NA's not professionals

[Jabramac]

I was the recipient of a complaint yesterday from another employee. An NA told me she had been called off before her shift and told on the phone that instead of having her work, the floor would run with "3 professionals." She took offence at the notion that she was being referred to as not being "professional." While I understand the callers true meaning was RN's and had nothing to do with "professionalism" it non-the-less offended the NA.

I then wrote an e-mail to all the people who may be calling staff off and informed them that this might be offensive and we should monitor ourselves with what we say and to whom. I got a response back from a manager stating that this is an industry term and the NA needs to be "talked to." She also asked me to provide the name of the NA.

Personally I know it that the meaning of "professionals" was not meant to be offensive and only referred to RN's. But, perhaps it's more offensive then I think? I would like to hear from some NA's if they would find it offenses that RN's are referred to as "professionals" and NA's are not.

Tonight I have to decide how to respond to the mangers e-mail with out turning it into a huge issue, but still respecting the NA.

[Mulan]

I myself am an LPN, and I am a little bit offended that one of the posters to this thread referred to an LPN being a part of a vocation.... I'm not a nun. I'm a Lisenced Practical NURSE. Last I checked, a NURSE is a professional! I went to school too.. as did all the other LPN's out there. RN's do have more schooling and more skills, etc. But don't discount the role of the LPN. WE ARE PROFESSIONALS!

In some states, it's Licensed Practical Nurse, in some states it is Licensed Vocational Nurse as in vocational school.

[ayla2004, ASN, RN]

In the UK its common say trained (RN) and untrained staff as this is a historical hangover. On RN are now either diploma or degree qualified whereas untrained staff practical training with study on the job. due to the nature of the ward its common to use those terms espically when shift numbers are being counted due to absene

[RN1989]

I am still trying to figure out why the OP decided to speak to the manager about this. While I applaud her sticking by the CNA, this was one of those issues where the CNA should have been instructed to speak with the manager if she had a problem. By the OP butting in, the CNA could now be in trouble because the CNA is openly complaining to someone else. The manager doesn't care about the CNA's dislike of the use of the "professional" term, the manager is unhappy that the CNA is complaining to others. This CNA could be in trouble if the manager chooses to start "watching" her and then terminate her for causing low morale and decreasing unit cohesion with her complaints. I know the OP meant well, but this was the wrong battle to try to fight and now both the CNA and poster could be in trouble.

So - OP if you are still out there - you are going to have to decide what to do next. IMO you need to nicely tell the manager that you are going to keep the CNA's name to yourself. You tried to stick up for the CNA and it backfired - you can best show professionalism now by watching her back and keep everything else to yourself. Don't even have this discussion with your coworkers.

As far as the professionalism issue - I don't care who you are or what degree you have - I will consider you a professional when you act like one. If you routinely act like a jerk (nicest term I could think of) then I won't consider you a professional.

[Jo Dirt]

I think people are majoring in the minors here.

[november17, ASN, RN]

I have to disagree that without CNA's nursing would grind to a halt. Some places do not employ aides, primary care is done, with all aspects of the patient's care being done by the RN. The RN can do whatever the CNA and the LPN can do, but the CNA and the LPN can not do what the RN can do. Some places staff with all licensed staff only, either LPN or RN.

Amen to that. I am an RN and I find myself reverting back to the CNA role at least several times an hour every single day.

As a matter of fact, the last hospital I was at didn't have aides at all. It was just RNs and LPNs working together. Very rarely, there may have been a nurse extern floating around the unit.

This thread is stupid. It's just a bunch of people arguing semantics of a word that has multiple meanings and definitions. The aide certainly needs to be shown the difference between the noun and the verb. Especially if she is taking offense to it. That's just ridiculous. When I was a CNA I heard RNs/LPNs referred to as professionals all the time. It never offended me. It sounds like the CNA in question has some sort of an inferiority complex.

I think one of our first projects when I started nursing clinicals was writing a paper entitled, "The nurse as a professional." I remember it being a somewhat difficult assignment, and I think the instructors really wanted us to understand the concept.

[cardiacRN2006, ADN, RN]

I was a CNA for years, and I used to think that, too. Boy did I eat my words and learn how wrong I was. So will you. Give it time.

So true, so true....and it seems like the longer you were a tech, the more words that you have to eat.

I'm still working on it...**burp**

[itsmyturn]

Wow, it is amazing that people are treating each other like this, especially when no matter what school you went to, what you went there for, how much you paid or the title you received when completed, preached one single idea to everyone of you the entire time you were going to school for your training...

That we are all a very important part of the health care team and that each member, whether it be the CNA, an LPN, an RN or a Dr, should work together as a team regardless of their differences

to provide the best care possible because without each one of these PROFESSIONS, our job would be impossible and patients would suffer as a result. That is what I am being taught, to work as a team always.

I know that each member of the team is important and everyone is a professional of some sort, because there are some things that the other may not know that another may know and it has nothing to do with your title and it is a shame that there are so many health care members out there riding on a power trip. I have many nursing friends and none of them act like you do...they say that there are different degrees of nursing but none of them deserve the lack of respect because they carry a certain title. Each are a step and without them under you or over you, your jobs would be a lot harder.

