Ok, we've just switched doctors under our medical plan. So I go in for a routine checkup, etc. at this clinic. They tell me the nurse will be with me shortly. Of course, since I'm a student, I always ask nurses how they like their jobs etc. So I ask: You're a nurse, right? She nods. How do you like the job ... blah, blah blah ... Not once did she correct me. Then I ask where she went to school. When she names the school, I'm confused because I've never heard of it.
That's when she says, "Oh ... I'm an MA."
Then the doctor comes in, and tells me "the nurse will be with you shortly." I'm like ... what nurse? Then I find out that everybody at the "Nurses Station" is actually an MA, but everyone, from the receptionist to the doctors, are referring to these MA's as nurses. My husband, who has to go in fairly frequently, says they told him the same thing ... that these MA's were nurses.
Now, I don't know if there's actually anything wrong with this, and maybe this isn't a big deal but, it seemed really weird to me. I've been to other doctor's offices where the staff was very careful to tell me they were MA's, not nurses. Especially when I asked if they were a nurse or not.
Any thoughts? Is this allowed? Why would even doctors refer to MA's as nurses?
This is my first time here I am a newbie and only a student but I already have encountered this issue at my school. We have a medical assisting course offered and I remember just last week while I was eating lunch I overheard two MA's talking to each other (one is actually in school with me now to become an LPN) and she asked her why she was in school to be an LPN. Her response was that she was tired of doing all the same things and getting paid less. They laughed and my classmate even said LPN's are glorified MA's. I can't tell you how enraged I got at that statement and I am only a STUDENT. If they were the same in any way than we would go to the same schools and MA's would sit for the SAME exams to be certified. I agree with the previous posts, I don't feel that I am better than an MA, but I know that once I graduate I will be more educated and I am already and will be extremely proud to wear the title of LPN and RN in the future. I am a single mother and I am working hard to get to that point, and I made sure that thye both understood that.
This is my first time here I am a newbie and only a student I can't tell you how enraged I got at that statement and I am only a STUDENT.
I recently graduated, but not so long ago I was in clinical and a surgeon asked me a question. I didn't know the answer and told him that I was "only a student". He looked at me very seriously and said that I should never call myself "only" anything. He said using "only" negated all of the hardwork and sacrifice that it took to become a student nurse. He said that I should be proud of all that I had accomplished so far, and should not refer to myself as "only a student" again. He was right. It takes a lot of sacrifice and hardwork to become a student nurse, and that much more to become licensed or registered as a nurse. Be proud of what you have accomplished.
We've discussed this issue here before as noted. Personally I feel we need to confront these MA's who misrepresent themselves by accepting the generics of 'nurse'. And I think doctors know very well the difference...and that its a legal title now...but it is to their benefit the public thinks they have real nurses on their office staff, when in reality they are too cheap to hire us.
Report them all to our BON's I say. Nurse impersonation is against the law, and these docs and their clinics are promoting illegal activity.
I went through nursing school with a MA. I heard her tell an experienced ICU nurse that she had "been a nurse for years" and was just "going to get her license." Wow. In my state it is illegal to refer to yourself as a nurse unless you hold the tital of LPN or RN. Last time I was in the doctors office the "nurse" was running around with no name tag. I had no idea what her credentials were.
I am curious PJA2004. If you are not an RN, not a LPN, and just a ER clerk (your words), why are you registered on a nursing site? Or are you a nursing student?
Funny, I've noticed recently that all the personnel in my Dr.'s office that do NOT wear any kind of ID, name or anything, are neither LPN's or RN's. I don't know if it is by choice, but it makes me wonder that if they don't have ID, they can call themselves and RN or LPN or anything they want, for that matter.
What's scary is the people that ASSume they are the same as an RN, "because they do the same tasks", if they have no problem calling themselves a nurse in a healthcare setting (where they obviously are not a nurse), they would have a field day in a public setting. Shoot, if they're giving themselves a ficticious degree, why not be a doc or have an MSN?
I have noticed that a lot of CNAS/MA's do not wear any kind of ID and some wear the surgical scrubs(thought they are not supposed to ) I think they like for people to believe that they are actually a nurse. They want the respect that comes along with being a nurse but do not want to put in the work it takes to get there. We have a CNA who is notorious for that. I heard a lady once ask her if she was an RN and she kept changing the subject. And everytime I go to a doctor's office the "nurse" is never wearing any ID and they never identify their job title. I guess I do understand why they do that because I was once an aide and they tend to be underappreciated, but it is still deceitful and people have a right to know who is taking care of them :)
Specializes in ICU, PICC Nurse, Nursing Supervisor.
