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??

In my opinion, anyone who helps a patient is a nurse. The basic label "nurse" has not become some new fancy elevated position brought on by colleges and technical schools handing out degrees or cerificates. No, to be a nurse all you have to do is personally work to provide care to a patient. Okay, yes, you are no longer a basic nurse; with your LPN you are a more learned and therefore more adavnced nurse. Would you say that all the nurses prior to the degree and certification programs were not nurses? Hey, tell the MA that you are a LPN and be proud of it!!! You are more than just a basic nurse! Wow!

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Specializes in Med/Surg.
In my opinion, anyone who helps a patient is a nurse. The basic label "nurse" has not become some new fancy elevated position brought on by colleges and technical schools handing out degrees or cerificates. No, to be a nurse all you have to do is personally work to provide care to a patient. Okay, yes, you are no longer a basic nurse; with your LPN you are a more learned and therefore more adavnced nurse. Would you say that all the nurses prior to the degree and certification programs were not nurses? Hey, tell the MA that you are a LPN and be proud of it!!! You are more than just a basic nurse! Wow!

No, it hasn't become "some new fancy elevated position," but yes, it HAS become a title bearing legal protection, since it does require licensure to be one. Maybe way back in the day, "anyone providing basic care to a patient" was a "nurse," but that just isn't the way it is now. Nurses don't just provide "basic care" anymore; being a nurse (which, in my state, as I have learned and posted above, means being a REGISTERED NURSE) involves assessing, care planning, safely administering medications, infusion therapy, etc etc etc.

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Specializes in Nursing Education, CVICU, Float Pool.
Unfortunately, only specific job titles such as 'registered nurse' and 'licensed practical nurse' are protected by the law. Therefore, someone without a nursing license is still legally able to refer to oneself as a 'nurse' because the person is not claiming to be an RN or LPN.

It is illegal in my state of NC as well for anyone to use the title or credentials of a nurse including the general title Nurse, Registered Nurse (RN), Licensed Practical Nurse (LPN), APN, NP, CNM, etc.....

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Specializes in Nursing Education, CVICU, Float Pool.

If I were to get a DNP I would most definitely use it. If it would cause constant confusion and conflict with my patients and medical the medical staff then I would use it discretely in a clinical setting otherwise it would be Dr. Mac everywhere I go.

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

This is a situation that will always be difficult to fix, especially in the doctor's office. If the physician is not going to introduce this person as a medical assistant, but as a nurse, then, this is what the patient will believe. I have also seen other situations where the medical assistants have tried to correct both, the patient and the physician countless times to no avail.

Same thing happens to physician assistants and nurse practitioners...they were the long lab jacket, carry a stethoscope and prescribe meds, so, no matter how much explaining, people will NOT accept that they are not a doctor.

In my facility, they decided that RNs and LPNs should wear white bottoms and pastel tops while the assistants wear either yellow, pink or khaki colored scrubs to differentiate us, but they are still calling everyone who wears scrubs a nurse. I notice this occurs particularly with the elderly population. Between television and other propoganda, they have always viewed the person in white or scrubs the nurse.

I only take issue with the MA that introduces herself as a nurse. That, she can control. The rest really can't, unfortunately.

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Why are MA's Writing on allnurses anyway? No offense unless ur an aspiring nurse/nursing student.

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Specializes in Nursing Education, CVICU, Float Pool.
Why are MA's Writing on allnurses anyway? No offense unless ur an aspiring nurse/nursing student.

Lmbo!:rotfl: No offense to anyone, but that was kind of funny to me.

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I hear this and this discussion all the time. we are all NURSING, that is our job. not until the days of florence nightengale did it become a "profession". nurse midwives were around long before there was a curriculum for it. I personally don't have a problem. if and when they start calling themselves RNs or LVNs when they are not, then not only do we have a problem but they need to be reported.

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I believe this site says it is open to all nurses, nursing students, nurse aides, and ppl aspiring to be nurses some day.

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Specializes in Oncology/Critical care.

The unit I work on, there is an unlicensed tech that regularly refers to himself as a nurse. On many occassions patients will ask him to bring them their medications. Only at that point in time will he tell them he is not their nurse, and most of the patients get very upset, because they realize he misrepresented himself. Many times he will try to provide teaching to the patients, or tell them they should be on medications for this and that. There are many patients who have complained about him. The nurses have complained about him portraying himself as a nurse. The managers are aware of what he is doing, but they don't do anything about it. To me the way he is acting appears to be trying to practice nursing without a license.

I can't count how many times patients are upset due to things this UAP has told them regarding their health. And how many times I have corrected the patients telling them he is their tech. They usually ask me what the techs are allowed to do, when I tell them they are upset that they took medical advise from a UAP.

I used to be a tech. I was happy to refer to myself as a tech, and when I was in clinicals as a student I was upfront with my patients that I was a student. I don't understand why people are embarrassed of their titles.

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This happens really often, and yes it is insulting to those of us who have spent years in training, passed licensure exams and have years in the nursing field. My doctor has an MA and every time I am referred to his "Nurse" I correct them. I usually say, "No. She is an MA. I am a Nurse." Then they stutter around a bit and I just let it hang there. Probably not the nicest thing to do, but neither is giving someone else the credentials for free that I had to work years to get...

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Specializes in cardiac, M/S, home health.

Just my 2 cents worth--don't start getting into the whole territorial thing. As someone who's been a CNA, LPN and have had an RN license for 18 years, it makes me sad whenever those in the health care field start trying to exclude others (e.g., ONLY RNs can become members of the ANA, etc.) and "put them in their place", so to speak. I know you worked hard to become an LPN, but just know that some RNs may also bristle at you calling yourself a "nurse". On a side note, all attorneys also receive doctorates (J.D.=Juris Doctor), but I know of no attorney who goes around calling him/herself a "doctor". Just all a matter of self confidence...

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