volunteers have expressed their gratitude for making their task easier when they need to take a concern to a higher level staff member.therefore, there's no confusion when a patient or a new staff member joins our facility.:redbeathe

i'm not sure where you work, but i've never had the misfortune to work in a facility where patients pay my salary. i still believe color coding of professionals is treating them as unprofessionally as possible. if the issue is with introductions or not displaying id tags, address that. and what does being bilingual have to do with color coding professionals?

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in CCU, SICU, CVSICU, Precepting & Teaching.
^thanks to everyone for their replies! i appreciate all of your comments!

i still don't quite get why (some) nurses flip their badges over though. is there a particular reason for this?

badges twist and turn as you move, so it may not be intentional. but there are places where it's dangerous for the patients to get your last name. i've been stalked, and i know one nurse who was assaulted in front of her home because family members who had a beef with her looked up her address and then waited for her.

Up Vote Up Vote ×

Im presently an HCA. There was another post on this. I think some do it as they may want to play a higher role. However I really think that like myself the badge flips over on its own. What I have found though recently is using an extra pin so that this way the plastic cannot flip at all as with the clip the badge is able to turn around. Plus another benifit is with pinning it one is double protected from losing ones badge :D.

Before I started pinning my badge, my badge would flip over constantly so yes my name or role could not be seen. However when a pt called "nurse nurse" I would go to them, as there usually was no nurse around, unless a PN was near, and then they were busy so they would rather us go. So then we go and see what the pt would like. If it is something simple like standing up, taking them back to their room, bathroom, etc then we take care of it, if the pt feels nauseas, dizzy, fever, etc then I (or whoever is attending to the pt) will tell them that we will get the nurse, which we do immediatly. We do not play Nurse...we are not nurses...our pt's know that we are not nurses...but the RN's and PN's are not going to drop what they are doing to take one back to their room when it is something that we can do with ease.

Saying all that...I love wearing various scrubs. Our pts love our scrubs. They love flowers, Mickey Mouse, Christmas Scrubs, Hearts, I love it when I get a smile from someone from something that Im wearing. I then know that Ive helped put that smile on their face :)

Up Vote Up Vote ×
but there are places where it's dangerous for the patients to get your last name. i've been stalked, and i know one nurse who was assaulted in front of her home because family members who had a beef with her looked up her address and then waited for her.

wow, really?! yikes! :eek:

thanks for the replies!

Up Vote Up Vote ×

The retractable clip or the lanyard your badge is attached is what flips the badge over, not the wearer.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in NICU.

We wear two badges, back to back, so that you always have one facing out.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
We wear two badges, back to back, so that you always have one facing out.

We do the sam, however instead of two ID's we have our Emergency colour codes which we are required to wear on the flip side of our ID badge (Red/Fire,Black/Bomb Threat, White/Missing Person ??,Purple/hostage Taking???) -hmmm I should read it more I suppose...oopps.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Med-surg Telemetry, Leadership, Education.

When my DH was recently in the hospital, I appreciated the color coding of uniforms by position, so I could phrase requests appropriately, e.g.; ask the CNA to check with the nurse about him receiving pain medication (rather than asking the CNA to actually give it, which if you can't tell who's who just wastes everyone's time). I don't think the color coding would be a huge issue. I do think staff on the pediatric unit were allowed to wear patterned scrubs, though.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Trauma, ER, ICU, CCU, PACU, GI, Cardiology, OR.

In response to all of you that answered my post, I shall say it has worked for our facility for over 2yrs. now. Furthermore, for those of you that don't think that the patients aren't the ones who pay your salary think again, if there were no patients you and I wouldn't have a pay-check in a hospital environment. Moreover, as I stated previously it was the patients that complained about been unable to figure the status of who came into their room, and after addressing the I.D. badges with first name Only, plus the Status, that we gave our staff the option of the color scrubs and they chose the color scrubs. In addition, the reason for the bilingual was because someone previously stated "what if the patient didn't speak the language" therefore, I answered to that particular concern. In conclusion, with the economy as it stands and the increase of lack of work for nurses specially for new grads. the last of our nurses concern is the color of their scrubs:redbeathe

Up Vote Up Vote ×
+ Join the Discussion