Its True about Nurses and Tickets

TazziRN, RN · Jan 17, 2008

many years ago my ex and i were on the freeway and he was speeding. i remember i kept telling him to slow down. we took the off ramp and he started laughing and said we were about to get pulled over. i was ready to kill him. i was huddled in the passenger seat, hoping against hope that i didn't know the cop and trying to hide, and lo and behold it was one i had seen in the er just a few nights earlier! she bent over and looked in, recognized me and said "hey, how ya doin'?" told my ex flat out that if i weren't in the car she would cite him, but that she'd let us go with a warning this time.

at my last er there was one officer who said he does not cite anyone who works at the hospital. another one does if the person uses it to try and get out of it......like "how can you do this, i work at the hospital!" *bzzzzz* wrong answer! otherwise if you didn't try to use it as a way to get out of it and he found out, he'd let you go.

TazziRN, RN · Jan 17, 2008

and here's a story with an almost-sad ending: a nurse i know used to work critical care, with fresh hearts on machines that certified nurses could work with. she was called at home and was told an emergency heart was about to come out of the or and could she come in asap? she was speeding to get there, got pulled over by a female cop that pulled over several other people at the same time. nurse went up to her and told her she was a nurse, was on her way to an emergency, and to please cite her first so she could go. cop refused, made her wait till last, and deliberately took her time.

nurse got to the icu at the same time as the pt. it was a man who had no one there, they'd been trying to get hold of his daughter. (can you see where this is going?) a while later the door opens and the female cop comes running in, crying. nurse just looked at her with an "uh-huh" look on her face. she never said anything to the cop, but she told me the cop probably never cited another nurse again.

dad survived.

allthingsbright · Jan 17, 2008

Yup-I am not even a REAL nurse yet (have to take my boards )and got some mercy from a police officer when he saw my scrubs and name badge. I had to promise I would take good care of him if I ever encountered him if/when he "falls" off his bike.

That was the 1st time I'd been pulled over in 18 yrs. Oops.

NursKris82 · May 7, 2008

i got stopped by the ft worth pd about 2 years ago with a busted license plate light...however, he could have got me for
no seat belt
expired tags
expired inspection
license plate light
speeding
running a stop sign
no proof of insurance- i had insurance but did not have the proof
he ask if i was a nurse i said "yes" and then he said " ok get these things taken care of and drive safer"...no tickets for me but he probably had enough to lock me up with..

whoa!! that a lot! sounds like you need to get it together. lol.

NursKris82 · May 7, 2008

I have only been pulled over once as a nurse... and got a ticket!! I deserved it and I didn't get ticketed for my window tint or seat belt or actual speed, but I was kinda surprised. I have a personalized liscense plate: NRSKRIS. How Rude!

BinkieRN, BSN, RN · May 7, 2008

I got stopped once for expired tags and the policeman said please get those taken care of soon and didn't give me a ticket. A miracle in this town. I was wearing scrubs at the time.

Another time I got stopped for running a stop sign (I still say I was innocent) I was not wearing scrubs, I got a ticket. I didn't feel right slipping in the fact that I am a nurse. It didn't seem like the right thing to do and it cost me $140. I now have an RN sticker on the rear window of my car.

I was told by security (off duty police) that they don't ticket nurses because they never know when they may meet them again someday in the ER and the nurse remembers that they once gave them a ticket :nurse:

kristenncrn · May 7, 2008

I got a ticket in nurses school... but it got thrown out (thankfully.)

When pulled, I was in scrubs, late for clinicals and going exactly 10 over the limit. And I'm a very polite person with everything up to date (and my seatbelt on before I even leave the garage - really!) who has lots of cop-connections...

So I'd say it depends upon the cop. My brother will ticket anyone (even a priest - hey, we're Protestant!) But he's a rookie. :) I have friends who absolutely think that nurses and cops are two of the most similar professions around and they will let a nurse off for just about anything.

aeauooo · May 7, 2008

Oh yeah! I used to keep my old cheapie stethoscope from nursing school hanging from my rear view mirror. I lost count of the number of times I got out of speeding tickets.

Now almost every time I drive it's to and from work, so I'm usually in my scrubs.

Of course, I'm older now and no longer break the speeding limit...

Yeah, right!

TheCommuter, BSN, RN · May 8, 2008

I received a speeding ticket very recently, while wearing my scrubs, and after having worked a tiring 16 hour double shift. The cop cut me no slack whatsoever.

aeauooo · May 8, 2008

I received a speeding ticket very recently, while wearing my scrubs, and after having worked a tiring 16 hour double shift. The cop cut me no slack whatsoever.

Bad karma for her/him!

GrumpyRN63, ADN, RN · May 8, 2008

It worked for me twice and last weekend my colleague got off for driving and unregistered car on his way in to work, nice.....

58flyer · May 8, 2008

As a law enforcement officer, I rarely ticket nurses. As I have posted elsewhere on this subject, attitude is the determining factor. A crappy attitude will get a ticket every time, even if it's another officer (I've yet to ticket another officer...oh, wait a minute...I forgot about that gal state trooper who loved to ticket our guys, got her good one day bustin' my speed trap :wink2: ).

I have often wondered though, for as nice as I was to nurses, how come I hardly ever got treated good when I was in the ER? Guess the nurses I gave a break to didn't work in the ER.

I have given breaks to some MDs. I met some really cool MD's when I worked security in the ER.

I had a doc one day who just begged me for a ticket. Not verbally, his actions did. He and another doc took a lunch break from Saint V on the westside of Jacksonville in an area known as Riverside and was headed for a Greek restaurant, a popular lunch spot (the place that has those sugar coated fruity chewy sliced wedge candy that I love so much). He took a right on a street where some limerock had been put down on the shoulder, took the turn so tight the right wheels of his Viper were off the pavement and on the limerock. He matted the gas pedal and sprayed limerock all across the intersection kicking up a huge cloud of white dust for other drivers to have to drive through, and leaving chunks of limerock in the road. He was real proud and was wearing a big grin until he saw me pull out behind him from a church parking lot. I got the blue lights on and pulled him over to discuss the matter at hand. His excuse was that his foot "slipped" on the gas pedal and he didn't mean to do it. I got him to describe to me in detail just how one's foot just "slips" on the gas pedal. I reminded him that I, too, drive cars and I never have had that foot "slipping" problem that he described so eloquently. He said that the Viper is a powerful car and the foot "slipping" problem is commonplace with these cars. I told him that my Corvette is a powerful car but I haven't had my foot "slip" yet. He said that the Viper was much more powerful than the Corvette and I asked him if he had ever heard of the ZR-1. He kinda slinked down in his seat and said "oh". (Notice that I asked him if he had ever heard of the ZR-1, I didn't actually say that mine had a ZR-1. :lol2: ) With driver's license, registration, and proof of insurance in hand I retired to the air conditioned comfort of my Crown Vic and stroked out a code mike. He was still in a giggly mood when I approached his window and asked "are you really gonna write me for THAT?" I said "yea, my hand slipped."

His foot slipped, my hand slipped, it's all good...:nuke: