Nurse Impersonators

Nurses General Nursing

Published

:( Am I the only one who resents the "nurse impersonators" who abound in the health care field?

Everyone who works at a doctor's office or in a hospital wears scrubs and seems to pass themselves off as a nurse. Of course, the hospital doesn't mind. Visitors and patients don't realize how few nurses are actually on the unit if the unit clerks, nursing assistants, housekeepers, and technicians are all wearing scrubs.

It seems harmless enough, this generic flowered jacketed scrub outfit, until you think of the harm it does to nurses' reputation as a whole. I just wonder what people think when they see two or three "nurses" ambling around the hallways or sitting at the nurses station while their family member waits for pain medication!

I have to think the doctor's offices are the worst. The doctors will actually refer to the medical assistant as "the nurse". I wonder if a doctor would appreciate an employee passing himself off as a doctor?

Last month I was in a doctor's waiting room with my son when a man came in holding his hand wrapped in a towel. He announced that he'd cut his hand and needed to see the doctor ( ok- dont ask me why he didn't go to the ER!) . The "nurse" told him to have a seat. The waiting room was crowded and it was obvious he was in for a very long wait. I saw the towel becoming saturated, and I couldn't help going over to him and telling him to hold his hand above heart level, apply pressure, try some deep breathing, etc. I told the "nurse" to let him go in and be seen, but she said, "He has to wait his turn, it wouldnt be fair to the patients who had appointments."

Driving home, my son asked, "Why didn't that nurse help that man?" I told him, "Because she's not a nurse!" But I wonder how many people in that waiting room went home with the story of the nurse who wouldnt help a bleeding man.

I know nurses don't want to go back to the days of wearing caps (even though I love my cap), but shouldn't we be more concerned about people in scrubs making us look bad? Shouldn't a nurse on duty be as easily recognizable as an EMT, a Firefighters, or a Police Officer?

Specializes in LDRP; Education.

Excellent idea Mattsmom!!!

If anyone knows of any situation like this - let's compile them and send them to all the major stations - ABC, NBC, CBS.

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There is an interesting reversal of this problem going on in my office (which I will be leaving next week, for a variety of reasons). We are a huge OB-GYN practice, with approximately 10 Dr's and almost 2 dozen CNPs and CNMs. Out of all the medical support staff working with patients, only one other woman besides me is an LPN- the rest are MAs. (Our triage nurses are both RNs and LPNs) I could count on one hand the number of times I have been referred to as a nurse, even though I wear my name tag. I usually am referred to as an MA or a "clinical assistant". It makes me wonder why on earth I killed myself in nursing school! Thankfully, due to incredibly inept management of grossly immature MAs, my last day in this office is Valentine's Day!

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Specializes in ORTHOPAEDICS-CERTIFIED SINCE 89.

http://abclocal.go.com/wabc/news/WABC_020201_carelesscare.html

Speaking of reporting to 20/20 It looks like WABC did just this last year. We really need to let all the nets know.

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Amen!!!!! to you Nancy RN!

:roll :roll

I'm tired of getting underrated! I went to school for 4 years and worked very hard academically to earn my bsn. i don't like it when people ask what i do and then say, "you have the stomach for that, wiping buts all day?" i don't want to offend anyone, i'm very grateful for those who do assist with most of the personal care, i don't know what we'd do without you. i feel it's part of our job to educate the public about our duties and maybe then we will attract instead of turn-off people to the nursing profession.

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Great article PRN! Thanks for sharing! Maybe you should forward it to ALL the networks with a big hint the problem has only gotten worse and deserves another hard look.

And better yet, maybe we should ALL launch our own little projects in our hometowns. Call our local investigative reporters and challenge them to check out local practices, ask to speak to the 'nurse' then pin them down for their real titles. Check it out in person and on camera, expose the fraud taking place. Challenge the BON's as to why they aren't stepping up to the plate on this issue. Anyone game? (I know, it's too early in the morning for this stuff...sorry..LOL!)

