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?
Wow! And to think an anasthisiologist was angry at LVN studends who RN staff was calling "Nurse students" He was raging, he said LVN's are not considered nurses according to the CNA -certified Nurse Association here in California, I had replied I am a cna thinking nurse aid he hated me in nursing school. So here in California now that I have my LVN, I wonder am I a nurse?
You are a licensed practical nurse or licensed vocational nurse depending what it says on your California license or any state in which you are licensed.
Don't listen to that guy, he is just not very knowledgeable!
Specializes in Peds/outpatient FP,derm,allergy/private duty.
Wow! And to think an anasthisiologist was angry at LVN studends who RN staff was calling "Nurse students" He was raging, he said LVN's are not considered nurses according to the CNA -certified Nurse Association here in California, I had replied I am a cna thinking nurse aid he hated me in nursing school. So here in California now that I have my LVN, I wonder am I a nurse?
What do you think? I hope you don't always allow uninformed people to cause you to question whether school plus license that says "nurse" on it plus common sense can be safely relied upon. Dumb stuff isn't any less dumb because it happened to be an anesthesiologist who said it. What the heck is the Certified Nurse Association?
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... !!
hahahahah! i would put this in the category of those "medical professionals" who like to wear their name tags backwards......but wear a white coat, so you're never exactly quite sure who they are or what they do. it gives me the impression, anyway, that they are intentionally trying to mislead the patient and their families. my perception is that they want to feel important, and so they are hoping to elicit some type of deference from their clients, more than they perhaps are used to receiving.
everyone wants to feel wanted, needed, and important. still, none of us appreciates being snowed (read: tricked). i do not like it when hospital staff wear their credentials backwards. now i may be completely in left field. but "client" perception does count for a great deal......no matter how you think you're representing yourself. if you dress up like a fireman, people might think....i don't know....you're a fireman? i mean, if it's not halloween and all....
not only is it a security risk, but it lends toward certain employees taking advantage of patients' trust. i will never wear my name tag backwards. i will wear it with pride and honor. until i earn it, i will wear my student name tag and not pretend to be something that i am not.
i feel like a little old bitty here, giving my two cents, but that's just how i see it..........:twocents:
It is illegal in most states to hold yourself out to be a nurse if you are not and LPN or RN, in fact, that means it is a crime!! Call the police. Call the employer first. It may look like it is employer issued, in fact, it may be a good replica she made.
If she made a good replica, she is in the wrong business.....forgery can earn her a lot more than nursing!!!!!!!
Wow! And to think an anasthisiologist was angry at LVN studends who RN staff was calling "Nurse students" He was raging, he said LVN's are not considered nurses according to the CNA -certified Nurse Association here in California, I had replied I am a cna thinking nurse aid he hated me in nursing school. So here in California now that I have my LVN, I wonder am I a nurse?
If you document patient care as loosely as you wrote this comment you will be in trouble!
Hahahahah! I would put this in the category of those "medical professionals" who like to wear their name tags BACKWARDS......but wear a white coat, so you're never exactly quite SURE who they are or what they do. It gives ME the impression, anyway, that they are intentionally trying to mislead the patient and their families. My perception is that they want to feel important, and so they are hoping to elicit some type of deference from their clients, more than they perhaps are used to receiving.
Everyone wants to feel wanted, needed, and important. Still, none of us appreciates being snowed (read: tricked). I do not like it when hospital staff wear their credentials backwards. Now I may be completely in left field. But "client" perception does count for a great deal......no matter how you think you're representing yourself. If you dress up like a fireman, people might think....I don't know....you're a fireman? I mean, if it's not Halloween and all....
Not only is it a security risk, but it lends toward certain employees taking advantage of patients' trust. I will never wear my name tag backwards. I will wear it with pride and honor. Until I earn it, I will wear my student name tag and not pretend to be something that I am not.
I feel like a little old bitty here, giving my two cents, but that's just how I see it..........:twocents:
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I agree with you 100%. What is also irksome is the practice (widespread) of not wearing a name tag at all, or putting it in an area of your body that others will miss seeing.
