I'm sure this has been said.. MA's calling themselves Nurses

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So Monday I was in a system-wide orientation for my new job as an LPN. I just graduated (so technically until i take my boards and pass.. I'm a GPN). Anyway- there was a girl in our orientation that was an MA, and said she was a nurse at her Dr's office. I was a little taken a-back by this! Call me a brat but I went through a lot to get IN to nursing school, make the grades and graduate to be able to call myself a NURSE! Does this bother anyone else??

Specializes in Peds/outpatient FP,derm,allergy/private duty.

If you tell someone you are a nurse, even if you only bathe the patient etc, you're misrepresenting yourself. Just as someone calling themselves "doctor" when they are a PA, even though the PA will do many of the same tasks, they aren't a doctor (MD).

As I said, in my experience alert and oriented homecare patients are very aware of who is a nurse and who is a caregiver. In my state, there is no title of "certified nurse" for CNA and if I heard someone say that, I would need to correct that person. Really, it's a matter of common sense that we wouldn't argue with a confused or dying person, but very few people actually fall into that category, and if they had family members who didn't understand the difference, I would explain it to them, because if I don't they may assume the person they are calling "nurse" can do the things that only nurses can do, which complicates efficient delivery of healthcare.

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I am giving Flu Shots part time at Walmart this season. The sign at our table says Flu and Pneumonia vaccines given by Professional Nurses. Some smarty pants (man of 70) stop by the table and said what are professional nurses anyway laughing as he said it. I said Licensed Nurses by the state boards who went to school for a length of time to get a title to practice. So it's clear to me that many people do not even think we have Degrees or Diplomas they think the hospital just trains us?????? Go figure?

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Specializes in Med/Surg, Geriatric, Hospice.
I don't know why we do it, either. I think with that one it means they got all the way through nursing school and well into their first job as a nurse without noticing that almost everyone else says "sat" and not "stat" and the same with spellings. I simply can't stop myself from wondering where the confusion comes in. . . are they calling it a "stat" as short for "statistic"? Are they calling it an "02 stat" because in their hospital most of the patients who need an 02 sat have turned blue and dyspneic a few times during their stay at the hospital so they need their 02 STAT! before they keel over? :confused: Guess we'll just have to wonder! :)

I hate o2 'stat' too, but I was thinking that possibly some people are saying it in reference to a pt's o2 'status'? Thinking that the o2 'stat' is the o2 status? Not totally correct, but not all that incorrect either.:idea:

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I am giving Flu Shots part time at Walmart this season. The sign at our table says Flu and Pneumonia vaccines given by Professional Nurses. Some smarty pants (man of 70) stop by the table and said what are professional nurses anyway laughing as he said it. I said Licensed Nurses by the state boards who went to school for a length of time to get a title to practice. So it's clear to me that many people do not even think we have Degrees or Diplomas they think the hospital just trains us?????? Go figure?

You can blame society for that.

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I hate o2 'stat' too, but I was thinking that possibly some people are saying it in reference to a pt's o2 'status'? Thinking that the o2 'stat' is the o2 status? Not totally correct, but not all that incorrect either.:idea:

Your measuring oxygen saturation so it would be PO2 or O2 sat there is no such thing as O2 stat unless it reads as doctors order as an immediate account of ones O2 status.

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