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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?
That is how it works on our unit. Actually, our manager (a very high up "real" nurse!) said we are nurses, just not QUALIFIED nurses...! I respect the fact that the qualified nurses have SO MUCH more theory and knowledge than we do.I will always introduce myself as an auxrilly nurse- everybody knows what that is, but if I say HCA or CSW or HCSW, then people get confused. But if someone is calling out "nurse", then I will go and answer the call, if I can not deal with it myself, then I call the qualified nurse.
While I'm glad that you can understand where I'm coming from, I could never refer to myself as a "non qualified nurse". Nurses are not just qualified, they are licensed by the state. They could have all the qualifications, but without the license, there is no nurse. And while some patients may have confusion with what the differences are (since we all wear scrubs and do some of the same work), it's important for us( and our managers:rolleyes:) not to confuse the roles and remember what we really are. I'm glad he\she wants to empower you guys, but that's not the way to go about it. :redpinkhe
no misrepresentation intended. most of the time, when people consult an attorney, it is because they have been wronged by someone else in a tangible manner. even when no injury has occurred, it is rare to see a single person use an attorney in this fashion. more common would be for a group to band together to voice their concerns and express some solidarity in numbers. unfortunate as it may be, one lone individual will have a hard time getting a business to pay attention to their complaint.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.
the skeptic in me says that it is highly unlikely that the head honcho (whether it's a doc or a business manager or an owner or some combination of these roles) is unaware that this is taking place. it is much more probable that the practice is dictated from the top down than from the bottom up. if the director doesn't know about this, he or she is not running a very sound organization. if neither the medical director nor the "head nurse" knows this person is not licensed, they are seriously derelict in their duty to vet prospective employees and are as culpable as the one they hired.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.
nurses in clinic practice pretty much do as they are told or they look for other jobs. it could very well be that there are no bona fide nurses--rns or lpns--whatsoever in the practice, and the title of nurse just stands for "person who does things that look nursey in the eyes of the public."
hearings involving individual nurses can take lengthy periods of time, but the simple act of sending an official statement saying that the clinic is breaking the law if it calls unlicensed people nurses could probably go out pretty quickly. sent on official letterhead with a citation of the appropriate law, seems like such a message would pack more of a punch than a letter from an attorney representing one individual.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.
the target here should be the clinic, not the unlicensed person, who may have been misled to believe that she isn't doing anything wrong. who is the more sophisticated entity here--a doc or business manager who runs/owns the place or someone with only a basic education who is probably excited to have such an wonderful opportunity. yes, it's unfortunate that the "nurse" will be out of a job, but she will also not be sued down the road should she make a serious mistake that endangers a patient's well-being. imo, it's the higher-ups that are doing the misrepresenting, both to the public and to the person they dub a nurse after minimal training. those in charge are putting both groups in harm's way to save money.
the op was disturbed by what she saw, and the clinic is definitely wrong to have their employees using titles they have not earned, but she needs to involve people and organizations who have some real legal clout to fight this battle. alerting the folks whose responsibilities include protecting professional titles (the bon) seems to be a more efficient and more effective means of combating this misbehavior than having one individual try to take them on.
as a possible alternative, the op could contact some of her local media groups, especially those who pride themselves on investigative reporting, and ask them to look into what is a growing problem in a tight economy. this is the kind of story that news stations love to do--"how safe is the nurse at your doctor's office?" such a topic would have wide audience appeal. most of us will see a doctor sometime this year.
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.
The difference here is that you are not misrepresenting yourself.
You are a Nurse (assistant) and you are using the title of nurse to ease discussion among your clients. Your name tag (I'll wager) says your correct title.
The OP's story is different. There is someone who is misrepresenting herself in all ways.
While I'm glad that you can understand where I'm coming from, I could never refer to myself as a "non qualified nurse". Nurses are not just qualified, they are licensed by the state. They could have all the qualifications, but without the license, there is no nurse. And while some patients may have confusion with what the differences are (since we all wear scrubs and do some of the same work), it's important for us( and our managers:rolleyes:) not to confuse the roles and remember what we really are. I'm glad he\she wants to empower you guys, but that's not the way to go about it. :redpinkhe
Actually, I do agree with you. We are NOT nurses. I do normally introduce myself as a "Auxrilly nurse" because it is a termn that has been around for donkeys years and most people know what it means. Now I am wondering if it's actually illegal in this country to use the title "Nurse" in any respect...and I will be finding out! I do not want to mislead my patients, either, or offend anyone!
