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 Community Health, Med-Surg, Home Health.
I work as a CNA and we get trained on how to perform EKG's while in our ER rotation. I do know how to do a 3, 5, and 12 lead EKG, however I do not read them because it is beyond my scope of nursing.

However I do agree that a CNA/PCT does not have sufficient knowledge on how to perform an IM or SubQ Injection and it should be left to the RN

Or, a Licensed Practical Nurse (we are nurses, as well):nurse::nuke:

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Worked with quite a few "nurses" that I wouldn't want near me, my enemies, or a dog. I have found that ability isn't always discerned by education. Simply because they have the education and title does not always merit respect.

There are laws that govern the terms RN and LPN, making impersonation a felony. Simply saying "I am a nurse" isn't illegal in all states.

Personally, finding reduced ability, sorry work ethics, lack of compassion, and absence of basic common sense in the nursing field, I don't see what all the screaming is about.

Picking pepper out of fly @#$%.

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There are some novety badges I've seen, you get them custom made with your name on them, and I've seen heaps of CGs with "Nurse... so and so" on them. Most of those CGs like to be mistaken for an RN and have no problem pretending they are one!

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Specializes in Me Surge.
You delegate tasks to CMA's?????? tsk tsk tsk... thats really NOT ALLOWED.... :nono:

yes 2 years ... I did it b/c I wanted to do so... I love what I do... I have an associates degree in health science...

Your attitude really stinks by the way, I would HATE to be one of your patients or work anywhere around you.... health care professionals should come together to help and assist patients, and everyone should respect each other... something that you lack

Yeah but Guess what?

You are still not a nurse.

Attacking a Nurse here on allnurses will still not make you a nurse. Hanging out on a Website called Allnurses will also not make you a nurse. Working in a doctor's offcie will not make you a nurse. Attending an accreditted Nursing School Graduatiing a passing the NCLEX will make a nurse.

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Yeah but Guess what?

You are still not a nurse.

Attacking a Nurse here on allnurses will still not make you a nurse. Hanging out on a Website called Allnurses will also not make you a nurse. Working in a doctor's offcie will not make you a nurse. Attending an accreditted Nursing School Graduatiing a passing the NCLEX will make a nurse.

Your right... and personally I dont want to be a nurse.. I have bigger plans... I grad in Aug and will continue for my Bach then I'm going to attend Duke for the PA program...

I know I am not a nurse.... and like I said.. no plans of being one either... Seems like 80% of them have major attitudes.. u should watch your attitudes by the way, the pple u r being ugly too could be your boss one day ..

have a good one

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It's no different than a security guard saying he is a cop, or a paralegal saying they are a lawyer, it's wrong - and in some cases illegal! It takes away from the hard work people do to get our coveted titles. After all the work in nursing school - if someone who went to school for a few weeks claimed to be a nurse I would be upset - and I would set them straight. Sorry but that's the way it is.

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I am confused...if you have a associates in health science then what are you graduating from in August? As far as Duke; thats pretty impressive since they only admit 60 students a year to their PA program!

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It's no different than a security guard saying he is a cop, or a paralegal saying they are a lawyer, it's wrong - and in some cases illegal! It takes away from the hard work people do to get our coveted titles. After all the work in nursing school - if someone who went to school for a few weeks claimed to be a nurse I would be upset - and I would set them straight. Sorry but that's the way it is.

It IS different than a security guard or paralegal (in many states). The majority of states DO NOT find it illegal to call yourself a nurse.

As a nurse I don't find it offensive to use the term "nurse" as a generalization.

I find it more offensive that the health care field is spitting out so called "nurses" with little clinical experience, minimum compassion, and a whole lot of ignorance.

It is also very offensive to me that the system many times encourages this bad nursing.

There is a whole bunch of issues that the health field needs to clean up first before wasting energy over generalizations.

I also find it very offensive that, instead of taking care of important patient care issues such as mandatory staffing limits, our BONs and elected officials are spending time on petty legislation like generalizations.

Mandatory staffing limits to care for patients properly, clean up bad nursing practices (like we see at LTCs), THEN work on the lesser issues.

Yeah-yeah-yeah... "but if the public thinks a MA is a nurse- that might be bad if they give wrong advice..."

I see nurses give bad advice all the time- we all see bad stuff in nursing, but we need those "warm bodies", don't we?

If CMA/MA wrong advise at Physician's office is such a major deal- lawyers, companies, physicians, and all others with money involved would have addressed it already.

