I know a CNA who's name badge says nurse!

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Okay, my relative by marraige is a CNA II. She works for a Dr's office that is owned by a larger hospital coorporation. Since she has worked for this office she has called herself a "nurse" and she does get to administer IM injections and do lab draws, EKG'S, immunizations, and she says she even does patient teaching. Her husband told all the parents on our ball team that if any emergency arose not to worry because his wife is a nurse. This truely irritaes me to no end because I worked my butt off to get through nursing school and sacrificed so much to get my RN. I hate the fact that she has no idea what nursing is all about. Well, the other day she got off work and I saw that her badge said nurse, not LPN or RN just nurse. Not only am I offended that she uses this title but I feel like it is very misleading to patients who see Dr's at this practice. I know there are some good unlicensed health care workers but they still do not have the background, education or right to call themselves nurses. I have not confronted her about calling herself a nurse but I see this happening in the future. Makes me wonder if the "nurses" in the office that I go to are really nurses. I think from now on I will ask, "Where did you go to nursing school," just to be safe.

Specializes in med/surg, psych, public health.
You're right most people do not know the difference but the unlicensed person who allows patients to call them "nurse" does know the difference and if they don't inform the patient then they are wrong. Allowing a patient to believe you are something you are not is deceptive and is not good patient care :nurse:

ITA and as a CNA II, I was taught as such.

All CNA's are supposed to be taught that!

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Specializes in Community Health, Med-Surg, Home Health.

I remember when I was being trained as a patient care associate at my hospital and one of the nurses told us not to perform jobs that are not in our scope of practice. If we wished to do this, then go to school to become a nurse. Not being one does not make you less of a person, but it is safer for the patients and you are less than likely to cause harm to someone. That stayed in my head; in fact, it haunted me. I hated to see CNAs and other unlicensed titled people assume that with a bit of extra training that they can suddenly supercede a nurse. And when I finally did enter into nursing school, it was definitely an eye-opener and proof that I was better off not trying to pretend to be something that I am not. There is a difference between skills and the knowledge behind the skills I learned...a BIG difference. The same between an RN and an LPN...there is a different knowledge base. Period.

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It is interesting...a physician would go wild if a physician's assistant called themselves a doctor, but will not blink an eye to call a medical assistant a nurse. Sometimes, unfortunately, this shows how some of the physicians (not all, mind you) think of us.

I suppose in the microculture of a physician's office, if you say "nurse" enough times it becomes true. I would imagine the medical assistants eat this up and go along with the deception that there are actually nurses employed. Great ego boost - all of the respect without all that tedious education.

In my opinion, doctors are 100% to blame for this problem (they know better!) and are watching the bottom line ignoring the ethical implications.

Who is the patients advocate? I think the doc's believe they can "knight" anyone under the assumption they are supervised by a physician. No - there is more to it than that.

I am also disappointed that the BON's have not acted in the best interest of real nurses.

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Specializes in Community Health, Med-Surg, Home Health.
I suppose in the microculture of a physician's office, if you say "nurse" enough times it becomes true. I would imagine the medical assistants eat this up and go along with the deception that there are actually nurses employed. Great ego boost - all of the respect without all that tedious education.

In my opinion, doctors are 100% to blame for this problem (they know better!) and are watching the bottom line ignoring the ethical implications.

Who is the patients advocate? I think the doc's believe they can "knight" anyone under the assumption they are supervised by a physician. No - there is more to it than that.

I am also disappointed that the BON's have not acted in the best interest of real nurses.

:up:You are "absolutely" correct in all that you said; physicians do know better and I believe that the BON should be interceding.:bow:

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How would the BON intercede since MA's have certification and the BON has nothing to do with this? I am just wondering because the hospital I work for is now employing CMA's in different depts.

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The BON would intercede by re-establishing scope of practice in all parts of health care. If they can't do that, unions are in order to protect patients and nurses.

Just my thoughts. I am only one person.

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Specializes in Community Health, Med-Surg, Home Health.
How would the BON intercede since MA's have certification and the BON has nothing to do with this? I am just wondering because the hospital I work for is now employing CMA's in different depts.

I am not sure, but most hospitals that employ CMAs hire them in the nursing department, and if that is so, then, yes, under those circumstances, they would have to work for and under the auspice of an RN. From what I have seen, they are usually hired as Patient Care Techs, because they have had the training to do vital signs, specimen collection and phlebotomy-meaning that they would be working under nursing. It also depends on what department they are hired for. If it is patient billing, working as a phlebotomist in a lab, or elsewhere, then, answering to a physician or a nurse might be irrelevant, since these departments probably would not have nurses working there.

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My hospital is placing them in positions usually held by CNAs and they do work in the nursing dept. A couple have been floated to my dept. but I have not yet worked that close to them. I do know words have been flying in other parts of the hospital between the LPNs and MA's. Been trying to educate myself on their "scope of practice" since they started. Read a lot on the net-seems like a lot of conflicting info.

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Specializes in Community Health, Med-Surg, Home Health.
My hospital is placing them in positions usually held by CNAs and they do work in the nursing dept. A couple have been floated to my dept. but I have not yet worked that close to them. I do know words have been flying in other parts of the hospital between the LPNs and MA's. Been trying to educate myself on their "scope of practice" since they started. Read a lot on the net-seems like a lot of conflicting info.

Since they are not licensed, they would not be allowed to administer medications, and actually, their scope would be defined by their job description. And, again, I doubt very seriously if they would be allowed to function in any way like an LPN would, no matter what they did in a doctor's office. I know a few that were hired as patient care associates, and they do similar things as in the office, specimen collection, vital signs, draw blood and do clerical work. They have to report abnormal things to the nurse and those that work in our clinic would not be allowed to give medications or do teaching except for how to collect the specimen that was ordered. Most told me that they felt limited because they did much more with the private doctor, but they didn't get benefits, and for many, were not able to find positions after graduating from their programs.

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I hope the CMA who went through 2 years of hard training and is qualified to do what an LPN does (in her opinion) has read through each and every post and each and every response. You need to think about what you are doing and the choices you made spending 2 years to receive that training and you are right , I did not feel safe and secure working beside a CMA taking on some of the responsibilities because they should have been hanlded by a licensed person. So I did what I thought was "safe" for my license, I quit that job. It comes down to reading the scope of practice set by every BON in every state, you should not refer to yourself as a "nurse" unless you have a license. PLEASE USE YOUR TITLE, CMA (CERTIFIED MEDICAL ASSISTANT ) Once you go back for another 2 years and pass the boards you have then earned the right to use the word NURSE. Good luck

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I agree 100 %. I would also lkie for someone with the proper knowledge maybe from the BON to answer this question. Who is the advocate for the patient and a FNP does not refer to themselves as a MD nor does the PA say MD so why does it have to be so with the nursing field. It seems like we get the least amount of respect in every aspect.

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Specializes in Med/Surg.

CNA's are under the BON correct? How can a CMA be used as a CNA? I'm not sure I understand that. CMA's learn injections, drawing blood, clerical duties, not CNA duties other than doing vital signs.

Also, I have looked at the profiles of some of the other nurses. I know what diploma, ASN, ADN, BSN, MSN, NP, DNP and DSN are, what is "other"? Are there any other nursing degrees other than those mentioned above? :imbar

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