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

dishes, BSN, RN · Dec 20, 2014

@brownbook, if this happened at my workplace management would have to inform staff of the reasons, otherwise the rumours would be rampant.

brownbook · Dec 20, 2014

Dishes....maybe I am too trusting. I assume if some incident had happened the rumors would have been flying before, and continued after, the ID badges were even replaced.

I loudly rolled my eyes (ha ha) and loudly voiced my opinion that it was ridiculous. No one mentioned any reason good, bad, or indifferent, why we did it. Plus I work in an up scale, private, well patient clinic whose patients are 99.9% upper middle class white. Not that white folks don't cause as much if not more havoc in the world than any other socio economic group!

BuckyBadgerRN, ASN, RN · Dec 21, 2014

Ah, no. HIPAA is in place to protect the PATIENT and their health information, not providers. It boggles my mind that you have had training in HIPAA (if you work in hospital there's no way you didn't) and don't know this. :no:

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!

BuckyBadgerRN, ASN, RN · Dec 21, 2014

Not every state. My BON lists my city, not my home address.

@caliotter, I don't understand why the BON posts the nurse's home address as it is not considered public information, whereas the nurse's workplace address, along with their name and licence are considered public information.

Josie, RN/LCSW · Dec 21, 2014

Your full name on your ID badge has nothing whatsoever to do with HIPPA.

TheCommuter, BSN, RN · Dec 21, 2014

Not every state. My BON lists my city, not my home address.

I'm licensed in three different states.

The BONs in Texas and Oklahoma only list my city, state and zip code of residence, whereas the California BRN only lists the county in which I reside.

TheGooch · Dec 21, 2014

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

A "crazy" person doesn't need your full name to look you up. All they have to do is wait outside of where you work and follow you home to get your address. In most cities you an look at property records to see who lives at that address if you own the property.

Just don't look at the "crazy" people the wrong way and you will have nothing to worry about.

TheCommuter, BSN, RN · Dec 21, 2014

A "crazy" person doesn't need your full name to look you up.

In addition, a patient or family member who wants your name badly enough is going to get it, even if we wore no name tags at all. All they need to do is request a copy of their medical record. The full names and titles of all their doctors, nurses and other healthcare workers are listed in the medical record.

OrganizedChaos, LVN · Dec 21, 2014

I've worked in corrections. When I worked in the prison I went by my last name then when I worked in the jail I don't know why, I went by my first name. Those are some people who have nothing better to do than to sit & watch you. They see you come in, they see you come out.

I didn't care if they knew my full name. They eventually found out. I was never stalked or worried for my safety in or of work because of it.

Tenebrae, BSN, RN · Dec 22, 2014

NZ nursing council lists our first and last name, registration number, expiry date of current practicing certificate, and any conditions or scope of practice, eg some nurses can only work in general or obstetric. Its to do with their traiing.

Not every state. My BON lists my city, not my home address.