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Specializes in Me Surge.
Your right... and personally I dont want to be a nurse.. I have bigger plans... I grad in Aug and will continue for my Bach then I'm going to attend Duke for the PA program...

I know I am not a nurse.... and like I said.. no plans of being one either... Seems like 80% of them have major attitudes.. u should watch your attitudes by the way, the pple u r being ugly too could be your boss one day ..

have a good one

1. But yet, here you are on a website for nurses. Hmmmm interesting.

2. I do not have to watch my attitude. The only person who may tell me to watch my attitude is a moderator.

3. If you become a PA maybe one day you will understand. When a unlicensed person refers to themselves as a PA you WILL be offended and stand up for title you earned.

4. Even if you become a PA, you will never be my boss considering that I am a Nurse Practitioner with a multitude of experience and qualifications.

Oh yea by the way I have medical assistants who work for me and when they call themselves nurses I set them straight.

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1. But yet, here you are on a website for nurses. Hmmmm interesting.

2. I do not have to watch my attitude. The only person who may tell me to watch my attitude is a moderator.

3. If you become a PA maybe one day you will understand. When a unlicensed person refers to themselves as a PA you WILL be offended and stand up for title you earned.

4. Even if you become a PA, you will never be my boss considering that I am a Nurse Practitioner with a multitude of experience and qualifications.

Oh yea by the way I have medical assistants who work for me and when they call themselves nurses I set them straight.

Nice post. Unfortunately the downside of 40 years of progress is that others try to latch onto that. While PA-C and physician assistant are generally protected, PA is not in most states. This leads to any number of others trying to use the title. RPA, OPA etc. The federal government also uses the title for unlicensed FMGs that work in the BOP.

I work in an all RN environment now but when I worked with MAs they referred to themselves as MAs. I think that nurses that have not worked in physician offices don't really understand how MAs work and how delegated practice works. There are certain skills that MAs legally can do that (as far as I am aware) RNs can't such as limited scope X-ray.

On the other hand I get annoyed when hospitals try to use other terms to pretend that there are more nurses than there are. I covered one hospital where they referred to everyone as associates. They even tried to get us to note: associate notified - in the chart. I asked the DON if they were going to get big smiley badges also so they could be even more like Wal-Mart. I even suggested a new slogan - low prices, you get what you pay for. She didn't think that was funny for some reason.

David Carpenter, PA-C

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

Giving incorrect information can lead to bad things, yes, however, what I really hate to see is when a nurse, or any health care provider either does not admit that they don't know or that they don't make the effort to find out the facts, but leave the patient in a quandery on what they should do. This, to me, is unsafe nursing practice.

An example of that is I am poor in teaching nutrition. I was able to avoid doing it very often, because I can refer the patient to one of the dietiticans in our hospital or to the diabetic nurse educator. But, it haunted me to not really know. It was not a major focus in my LPN program. Just today, I attended a health fair and a nutritional specialist was present and her practical, hands-on seminar was nothing short of phenomenal!! I had the pleasure of sitting in while I was waiting for my staff to arrive for our portion (blood pressure and glucose screening), but had to get to my post. I went to her afterwards and asked her when and where would she be speaking again, because I want to speak with the confidence she spoke with, while adding my nursing piece to it. We plan to meet next week, thank goodness. It was heaven sent that I attended this affair. I may even have to take a sick day, but this is important to me to learn, so I can speak with knowledge and ease. Also, I know that because I have a license, I am ultimately responsible for the information I dispense.

I don't want to be one of those nurses that is just earning a paycheck.

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Specializes in Community Health, Med-Surg, Home Health.
Nice post. Unfortunately the downside of 40 years of progress is that others try to latch onto that. While PA-C and physician assistant are generally protected, PA is not in most states. This leads to any number of others trying to use the title. RPA, OPA etc. The federal government also uses the title for unlicensed FMGs that work in the BOP.

I work in an all RN environment now but when I worked with MAs they referred to themselves as MAs. I think that nurses that have not worked in physician offices don't really understand how MAs work and how delegated practice works. There are certain skills that MAs legally can do that (as far as I am aware) RNs can't such as limited scope X-ray.

David Carpenter, PA-C

Please enlighten me...what is a PA-C, RPA, OPA? Is there a difference between a PA (which I interpet as being a Physicians Assistant) and the others? Thanks!:wink2:

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