Is it legal to call yourself "Nurse" when you in fact are not?

caliotter3 · Mar 30, 2010

It is illegal to misrepresent yourself as a nurse when you do not hold the license. You can contact your state Board to find out how to go about reporting this.

ladybugme! · Mar 30, 2010

i know exactly where you are coming from!!!! ( i thought i was the only one who felt this way!)

i am also in nursing school (rn!!) and it really upsets me to hear people who are not nurses... (lvns or rn's) calling themselves nurses!! a friend of my boy friends...wife... (lol) works at an ob office and tells everyone we meet she is a nurse, when in fact she is a nursing assistant! i do believe they work very hard at their job and deserve respect, but to call your self/represent your self as something that you are most def not is not cool. most of them believe that just because they got on the job training and are ablet to adm med/draw blood or do other invasive things...they are worthy of calling themselve "nurse" but not im sorry...that is not what earns you right to call yourself that!!

we (future and real nurses..he he) go through years of hard work, sweat at tears to earn out tittle...and we know the pathology of what the med does...what the blood counts mean, and much much much more!!!

it drives me up the wall.... i was at a doc apt with my mother a few weeks ago and a very smart (cna) was interacting with my mother... i asked her "wow you are really good at what you do...what is your position?" she said "im one of the nurses" i said "oh awesome lvn or rn" and she said ooo "cna" i was like ....hummm...what is not a nurse!!!!! i just think they believe since they do alot of things nurses do..they think they are one... !!

barlowjb · Mar 30, 2010

Ahh, that definitely illegal.

core0 · Mar 30, 2010

Hey guys!
Last week I had to take my father to an urgent care clinic while he was visiting me from out of state. We were both in the exam room when a woman walks in and introduces herself. "Hi, I'm Jane (not her real name) and I'm the nurse". Even her name tag said "Nurse" under it. After she got done taking my dad's VS, I asked her where she went to nursing school since I am currently in nursing school at a college close by. She started stumbling over her words and eventually told me that she had not gone to school at all and wasn't a nurse. She's not even a certified nursing assistant. She simply had received on-the-job training to be doing what she was doing.
As a nursing student who is working extremely hard to earn the title of "Nurse" I was furious! And if she's wearing a name tag that was issued from her from her place of employment, they should be ashamed for misrepresenting this woman as a nurse to their patients. Isn't this illegal, or at least unethical? Am I just over reacting here?

Most states protect the title Registered Nurse and Licensed Practical Nurse as well as the initials RN and LPN. As for the title of nurse a little over half protect the title nurse from being used by those not currently licensed to practice nursing:

http://www.nursingworld.org/MainMenuCategories/ANAPoliticalPower/State/StateLegislativeAgenda/TitleNurse_1.aspx

As for the ethics thats a different story.

David Carpenter, PA-C

LoveMyDaughters · Mar 30, 2010

Thanks for the replies. I think I'm going to check with our state BON on this. The fact that the urgent care center itself allows their employs to misrepresent themselves is a giant red flag to me. What and who else are they misrepresenting? Are their physicians really MDs, or did someone just stick a professional title on that name tag as well?

TeleNurse2010 · Mar 30, 2010

You should definitely report that facility to the BON. I would probably even write a letter to the director/manager of that facility expressing my disappointment as well as the fact that their action is illegal.

I graduate in a little over a month and will soon take the NCLEX and I refuse to call myself a nurse until I am licensed to do so. My son loves to call me a nurse to most everyone he meets, but I remind him that I am not a nurse yet, only a nursing student.

RH

Zookeeper3 · Mar 30, 2010

Reportable event to facility and they, the supervisory area.. hence the facility can be charged and fined and the head REAL nurse can face censure with the licensing board. Assuming there is knowledge that this misrepresentation is occurring.

Four actions are your options here,first strong, very strong letter to the facility, then nasty warning letter to the facility from a lawyer, costs about $50-$75 for one to be drawn up to cease the false claim. Three Joint commission (a nasty choice, but may be needed), four a call to the board of nursing on the supervisor, but in fairness, the supervisory nurse may not know this is happening, and that is a very nasty way to go before trying to solve it internally first... it should be your last option... as little could come from it aside from the supervisory nurse to make every attempt to have this person terminated which should be rectified in the first three steps. I only offer this as a last solution.

rn/writer, RN · Mar 30, 2010

Reportable event to facility and they, the supervisory area.. hence the facility can be charged and fined and the head REAL nurse can face censure with the licensing board. Assuming there is knowledge that this misrepresentation is occurring.
Four actions are your options here,first strong, very strong letter to the facility, then nasty warning letter to the facility from a lawyer, costs about $50-$75 for one to be drawn up to cease the false claim. Three Joint commission (a nasty choice, but may be needed), four a call to the board of nursing on the supervisor, but in fairness, the supervisory nurse may not know this is happening, and that is a very nasty way to go before trying to solve it internally first... it should be your last option... as little could come from it aside from the supervisory nurse to make every attempt to have this person terminated which should be rectified in the first three steps. I only offer this as a last solution.

The choice in bold is NOT something for the OP to do. There was no mention of injury or harm (tort) caused by the circumstances, thus she has no standing to send such a letter. The facility would probably just toss it in the trash anyway.

She should call the BON and report the incident and find out from them if there are any other actions to be taken. A letter from the BON would mean a lot more than one from a disgruntled patient, no matter how justified that patient's feelings might be.

As far as I know, urgent care clinics are not accredited by JCAHO, so reporting to them would have no effect.

Reporting a "supervisory nurse" to the BON assumes there is such a person and that she has actual credentials rather than the cereal box-top and 50 cents version.

The real culprit in a situation like this one is the person who owns the clinic, who is undoubtedly the one trying to get by on the cheap. Don't know if the state BON has any clout to go after the clinic in this regard, but one would hope so.

Zookeeper3 · Mar 30, 2010

the choice in bold is not something for the op to do. there was no mention of injury or harm (tort) caused by the circumstances, thus she has no standing to send such a letter. the facility would probably just toss it in the trash anyway.
she should call the bon and report the incident and find out from them if there are any other actions to be taken. a letter from the bon would mean a lot more than one from a disgruntled patient, no matter how justified that patient's feelings might be.
as far as i know, urgent care clinics are not accredited by jcaho, so reporting to them would have no effect.
reporting a "supervisory nurse" to the bon assumes there is such a person and that she has actual credentials rather than the cereal box-top and 50 cents version.
the real culprit in a situation like this one is the person who owns the clinic, who is undoubtedly the one trying to get by on the cheap. don't know if the state bon has any clout to go after the clinic in this regard, but one would hope so.

first you are misrepresenting my post to assume that the purpose of a lawyer is for damage purpose (tort), a lawyer can be the first line of nudging the wrong party to correct an action to prevent a tort from occurring without any intention of a suit. the op and i have never mentioned that and where you got off on that tangent is a mystery. a lawyer's duty in this case is for a letter of warning to the medical director that claims of unlicensed personal acting as those as licensed can cause a detrimental effect upon the practice if they are further investigated and found to be true.

first the medical director with a very high malpractice fee, looks to the head nurse and they either quickly change this practice if it was his decision or the nurse is given a very short grace period to fix this if he is unaware, additionally if that head nurse was unaware too, the said employee will be discharged or reprimanded. changes in policy there will be quickly made.

this is so simply done before calling the bon, having a hearing which takes months, the head nurse simply claims she/he knows nothing of the misrepresentation... the employee is long fired by then and nothing happens but a waste of scarce resources of our bon.

not every, or very few outpatient facilities are joint certified.... but many are owned and regulated by large institutions that fall under the umbrella of joint and therefore must follow their regulatory practices.

enchantmentdis, BSN, RN · Mar 30, 2010

"shirley", who was very abusive to her young children right on through adulthood and beyond, said that she could be a nurse because she could do everything that "kelly", her registered nurse daughter did and do even more to boot; and "shirley" also said she should just be given the title "nurse" because of all the hard work she had done. furthermore, "shirley" was outraged that she would have to go back to school in order to make as much money as "kelly" did. "kelly" just shook her head and stayed silent, irritating her mom further.

"shirley" is now a porter in a casino, and before that she worked as an unlicensed "caregiver" in a very rich woman's home and complained the whole time how rich the woman was, and said "why can't anybody make me rich, damn it; this "bleeping" lady has everything". "shirley" worked for that woman for a 3 looooonnnggg months.

earlier in life "shirley" was on welfare with five kids, and when she did finally and begrudgingly get into the workforce, the jobs were low paying and required no heavy duty thinking-- something she wasn't accustomed to anyway. and, early on in life, and years later as her kids became more mature and intellectually discerning, yet still emotionally skittish, she moaned, "how could i go back to school when my kids wouldn't allow me to", never letting her kids forget what a burden they were to her.

"shirley" may seem like an idiot but she really isn't; she was very astute at making her daughter "kelly" feel guilty for having made a success of her life by becoming a nurse--and "kelly" used to buy her mom many gifts that went unappreciated because she always wanted her mother's approval; now "kelly" will sporadically phone her mom but refuses to see her, and has not seen her for eight years. and "shirley's" other four grown kids have now rewarded her for saying "my kids would not allow me to go back to school" by funneling her money every chance they get to quiet their tender hearts and to silence her whinings--because "mom never got to go to nursing school". shirley is a success indeed, even without a college education, for she has masterfully found a way to pick up ready cash, which is what she has always wanted, or is it? , without having to lift a finger. lol. no one really likes shirley.

please someone out there tell me if you are relieved that shirley was unable to become a "real nurse".

anyhoo;

i realize i have strayed off topic with this story to illustrate a point, but no one deserves to be called a nurse just because they want to be called a nurse; and no employer should pretend he has nurses working for him just because he wants people to trust him more so he can garner more cash for himself. a lot of this stuff is about greed--the same old refrain.... all names in this true story have been changed to protect the innocent and/or indigent.

Misslady113 · Mar 30, 2010

I don't want to cause controversy here, but here goes. I am a nurse assistant and I mainly refer to myself and the others as Nurse Assistants. I work with the elderly and sometimes they get confused if they ask me for something, but I am not assigned to them for the day, so I tell them I'll go get your NA. They look at everyone there as just nurses, so I learned the hard way that when I call us NA's they look at me like I'm crazy. I have to explain it to them, and they still just call us nurses anyway. So sometimes for simplification, I just say, "Ok i'll go get your Nurse"... even though it's their CNA. Or if they say, "are you my nurse for the day?", I'll just say yes. But I never call myself a Nurse to people who understand or introduce myself as that. It's not easy explaining to old people what's the difference and sometimes they just don't get it anyway. If I'm walking down the hall and they call "nurse" to me, I don't stop and say I'm the NA and have to explain what that is. I just respond and ask what I can do for them. Sometimes elderly people just look at the term "nurse" as the person who is taking care of them, that's not the doctor. It really depends on the people you are dealing with. I hope I don't offend anyone.:redpinkhe