...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.
As innocent as this may seem, it is illegal for you to do this. You cannot misrepresent yourself as a "nurse" when in fact you are not. Especially to patients! You never know who is listening around the corner... you could find yourself in trouble for this in the future. Even in the case of the elderly/demented/confused, you still cannot do this. It doesn't require a long explanation, but a simple correction of "I'm sorry, I'm not your nurse, but I'm his/her assistant."
Now I am wondering if it's actually illegal in this country to use the title "Nurse" in any respect...and I will be finding out! I do not want to mislead my patients, either, or offend anyone!
YES! It is illegal! Many state nursing boards outline just this in their nursing practice acts and/or their rules and regs. You should never represent yourself as or use the title of "nurse" when you do not, in fact, hold the proper license. Bad idea.
I don't want to get on a soapbox over this topic, but this is a practice that really irks me! To some, it may seem trivial I suppose but I've invested a lot in order to be "entitled to be styled and known as an RN." I didn't call myself a "nurse" until the day I earned that title and it's something I cherish dearly. :redbeathe
I've been an RN for 15 years and I see this all.the.time. I worked in an outpatient, non-acute cardiac setting and frequently we needed to report vital sign or status changes to the referring physcian. It was INSANE the number of times someone at the offices told me over the phone that they were a nurse. Umm, hello....if you have to ask me what PVC's are and you don't know how to spell "hypotension" then I'm pretty sure you didn't go to nursing school. There was always a great deal of foundering on the other end of the phone when I asked to clarify the title and 9 times out of 10 a little more investigation showed that the person was usually an MA. I did call the state board of nursing to report the incidents at least twice.
Additionally, I've noticed that physicians make the problem worse by referring to the office MA as "my NURSE." I feel the problem starts there with role recognition and the lines just blur from there.
Not that I am at ALL racially biased, but I have noticed the problem is particularly worse in solo physician practices that are owned by MDs from other ethnic origins (Asian and Indian are worse). I don't know if it is a culturally based problem or what.
Another resource you might consider consulting is your state ANA. They might actually act quicker than your state BON regarding the issue. I could see them writing a very factual and straight-to-the-point letter to the facility on their letterhead regarding the issue - and I'm sure if they brought it up to the BON it would be acted upon much faster.
YES! It is illegal! Many state nursing boards outline just this in their nursing practice acts and/or their rules and regs. You should never represent yourself as or use the title of "nurse" when you do not, in fact, hold the proper license. Bad idea.
I don't want to get on a soapbox over this topic, but this is a practice that really irks me! To some, it may seem trivial I suppose but I've invested a lot in order to be "entitled to be styled and known as an RN." I didn't call myself a "nurse" until the day I earned that title and it's something I cherish dearly. :redbeathe
I am going to talk to our nursing manager about this, as she refers to us as "unqualified nurses" I do not want to confuse anybody, and I think it needs to be cleared up. As I said above, we are NOT nurses, and I have no desire to be taken for one. (love my job, am proud of it !). When I am back at work, I am going to bring this up with her. I know people work hard to be called Nurse. I guess I didn't know any different since thats the way it's always been handled at our facility.
Anyway thank you for your input- it sure gave me a lot to think about and may even inspire some change at our facility!
In Texas, we handle these cases as nurse 'imposters'. Definitely illegal and results in criminal charges. I am actually surprised at how often it happens - we get a listing of cases in each of our regular bulletins from our BON. The most egregious situations are those in which someone poses as a nurse to obtain a job and presents fake credentials. In this case, it sounds as though the person may have been put in this situation by their employer who didn't want the public to know that they were not being treated by a real nurse.
JDZ344
837 Posts
That is how it works on our unit. Actually, our manager (a very high up "real" nurse!) said we are nurses, just not QUALIFIED nurses...! I respect the fact that the qualified nurses have SO MUCH more theory and knowledge than we do.
I will always introduce myself as an auxrilly nurse- everybody knows what that is, but if I say HCA or CSW or HCSW, then people get confused. But if someone is calling out "nurse", then I will go and answer the call, if I can not deal with it myself, then I call the qualified nurse.