Is it legal to have RN's use full name on badge?

Susie2310 · Dec 12, 2014

Our names should not be displayed for all freaks to look us up. Only if they file a formal complaint with the hospital should our name be disclosed.
MD's and RN's are a COMPLETELY different, we don't prescribe as well as many other things.
Health care workers seem to have the short end of the stick in almost every way. Its a shame, for these reasons I see many leave the field. Not cool.

As others have mentioned, as a licensed professional rendering professional nursing services, you are accountable for the care you deliver to the person to whom you are delivering the care. Hence the requirement for your last name to be visible. Patients have the right to know the name of the licensed nurse caring for them at the time they are receiving the care. They don't have to take legal action in order to have the right to know their nurse's name, nor should they. This is part of the responsibility of being a nurse.

If you put yourself in a patient's place, lying in a hospital bed, on a unit that is short staffed, receiving medications and procedures that can seriously injure you or kill you if administered/performed incorrectly, relying on your nurse's assessments and professional judgement, wouldn't you like to know the name of the person who is responsible for these things? Wouldn't you feel that you had the right to this information? Do you think that the patient's family doesn't have the right to this information? (and just to be clear, I am referring to family members that the patient wishes to be involved in their care).

B52, BSN, MSN, RN · Dec 12, 2014

I work at a dual-diagnosis substance abuse facility and we have only our first name on our badges. I have a very odd first name, so if anyone wanted to find me they could easily google me and find my address. So far, I haven't been stalked. Now, before I was a nurse I was a newspaper reporter and my full name was printed atop my stories. This was back when people actually read newspapers, phone numbers were listed, and I wasn't even thinking about becoming a nurse. Someone who was not happy with a story I wrote decided to call me EVERY MORNING and tell me how much he did not like the story, which had absolutely nothing to do with him. That was a bit disturbing. He eventually stopped calling.

dudette10, MSN, RN · Dec 13, 2014

I dont wanna argue or be insulted. I just want a flawed system to be improved a little... Thats all.

But it's not flawed.

Yes, MDs and RNs are different. Physicians have it worse, in my opinion, getting called at all hours of the day. Having to block their cell numbers from patients when returning calls.

I had a conversation about the safe discharge of a patient with an attending today. He said he has had the patient for years, and he made the mistake of giving his cell number to the patient's son. He's dreading the next few days with multiple calls from the son. We don't have to deal with that, thank goodness.

If you don't like the idea of a patient knowing your name, then don't become a nurse or leave the profession all together.

Horseshoe, BSN, RN · Dec 13, 2014

I'm amazed that a nurse doesn't know that HIPAA is about protecting the medical records of patients and has nothing to do with privacy concerns of caregivers.

SinMiedo · Dec 13, 2014

Not super relevant, but I felt the need to clarify re. police: My S.O. is a police officer, and his badge has Ofc. First Initial Lastname. His full name is obviously known if he has to go to court, but his badge, signature on tickets, etc all read this way.

I work in corrections and sign my documentation S. Miedo LPN (obviously not my real name.)

It's probably not necessary; other than a slightly less common spelling of my first name, my real name is so common I joke that I'm Google-proof, lol.

But I feel like it's professional and acceptable in most situations to go by Nurse Fist Initial Lastname if you so choose. :)

dishes, BSN, RN · Dec 13, 2014

@nitrorockett, maybe you would be more comfortable working in an area that does not require you to wear a name tag or to develop a thereaupeutic relationship with patients, have you looked into OR nursing?

Tenebrae, BSN, RN · Dec 13, 2014

I'm not in the US, however when working in mental health there is the provision for nurses to have their last name covered. The rationale is that if a patient is very unwell mentally it makes the nurse somewhat more difficult to find as they have had to deal with harassment, hang up phone calls, physical threats have also been made.

Our nursing council have made it very clear that they expect nurses to maintain a certain degree of professionality on the internet and social media simply due to the fact that photos of a registered nurse puking their guts out has the potential to put the public face of nursing into disrepute.

And no, as others have said its not a privacy violation patients have the right to know who is caring for them

Meriwhen, ASN, BSN, MSN, RN · Dec 13, 2014

I work in a hospital where we have our first and last name on our badges. Patients look up our legal records, and try to look us up on facebook. Isn't this a HIPAA violation? That is invasive to our personal lives which has NOTHING to do with work.
The way I see it is that patients have no right to know or first and last names. That is unsafe to us, and our families, I have many mentally instable patients!

The patient has the legal right to know who is caring for them. So yes, they do have the right to know your first and last name. Also, their looking you up on Facebook has nothing whatsoever to do with HIPAA. I'm not saying it's OK, just that there is no HIPAA violation there.

That being said, many facilities will allow staff to cover their last name up on the badge. The patient may have the legal right to know your full name, but that doesn't mean you have to offer it first.

Loo17 · Dec 13, 2014

Just my two cents but I think a lot of people would be very uncomfortable with a doctor performing surgery on them if their name tag said Dr Joe or Dr Joe with a piece of white tape over his last name. This is why I choose not to cover my last name on my name badge even though my employers allows it for ED staff. I feel I have a professional duty to display my name or have it available. I think any licensed professional does. Whether they be a doctor, a nurse, or a plumber.

Editorial Team / Admin · Dec 13, 2014

Our names should not be displayed for all freaks to look us up. Only if they file a formal complaint with the hospital should our name be disclosed.

A) Patients are not freaks.

B) Patients have a right to know who is caring for them.

C) Patients have a right to request a copy of their medical records. Your full name will be available, even if you try to circumvent having your full name on your ID. Making a formal complaint is not necessary, again, because patients have a right to know who is caring for them.

D) If this is the battle you find most important to fight in nursing, perhaps nursing is not for you.

Esme12, ASN, BSN, RN · Dec 14, 2014

Boy, nursing seems to get more ridiculous every day, we must be the most abused profession I can think of! And on top of it all we don't even have privacy.
Time we start standing up for our rights, we don't have many...

Nurses licenses have always been available to the public. The public has the right to know and report their caregivers.

When I was in school....eons ago...we had an entire semester about legalities and ehtics of nursing and included was the states nurse practice act.

It's sad that more nurses do not know what the legal implications of their job.

psu_213, BSN, RN · Dec 14, 2014

Nurses licenses have always been available to the public. The public has the right to know and report their caregivers.

For me it about more than reporting…a patient has a right to know who is performing a procedure on them or giving them a med--especially since some procedures we perform or meds we administer can, if done incorrectly, cause the patient serious damage up to and including death.