I think this whole issue of who calls her/himself a nurse is also a result of sloppy widespread practice. I see it all the time in a wide variety of settings. Very often it is not meant as trickery, it is a result of misguided and uninformed assumptions. Only REAL nurses can cause this to change!
Interesting, and I can understand why you feel like this. However what does the word 'nurse' mean or imply. A mother can 'nurse a child' a wife can 'nurse' her husband. A strange can 'nurse' you. It depends on the context and the 'consent'. She could of said she was the nurse looking after you, and if you asked further, as long as she does not state any false quialifiactions or carry out any inapproprate practice then she would of not done anything illegal. For example did you know that anyone can practice as a psychologist, put a sign up at there door, charge money without any formal quailifications. This is not illegal, as one can 'counsel' anyone, again as long as its does no harm, and the individual being 'treated' should make sure that the person 'treating' has the relevant registration and qualifications.
Um, WHERE do you get your completely false information that anyone can practice as a psychologist? PLEASE don't say things like this when you have no idea what you're talking about! "Psychologist is a protected title by law in almost every state. It is defined by a Doctoral Degree in Psychology, including a dissertation, and an internship." (http://www.division42.org/MembersArea/IPfiles/Wtr_03/Prof_Pract/masters_vs_drs.html) As I understand, a couple of states allow people with master's degrees to call themselves psychologists.
Perhaps you meant to say "counselor" or "therapist"? There are still regulations about those terms, but I think they vary more from state to state.
My primary care doctor has an employee who calls herself a nurse and who he calls a nurse. I haven't asked about her qualifications but she doesn't wear an "RN" tag and does not have the knowledge of a nurse. She misspelled one of my medication names on my form, causing my doctor to think it was something else entirely. She also took both my and my husband's blood pressure incorrectly, coming up with a systolic in the 160s!! I run about 110/50, usually. My husband and I both asked the doctor to retake it and got a more accurate result, but she should have known to retake it herself instead of just telling us that we had high blood pressure.
This woman wasn't acting out of the scope of practice of, say, a medical assistant, as far as I know, but she messed up our assessments and led us to believe she was licensed at a high enough level that we could trust her with even higher level skills and critical thinking, and that's wrong.
I was curious about the "scope of practice" of MA vs LPN/LVN/RN in my state, so I checked our state laws on that subject expecting a lot of hoopla about who can do what. I was surprised to learn that there are two basic things an MA cannot do. Assessments and Triage. A receptionist has even less training than an MA. Very irritating.
Here are the basic economics: doctors have to work harder, spend less time than ever with patients, to earn less money than ever. They can only afford to hire those with the least qualifications to make the numbers work. In the states where I have worked, if the doctor trains somebody in HIS/HER office to act under HIM/HER supervision to give a flu shot, go through a list of questions on the telephone in a screening process or triage function, take a blood pressure, take a basic health history, etc. (you get the idea) then even a person off the street can work for that physician doing the delegated tasks. OF COURSE it would be much better to have a REAL nurse. Doctors don't always get what nurses even ARE! And economics plays a big part in the hiring process. Once this individual is trained to do some nursing type delegations, and they earn so little money, wouldn't you think it would be tempting for them to call themselves nurses if there was no consequence AND since the physician has entrusted them with these important tasks?
One more story--I was treated by a rude and arrogant physician's assistant at an urgent care, it seemed to me he had introduced himself, and been introduced, as "Dr. so-and-so." My husband noticed his tag said PA, and when I questioned him about his assessment and recommendations for long enough, he finally had to get the Dr., his "supervisor," and I got actual treatment.
