I am a nursing student who would like input on her school's policy on ID badges. We are currently required to display our full first and last name on our name tags at our clinical sites.
I contend that this is a significant safety risk to me and my fellow students, especially in light of recent incidents of violence against health care workers.
Would you be willing to share your stories with me? I am specifically looking for instances where a patient or visitor found out your last name and was able to harass you as a result. I may share a few of these anecdotes in my presentation, so please let me know if I can include your story.
I am aware of an OSHA document that recommends against the use of last names on ID badges. Do you know of any other news or scholarly articles I can present to them.
Again can someone please tell me: are your patients not allowed to review their charts? The ones with your full names in them?
The spelling of my last name is fairly uncommon, but I wasn't in that search engine. Plus, they actually spelled both my first and last name incorrectly on my name tag despite the fact that I always tell people how to spell it!!
Totally agree with you sbic56!! You couldn't have said it better. Mr. Huffman has a pretty common name, but I don't have a common first or last name. If someone looked me up...it would be ME and not another someone with the same name.
Good point.
Another thought... if the patient does call the doc for a reason other than a professional one, they are most likely going to be calling their office, as that is what is listed publicly. If they know the nurses last name and want to harrass them, then they will probably be able to contact them at home. I really don't want to be unlisted, just because I am an RN.
Took the words right out of my mouth. It has nothing to do with professionalism. My behavior and my clinical skills (among other things) define my professionalism. I'm sorry, but I think calling someone "Nurse Brown" harkens back to the beginnings of time. I'm just fine with my first name only. That's all they need to know in the setting in which I work.
Images of "Nurse Ratched" running through my head. :chuckle
Also, I don't think every visitor in the place needs to know my identity, either. The hospital is a very public place. I wouldn't walk around with my full name displayed upon me in the grocery store, either.
I have refused for years to have mine on the name tag for the simple reason that we live in a small city where our last name is not a common one and my brother has worked as a narcotics officer and is now a patrol officer, my niece and nephew work for the county jail and I have another brother who works for the State at a local prison as a corrections officer. Too many chances for my name to be connected and retaliation. If a patient has a complaint (issue or compliment) they can always go through proper channels to obtain my last name as I do sign there chart.
Again can someone please tell me: are your patients not allowed to review their charts? The ones with your full names in them?
The spelling of my last name is fairly uncommon, but I wasn't in that search engine. Plus, they actually spelled both my first and last name incorrectly on my name tag despite the fact that I always tell people how to spell it!!
Yes, our patients' may review their medical records, with a physician present. (to answer questions) I guess I find it hard to imagine that someone would go to that kind of trouble to "get names for harrassing". It's possible, of course. But it isn't only patients, or even mostly patients, that concern me. Visitors, employees, and goodness knows who all else are in the hospital all the time. There's no need for any of these strangers (to me) to be able to meet me in the hall and then know my last and first name.
Specializes in Infection Preventionist/ Occ Health.
As the OP, I feel that I have to chime in with my $0.02
The way I see it, there are two ways for a disgruntled client to find out my last name:
1) Read it from my name badge, look in a phone book or on the internet, and drive to my house
OR
2) Request to view his/her chart (which I believe must be done in writing), wait while the medical records department pulls the chart, find my name (which doesn't include my picture, so he would have to remember which nurse was which), and finally go and look it up in the phone book or online.
The patient can view the chart in the hospital with their doctor, but a hospitalized patient is not much of a threat as far as I'm concerned. They would probably wait until they are discharged and by that time they hopefully will have cooled off.
My point is that we should not make it any easier for unstable individuals to endanger our safety or that of our families. (I cannot imagine what it must have been like for mattsmom81 when her son heard that message on the machine )
I agree with previous posters that knowing a nurse's last name is not related to the professional care that he/she delivers. Behavior determines professionalism, and safety is a much more important issue in my opinion.
Took the words right out of my mouth. It has nothing to do with professionalism. My behavior and my clinical skills (among other things) define my professionalism. I'm sorry, but I think calling someone "Nurse Brown" harkens back to the beginnings of time. I'm just fine with my first name only. That's all they need to know in the setting in which I work.
Professionalism is a whole complex of things: behaviors, skills, and a whole lot else. And it's good for nurses to think of themselves as professionals on the basis of skills and behavior. But if we want to be thought of as professionals by the general public, it will never happen with nurses identified by their first name. Whether we like it or not. Calling someone "Nurse Brown" is, in my opinion, a highly professional way of naming them (though I've never heard it done).
