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

dishes, BSN, RN · Dec 14, 2014

@nitrorocket, Will concealing your last name on your name tag improve your low job satisfaction? Will it help you to feel less powerless about working as a nurse? It seems to me your post is about more than just your right to privacy, maybe you are experiencing burnout, I don't know, but I get the feeling concealing your name is not going to fix the problem.

RN_Sara · Dec 14, 2014

Our badges have our first name and last initial. I work ED. My last job was psych and my badge had my full name but we had the option to get new ones and remove it. I had more problems when I worked in child welfare with people wanting my last name than I do as a nurse. When I have been asked as a nurse, it was out of curiosity from people who thought they knew me from somewhere.

JenERally · Dec 14, 2014

My hospital instituted the use of an extra badge with our first name, first letter of last name if first name is common, and title that rests on top "real" badge with full name. This was instituted after a nurse was stalked and assaulted by a former patient who was unhappy with the care provided by the nurse.

I agree that where there's a will there's a way. If someone wants someone's information, they will find it; this creates a temporary hurdle but hopefully enough to deter someone with malicious intent.

RNsRWe, ASN, RN · Dec 16, 2014

I'm curious about something. Would be interesting to know exactly how many nurses who have had their full names displayed on their ID badges have been stalked/harrassed SPECIFICALLY because this info was on their name tags?

What I mean is, we can all point to someone (and I have no doubt there will be someone here on his/her own behalf) who can say "I had this crazy person harassing me because he didn't like how I talked to him at work" or something along those lines. But HONESTLY, how many of these "crazy people" are finding their targets solely because of the last name being visible?

Isn't it just as likely that those who would seek to stalk/harass can do this merely by waiting in the parking lot to see where Nurse Sally goes after work, and follow her? Can't every single detail of information that the "crazy person" could glean from a work ID be found out JUST by doing what "crazy people" have done since forever......following people, listening in on conversations, etc?

I seriously doubt....nay, I disbelieve.....that a nurse with her last name on her ID is any more of a target than the person who does NOT have her last name on her ID. Did it make it easier to find her? Maybe, but "easy" has never been the reason why a true psycho harasses someone.....they don't decide to NOT stalk someone because it was an inch "harder".

Just my thoughts on the subject.

Oh, and yes: I do believe that any person who receives medical advice and/or care and/or treatments has the right to know my full name, as well as my professional license designation.

elkpark · Dec 16, 2014

I'm curious about something. Would be interesting to know exactly how many nurses who have had their full names displayed on their ID badges have been stalked/harrassed SPECIFICALLY because this info was on their name tags?
What I mean is, we can all point to someone (and I have no doubt there will be someone here on his/her own behalf) who can say "I had this crazy person harassing me because he didn't like how I talked to him at work" or something along those lines. But HONESTLY, how many of these "crazy people" are finding their targets solely because of the last name being visible?
Isn't it just as likely that those who would seek to stalk/harass can do this merely by waiting in the parking lot to see where Nurse Sally goes after work, and follow her? Can't every single detail of information that the "crazy person" could glean from a work ID be found out JUST by doing what "crazy people" have done since forever......following people, listening in on conversations, etc?
I seriously doubt....nay, I disbelieve.....that a nurse with her last name on her ID is any more of a target than the person who does NOT have her last name on her ID. Did it make it easier to find her? Maybe, but "easy" has never been the reason why a true psycho harasses someone.....they don't decide to NOT stalk someone because it was an inch "harder".
Just my thoughts on the subject.
Oh, and yes: I do believe that any person who receives medical advice and/or care and/or treatments has the right to know my full name, as well as my professional license designation.

I agree completely; and, also, FWIW, a few years ago, when there was another active thread on this same subject, I did a literature search re: nurses getting stalked. What I found in the literature at that time is that, while it is true that nurses occasionally do get stalked, the rate reported in the literature is not significantly different than the rate of stalking in the general public; that is, your risk of getting stalked as a nurse is no greater than your risk of getting stalked as a member of the general public.

What I've observed over the years, here and in "real life," is that v. few nurses get stalked, but lots of nurses talk about it. Everyone seems to know someone who knows someone who knows someone who once knew a nurse who got stalked and had a horrible experience -- but I've never yet run into an actual, living nurse who was actually stalked by someone s/he met through work.

sallyrnrrt, ADN, RN · Dec 17, 2014

42.5yrs., not experienced a problem, in ER, critical care and mental health...........& honestly have not known of a coworker in these 4+decades, being stalked, having worked several major teaching hospitals, Memphis, Wash.DC, Houston etc.....

studentnurse9806 · Dec 17, 2014

I crossed my last name off w a sharpie. I work in a psych hospital...

elkpark · Dec 17, 2014

I crossed my last name off w a sharpie. I work in a psych hospital...

I've worked in psych hospitals for 30 yrs, have always used my last name, on my badge and when I introduce myself to clients and families, and have never had a problem. There's nothing special about working in psych in this regard.

RNsRWe, ASN, RN · Dec 17, 2014

I crossed my last name off w a sharpie. I work in a psych hospital...

Where I work that would win you a meeting with your supervisor AND a replacement name tag. And psych patients are EVERYWHERE.

studentnurse9806 · Dec 17, 2014

Where I work that would win you a meeting with your supervisor AND a replacement name tag. And psych patients are EVERYWHERE.

I'm not going to risk being stalked. I understand psych patients are everywhere and that's why I never give out personal information. I'm happy to hear many people have never had to deal with being stalked. Can't say the same for people at my job...

RNsRWe, ASN, RN · Dec 17, 2014

I'm not going to risk being stalked. I understand psych patients are everywhere and that's why I never give out personal information. I'm happy to hear many people have never had to deal with being stalked. Can't say the same for people at my job...

But I'm going to ask you honestly, what makes you think the name badge makes a difference? People who are stalked have their stalkers waiting for them across the street, parked in a car nearby, listening in on grocery lines.

I just don't see the correlation between your name badge and whether or not you'd "get stalked", since it isn't the name badge that makes them do it.....nor makes them find you.

A stalker will always know where you are, and how to get to you....kinda the very definition of a stalker!

Beyond that, since there are so many places that require this information be visible on your lapel area when you are working, will you just quit every job that has this policy? Will you not work in any State where you are required to furnish this information? Like I said for my own employer, what you did with the Sharpie is simply not tolerated.

Not looking to fight, just asking honest questions.

caroladybelle, BSN, RN · Dec 17, 2014

In 21 years of nursing, two cases of nurses that were stalked by MDs (attempting affairs, marriage on rocks, etc.), and a few cases of fellow nurses stalking nurses. Or estranged husbands/boyfriends stalking nurses. No patients stalking nurses.

Not my current workplace, but a small community hospital. One of my married male coworkers (former home hospice nurse - scary), started making moves on single staffers shortly after he finished orientation. He kept trying to go home with them or make plans with him, to get them alone off work. No one was even remotely interested and working with him on night shift started to get creepy. It was a small unit with generally only 2 RNs at night as staff, and in an isolated part of the floor.

A few weeks go by, and his turn to float to an undesirable unit came up. Others had covered him, but that shift no one offered to do so. The other two nurses had been there, and one was charge. He got angry, threw his keys at us, tore up his ID and nursing license and left the unit/hospital. His wife called us later, saying that he had guns in his car and threatened to come back and shoot the staff/facility and then kill himself. We went into lockdown (with our security -what a joke), until he was caught.