So, that being said, I really wish that people in each step of the healthcare team could become more professional and stop bickering and understand that you need every single member of your care team to look good as a whole instead of a self-centered member spending all their time putting others in their places. So, when I become a professional of the healthcare team I will be working with, I am going to be there helping the rest of the people I work with get our patients better, I hope you do that to. That is the professional thing to do.

[leslie :-D]

i truly don't understand why some get hung up on others perceptions.

i am a diploma nurse.

whether i have my masters or associates, it doesn't change who i am.

i behave professionally.

isn't that what is most important?

furthermore, i answer to myself, and God.

that's it.

if others do not view me as a professional by virtue of my title, who really has the problem?

i'm very secure with myself and don't require validation.

when you can truly respect oneself, everything else falls into place...

and you don't sweat the small stuff.

leslie

[Xbox Live Addict]

"Professional" has been so overused now that it is now a meaningless term. The workers at a local ice-cream/fast food restaurant are called "Hospitality Professionals." At the same time, I've seen plenty of MDs who act very "unprofessionally." Lawyers advertise on TV like used-car dealerships with lurid advertisements that are designed to inflame people's baser emotions.

"Professionalism" is a very subjective term. Lawyers in 14th century Florence were considered professionals, and were members of the elite patrician classes, as were merchants and bankers. Physicians were not professionals, and were firmly in the lower classes. Nursing services in the 19th century were provided by prisoners and prostitutes. True, most hospitals were basically just there to quarantine the sick and dying to keep the "good folks" from catching whatever it was that made them sick.

There are plenty of "technicians" around that have BA and BS degrees; there are plenty of "professionals" with associate's degrees and less. It depends on your status with your organization. The general label of "professional" is obsolete.

My understanding of the term "professional" as it applies to health care is that it refers to the people who work in the offices and shuffle papers, and work 8-5 with a 1 hour lunch, weekends and holidays off with pay, regardless of their level of education. A CMA who works in an office at medical records is a "professional." The people who actually do patient care, who work the 7-3s, 3-11s, 11-7s, 7a-7p, 7p-7a, etc, plus weekends and holidays such as Christmas are just laborers, regardless of their education. An LPN or RN who works the floor is NOT a "professional."

These aren't my terms, but just my perceptions of how things work in this world.

[mizfradd, CNA]

Wow, it is amazing that people are treating each other like this, especially when no matter what school you went to, what you went there for, how much you paid or the title you received when completed, preached one single idea to everyone of you the entire time you were going to school for your training...

That we are all a very important part of the health care team and that each member, whether it be the CNA, an LPN, an RN or a Dr, should work together as a team regardless of their differences

to provide the best care possible because without each one of these PROFESSIONS, our job would be impossible and patients would suffer as a result. That is what I am being taught, to work as a team always.

I know that each member of the team is important and everyone is a professional of some sort, because there are some things that the other may not know that another may know and it has nothing to do with your title and it is a shame that there are so many health care members out there riding on a power trip. I have many nursing friends and none of them act like you do...they say that there are different degrees of nursing but none of them deserve the lack of respect because they carry a certain title. Each are a step and without them under you or over you, your jobs would be a lot harder.

So, that being said, I really wish that people in each step of the healthcare team could become more professional and stop bickering and understand that you need every single member of your care team to look good as a whole instead of a self-centered member spending all their time putting others in their places. So, when I become a professional of the healthcare team I will be working with, I am going to be there helping the rest of the people I work with get our patients better, I hope you do that to. That is the professional thing to do.

[pagandeva2000, LPN]

Somehow, I have trouble wrapping my brain around considering nurses to be professionals, in the white collar sense of the word. As mentioned earlier, some of the earlier nurses were prostitutes forced to take care of the sick, and the image of nursing for the general public still has us sliding bedpans under people. Now, suddenly, nurses wish to consider themselves within the elite, but first, I think that we have to take care of our own dirty backyard. Many nurses continue to eat their young, backstab each other, and arguments like this that continue between the nursing disciplines seem never ending. We are confused as to who is the 'real nurse', and diminish the roles of the lesser ones, and that is what destroys us, in my humble opinion. Of course, I am not saying that all nurses are that way, but the bad ones really dominate the good ones that are trying, even under horrific circumstances that we face everyday from management and regulatory agencies.

[MedicalLPN, LPN]

My personal opinion is as follows: We all worked our butts off to get where we are now, no matter what title you have, it wasn't handed to you. I view all my fellow nurses and fellow CNA's as professionals, simply because we all work together as a team. Individually we all have our strengths and weaknesses but as a team we're well oiled machine that provides quality nursing care to our patients. Every role in healthcare is vital, NOBODY can do it all. I tend to think that whether or not one is professional is all in the person's attitude not the letters that are behind their name. Yes I know that Registered Nurses are also called Professional Nurses and I don't disagree with that title however I have met several RN's who could not have been more unprofessional in the way they treated their co-workers and patients. Likewise I have met several LPN's and CNA's that were extremely unprofessional as well. But luckily 99% of the people I work with ARE professionals in the way they treat each other and most importantly their patients.