I beg to differ here, if someone has a license to practice nursing THEY ARE A NURSE..... Before you make judements about nurses that shouldnt hold the title, maybe you should be one first!!!!
In all fairness, just because you have RN or LPN behind your name does not make you a NURSE either. I have seen many in the past make med errors, come to work after being out partying all night, and in my opinoin should not hold that title.(In all fairness, those slackers do not work in our department anymore.)
I AM NOT AN RN.....I AM NOT AN LPN....I AM NOT AN RN.....I AM NOT AN LPN....I AM NOT AN RN.....I AM NOT AN LPN....I AM NOT AN RN.....I AM NOT AN LPN....I AM NOT AN RN.....I AM NOT AN LPN....I AM NOT AN RN.....I AM NOT AN LPN....I AM NOT AN RN.....I AM NOT AN LPN....
I AM JUST AN ER CLERK...I AM JUST AN ER CLERK...I AM JUST AN ER CLERK...I AM JUST AN ER CLERK...I AM JUST AN ER CLERK...I AM JUST AN ER CLERK...I AM JUST AN ER CLERK...
Specializes in Medical/Surgical/Maternal and Child.
I went for a job interview in a suburb here in Salt Lake for a Family Practice Urgent Care Clinic. Those interviewing me for the position was the office manager and an MA. They were looking for an RN to supervise the MAs giving injections, doing treatments, etc. They would be doing this under my license. They pay their MAs $12.00/hour and wanted to pay me $13.50/ hour. No way was I going to supervise the MAs for $13.50/hr and under my license??? Get Real!!!!!!!!!!
I AM NOT AN RN.....I AM NOT AN LPN....I AM NOT AN RN.....I AM NOT AN LPN....I AM NOT AN RN.....I AM NOT AN LPN....I AM NOT AN RN.....I AM NOT AN LPN....I AM NOT AN RN.....I AM NOT AN LPN....I AM NOT AN RN.....I AM NOT AN LPN....I AM NOT AN RN.....I AM NOT AN LPN....
I AM JUST AN ER CLERK...I AM JUST AN ER CLERK...I AM JUST AN ER CLERK...I AM JUST AN ER CLERK...I AM JUST AN ER CLERK...I AM JUST AN ER CLERK...I AM JUST AN ER CLERK...
Hey now. Most ER's crash when the Unit clerk calls in sick. When I was an ER clerk I was responsible for the flow of the whole place. As a SICU nurse, I just watch my one little piece of the universe. No "JUST"s necessary. Each role is important, just different. Rare is the nurse who can manage the whole gig well when she sits in that secretarial seat.
I think some people don't fully understand the detail and depth of knowledge about body systems, drugs, physiologic processes, etc a nurse receives in nursing school. Nurses aren't just about dressing changes, injections, pill passing and other such skills. I admit, when I first started nursing school and I learned to do all those skills in the first semester, I wasn't quite sure what all I would be learning in the next 5 semesters! There's so much more to nursing than those skills. Many MA's and CNA's have been trained to do skills that RN's and LVN's learn. They don't know what they don't know and therefore incorrectly assume that they're pretty much the same as a nurse. And just let a nurse ever ask their opinion on something and they REALLY theink they're about the same! Until you actually slave away through nursing school, you don't really have the knowledge we do... whether you know how to do a nursing skill or not.
It's the law, and it's black and white... you can't use the title "nurse" unless you're an RN or LVN/LPN.
People who are not nurses calling themselves nurses is one of my all time biggest pet peeves. I absolutely cannot stand it. It makes me sick. That's all I'm going to say about that.
LPNstudentRNnfuture
9 Posts
This is my first time here I am a newbie and only a student but I already have encountered this issue at my school. We have a medical assisting course offered and I remember just last week while I was eating lunch I overheard two MA's talking to each other (one is actually in school with me now to become an LPN) and she asked her why she was in school to be an LPN. Her response was that she was tired of doing all the same things and getting paid less. They laughed and my classmate even said LPN's are glorified MA's. I can't tell you how enraged I got at that statement and I am only a STUDENT. If they were the same in any way than we would go to the same schools and MA's would sit for the SAME exams to be certified. I agree with the previous posts, I don't feel that I am better than an MA, but I know that once I graduate I will be more educated and I am already and will be extremely proud to wear the title of LPN and RN in the future. I am a single mother and I am working hard to get to that point, and I made sure that thye both understood that.