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.
Like another poster said, if you're a home owner anybody can find out your address (even though your telephone number may be unlisted) via public documents...it's kinda scary.
When I was a student Nurse, many many moons ago, on my psych rotation one pt felt that another Stud. Nurse was the One for him. He found out her phone number and addy,from her name badge, and would not stop harrassing her until greater powers steped in, also she changed addys,etc... After that, our school policy was not to have our last names printed on name badges in that rotation. Soo you probaly can tell were I stand on that argument, at least if you work in psych that is.
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.
Thank you all for your help :)
I work in a locked trauma ICU. The fact that you have to be buzzed onto the unit should speak tons. Many of the nurses on my floor have the same issue with our health system placing our full names on badges. It is indeed very dangerous for our full names to be visible to some of the patients that come through the unit. Some patients have found staff members via the internet/phone book and have harrassed them greatly.
We have simply began using tape to cover our last names.
So, if all else fails, and you are unable to get your school/job to understand...simply cover the portion that you do not want visible to patient populations that may pose a threat.
If you don't want people to be able to look you up, it's a good idea to get an unlisted number/address. If someone really wants to know where you live all they have to do is follow you from the hospital.
Fortunately I don't know any nurses who have been stalked in any way outside of work by patients/family members. I have always thought patients had the right to know who their caregivers were.
We use our first names only, but have an ID number that pt's can refer to:
example Mary S. #1234.
Unfortunately, we have had patients make bomb threats, wait outside our building for end of shift change, make verbal threats, etc., Because of these incidents, we tell patients for security reasons, we know longer provider our last names.
I feel that last names should not be put on badges. When I was a nursing student I had a patient call me and wanted me to come over to his house and check on him. He was very hard of hearing and could not understand everything I said to him. My main concern was that he was ok. This was a couple weeks after he was discharged from the hospital. He was an elderly man. He had remembered my name from my name badge and looked my name up in the phone book. I lived in a community of over 40,000 people. After this incident the faculty decided not to put last names on badges.
People in professional or business settings are normally known as Mr. or Ms. Jones, or whatever.... If we wish to be identified by our first name, because of some over-blown fear of harassment, we should not be surprised that we are not treated as professional colleagues.
Jim Huffman, RN
It is well to point out here that in business people don't very often threaten to kill you / your family / burn your house down if they don't like what you are doing.
I work in accident and emergency (thats the uk version of ER) in London, England. The majority of staff in my department cover their surnames on their badges. And as for the over-blown fear, a friend of mine got assulted by one of her patients who she discharged from a small district general hosptial in the 'outback'. He is still at large, when you see and discharge 70,000 patients a year, even as a small hospital it is impossible to remember just one that might have taken a disliking to you.
I have been a nurse for more then 30 years and can honestly say that only one client (yes, client not patient) ever looked and found my home. I am aware of no reliable scholarly research that addresses this issue although a review of literature will reveal a great deal of anecdotal stories.
The issue of harassment is somewhat overblown, I believe. The client, who showed up at my door, served 15 years for threatening me with a gun. While I was initially terrified, I could not imagine handing out a card with only my first name. Nor would I consider it very professional.
Grannynurse :balloons:
Granny, I am very glad that you survived your episode! I personally worked with a young single mother who was stalked outside of work. It is even more scary when you think that your small child could witness this behavior or worse.... be injured! Having said that, I do not believe that this could ever be "overblown".
I too have worked ER for many years and completely believe that there are, at the very least, certain areas in the hospital that should require safety first; such as ER, Psych, etc. The other areas should, if they feel in harms way, be allowed to omit their last name as well.
It is not, in my opinion, un-professional to have your first name and title. If the patient needs to identify you, they can certainly get enough info from Barb, RN working ER on Aug, 9th @ 2230, taking care of Joe Smith. Come on, even the large trauma centers can figure out who we are talking about.
Our school has a policy of putting first and last names on our badges for everything except our psych rotation and they just blanked out our names and put a sticker over it with our first name and you could see our full name underneath it. One of the hospitals that I did my clinical at only had their first names on it with their designation, RN, LPN etc. Why couldn't you have a secondary badge underneath your primary one with your full name on it which you could show to authorities who asked. I had a friend at his last clinical and one of the women stalked him on the floor, I am glad that they didn't have our last names on those badges because she would have followed him home.
I have been a nurse for over 30 years and have never had a problem with having my last name on my badge. Where I work now, the ED nurses are the only ones who don't get their last names on their badges. As if they are the only ones who deal with the "crazies"? They are everywhere so if that is the philosophy, then no nurse should have their last name on their badge.
I see why you would think that about ER nurses catwoman, but that is not how we think. Like several have pointed out here..... the ER nurse is usually the first line person. We deal with the police, drunks, drug od's, psych's etc. BEFORE they are stabilized, taken to jail etc.
I have said that I believe it should be the inherent right of ALL nurses to refrain from using their last name, but DEFINITELY should be seriously considered in ER and PSYCH.
No one here is saying that only ER should have this done. :)
maari
4 Posts
When I was a student Nurse, many many moons ago, on my psych rotation one pt felt that another Stud. Nurse was the One for him. He found out her phone number and addy,from her name badge, and would not stop harrassing her until greater powers steped in, also she changed addys,etc... After that, our school policy was not to have our last names printed on name badges in that rotation. Soo you probaly can tell were I stand on that argument, at least if you work in psych that is.