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As a student, currently doing all of the studying and hard work for my degree, It really irritates me that many of the CNAs in our hospital introduce themselves to the patients saying "my name is Cathy, i will be one of your NURSES today". It bothers me a lot because I have to work hard at clinicals, come home and study until the wee hours of the morning, and this aid has never had to go through this. They have no right to call themselves nurses.

If I can, I try to have us both go into the room at the same time, I introduce myself and her, saying, "Hello, my name is Brandy, and I will be your Student Nurse for the day. This is Cathy, the nurses aid, we will be working together to provide your care.". It ticks her off, but I would rather tick her off than to have a patient think that she is actually a nurse. Its just wrong. Not only does it water down the profession, but it decreases the image of nursing as an academic commitment.

We worked HARD for 4 years (or two) and deserve separate respect for that. Being a nurse is something that comes out of education and commitment, not just putting on a pair of scrubs.

BrandyBSN

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Originally posted by Susy K

It goes much deeper than that. We have nursing leadership/supervisors, but they are really just figureheads. There is no nursing support and in my mind, the clinic is very nurse UNfriendly as far as respect and support. The clinic pays high for being a clinic, the hours are nice, but the lack of respect is so profound here, it's really almost....sad. :o . . .

I had emailed my BON here about the work environment, and the MAs passing themselves off as nurses, and I haven't heard anything. The nurses here feel so alone, so lost. It's very, very sad. :o

You may not hear anything from the BON; they may just 'show-up'

Perhaps that's what needs to happen, a big fat, $$$$$ fine. In our state, and I would imagine the 49 others, there is a law about who can and cannot legally practice as a registered nurse.

Sounds like you are between a rock and a hard place. The person you describe sounds like a lawsuit waiting to happen.

Good luck!

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I actually work in a facility in which the female nurses (and I am one of them) still wear caps. While I agree, theoretically, that it is an anti-feministic, antiquated custom, I have to admit that there's a certain sense of timeless tradition and comeraderie that is embodied in our building. And besides, the patients and their families LOVE being able to tell who is who. I surely didn't like the idea of wearing a cap at first (after all, I'm not a french maid), but I also work for a staffing agency part time and when I go out on assignment for them I find myself feeling as if my uniform is not complete without my cap. Who would have thunk it? Not I, that's for sure.

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To cap or not to cap?

I guess in a sense police and firefighters wear their caps as part of their professional uni--maybe we should too.

And what timing: I had a myelogram today. A no name tag in a scrub brings me back, gets me gowned, gets a ua, and gives me 2 pills from a lock box to "relax" me. After I checked out the drug, (it was Xanax) I ask her what her name and title is. She's a rad tech, she tells me proudly. Which is "almost indistinguishable" from a nurse she adds.... GRRRRRRR.

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Specializes in Trauma acute surgery, surgical ICU, PACU.

On my unit, we have camaraderie - and we all wear different clothes. You don't need caps to build a sense of family and unification of purpose. It's the intangiable parts of working together that build camaraderie. As long as I am not slovenly, what I do is more important than what I look like. YES, Nurse Impersonators are a big problem, but uniforms and caps are not the way to solve that problem. I think if we all look the same, it's *easier* for management to use that against us, hold us down to just a "workforce", and not a true profession.

On my unit, the Assistants wear either pink or white uniforms. Occasionally blue. Nurses wear decorative scrubs or professional looking "street" clothes.

All the nurses wear name tags - and if we forget to bring it to work, we put a peice of masking tape with our name and title on it. None of the assistants wear name tags, but they all at least introduce themselves. I don't notice too many patients mis-interpreting nursing stafff from others groups on the unit. I did have one incident where a family didn't get info they required - they didn't ask any questions from the doctor because they thought he was a technician!

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As far as nametags go, they only do good if you don't cover them with anything handy. At my local hospital(where i am doing clinicals) most of the nurses cover their names AND title with their pagers. I don't quite understand why, but they do. Not only does it make it hard for the patients and family to tell who is who, but i can never seem to find my nurse because her name is covered.

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The paranoid interpretation would be that they are all helping her hide from you! LOL

Seriously though, maybe it's an anti-stalker measure?

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