I had a cold and normally would not have seen anyone about that, but I was completing my final clinical rotation on an oncology floor with neutropenic clients who I did not want to put at risk. I had stayed home for a week, but when I started coughing up green phlegm I thought I'd better find out if I needed antibiotics before too much time went by and I failed out in my last semester. The guy was so condescending ("what you have is a COLD, and I don't care if your phlegm is purple"), and basically told me to buck up, take some cough medicine, and go back to work! He said he had done the same many times, and he was fine... I told him I wasn't worried about myself, I was worried about the patients! But he shrugged it off. Later I mentioned this to the RN, because I was starting to feel embarrassed, thinking maybe I was just a wimp, but he said, "no, that doesn't seem fair to the patients." Yay for the nurse! :yeah:I got some breathing treatments and it cleared up and I got the rest of my hours in...and I graduate with my BSN next week!!
BTW, this guy had also made a big deal about asking me, "is it Mrs. or Miss?" and would not accept "Ms.," then proceeded to make me feel bad about not changing my name when I got married (I'm too sensitive, I know). Grrr.
One more story--I was treated by a rude and arrogant physician's assistant at an urgent care, it seemed to me he had introduced himself, and been introduced, as "Dr. so-and-so." My husband noticed his tag said PA, and when I questioned him about his assessment and recommendations for long enough, he finally had to get the Dr., his "supervisor," and I got actual treatment.
I had a cold and normally would not have seen anyone about that, but I was completing my final clinical rotation on an oncology floor with neutropenic clients who I did not want to put at risk. I had stayed home for a week, but when I started coughing up green phlegm I thought I'd better find out if I needed antibiotics before too much time went by and I failed out in my last semester. The guy was so condescending ("what you have is a COLD, and I don't care if your phlegm is purple"), and basically told me to buck up, take some cough medicine, and go back to work! He said he had done the same many times, and he was fine... I told him I wasn't worried about myself, I was worried about the patients! But he shrugged it off. Later I mentioned this to the RN, because I was starting to feel embarrassed, thinking maybe I was just a wimp, but he said, "no, that doesn't seem fair to the patients." Yay for the nurse! :yeah:I got some breathing treatments and it cleared up and I got the rest of my hours in...and I graduate with my BSN next week!!
BTW, this guy had also made a big deal about asking me, "is it Mrs. or Miss?" and would not accept "Ms.," then proceeded to make me feel bad about not changing my name when I got married (I'm too sensitive, I know). Grrr.
what an arrogant and insensitive way to treat patients....
Specializes in Nursing Education, CVICU, Float Pool.
The theme I got from your original post, and this one as well, is about being able to understand why it upsets licensed nurses when people toss the term around and use it fraudulently. What I was saying is that, being early in nursing school, it's actually not something you can understand in the same way. It's not a knock at you. I understand the rush of getting in to an RN program, too, I was there once...but that's not the same as the feeling bred by years of experience. In this post, I don't know what you're comparing to MA or CNA school at this point (and some MA's are AD's, btw, meaning they have the same level of education as AD RN's), the feeling of getting in to the program? That doesn't make sense to me? Having 2 years of pre reqs and 3 months of nursing school doesn't give you the understanding of what an RN does, yet, at this point. I realize we're all on the same page, here, in terms of the illegal use of the term "nurse," I was only reading from the post that you're seeing it from the same level...and you're not. You will be, someday, and I hope you are successful in your schooling (you have to passion to be, at any rate), but it's not a personal affront, just an observation.
I agree with you that a nursing student at 3 months can't possibly understand what a rn goes through when it comes to misrepresentation. However I do feel that you took what was said completely out of context. It is possible for those who are working toward their degree in nursing to feel offended at impoisters becuase just working to even apply to nursing school is hard. We all share the hardwork that comes with applying to and going through NS! You, though have your work behind you and are now a nurse. Thank you!
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NursyMarie03
3 Posts
Wow! And to think an anasthisiologist was angry at LVN studends who RN staff was calling "Nurse students" He was raging, he said LVN's are not considered nurses according to the CNA -certified Nurse Association here in California, I had replied I am a cna thinking nurse aid he hated me in nursing school. So here in California now that I have my LVN, I wonder am I a nurse?