Professionals -- in our society -- are seen by their skills and by the way they are presented to the public. Calling someone by their first name (except in extra-ordinary circumstances) demeans attempts at professionalism. Imagine, say, addressing a judge as "Judge Joe" (and don't talk to me about TV judges ... they don't count :chuckle) or a judge addressing an attorney as "Joan." It just doesn't happen. Likewise, physicians.
To continue my earlier example, judges are public officials who make unpopular decisions and yet they are well-known, and cannot hide. Are there sometimes problems with that? Of course. But anonymity doesn't work. At least as far as professionals go. If we want to be known by our first names, that's our prerogative. But we will be perpetuating a public view of us as -- at best -- para-professional employees who are hidden by a lack of full names -- or, even worse -- by a number. (If you are publicly identified by a number, the unspoken message is that you are a cog in a wheel). We might not like "Nurse Brown," but it's a whole lot harder for some idiot to think of a nurse as a sex object when she's "Nurse Brown" than if she's "Susan B."
One more quick thought. Part of professionalism is that we think of ourselves (and encourage the public to do so, too) as somehow different when we're doing our work. So a judge and an attorney might be best friends, but when they're in the court, they never address themselves by name, but it's "your honor" and "Mr. Smith." When we are practicing our profession, we're not "Joe" or "Joan," but skilled professionals who are somehow doing something, not as a kind of first aid responder, but as someone who carries on a tradition of professional skills and knowledge. Think of that when you are doing your job, no matter how "lowly" it might seem. You are part of a tradition. It's up to us all to hold that tradition high, and pass it on to those learning our field.
Specializes in Infection Preventionist/ Occ Health.
I agree with what you are saying, Mr. Huffman. However, have you considered that you might have a different perspective on personal safety because you are a man?
We might not like "Nurse Brown," but it's a whole lot harder for some idiot to think of a nurse as a sex object when she's "Nurse Brown" than if she's "Susan B."
Some idiots equate the term nurse with sex object, as nurses were once almost exclusively female.
Think about it...Nurse Huffman conjures up a sexier image than James H.
I think zaba is the website that will even give a satellite picture of your home. One of our state representatives did it on a news show and was appalled. "We'll have to look into this, it isn't right".
I feel really shocked, and concerned. Some of this stuff is public record...but to make it so easy to compile astounds me. I've never committed a crime, other than a traffic violation. No wonder identity theft is so rampant.
I'm also concerned...I work with many who are unstable mentally ill polysubstance abusers, I've been threatened before, and I know that while the probability is low, nurses have been stalked, attacked and murdered before.
Specializes in Telemetry, ICU, Resource Pool, Dialysis.
One more quick thought. Part of professionalism is that we think of ourselves (and encourage the public to do so, too) as somehow different when we're doing our work. So a judge and an attorney might be best friends, but when they're in the court, they never address themselves by name, but it's "your honor" and "Mr. Smith." When we are practicing our profession, we're not "Joe" or "Joan," but skilled professionals who are somehow doing something, not as a kind of first aid responder, but as someone who carries on a tradition of professional skills and knowledge. Think of that when you are doing your job, no matter how "lowly" it might seem. You are part of a tradition. It's up to us all to hold that tradition high, and pass it on to those learning our field.
Jim Huffman, RN
I agree with you about attorneys. However, I see a hospital setting as a whole different arena than a court of law. I am still not convinced that using last names in communicating with my co-workers or my patients heightens the perception of professionalism. However, I do address my patients by their last names. I don't feel the least bit degraded or "talked down to" when someone I don't know calls me by my first name. But I understand that some people do. Healthcare, especially in acute care settings, cannot be compared to other settings like law or business. As much as the hospitals and insurance companies would like us to believe it is a business setting, it's not. We're not making business transactions, we are performing intimate and personal procedures and protecting our patient's well-being.
To Fergus' question - yes, patients can read the chart and obtain my name - if they knew where to look, and if they were even smart enough to know which name was mine. But I think the problem people are more the opportunistic type. Why should we make it easier by holding our full name in front of their noses all day?
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fergus51
6,620 Posts
Again can someone please tell me: are your patients not allowed to review their charts? The ones with your full names in them?
The spelling of my last name is fairly uncommon, but I wasn't in that search engine. Plus, they actually spelled both my first and last name incorrectly on my name tag despite the fact that I always tell people how to spell it!!