Patient or Client??? Which do you say?

[Olive Oyl]

I am in nursing school...our instructors and our books refer to patients as clients. We've had long discussions with differing views as to which is correct. Which do you say?

[EmmaG, RN]

Until I get to bill them separately for the care I provide, they're patients.

[EmmaG, RN]

I am in nursing school...our instructors and our books refer to patients as clients. We've had long discussions with differing views as to which is correct. Which do you say?

Quote them my sig line

[HM2VikingRN, RN]

Patient....

[flightnurse2b, LPN]

I am in nursing school...our instructors and our books refer to patients as clients. We've had long discussions with differing views as to which is correct. Which do you say?

i say patients... much more personal IMO.

i feel like a lawyer or something calling someone a client...

[Chaya, ASN, RN]

Yep. Another one of those discrepancies between nursing school and real life. I used the word "client" until my last day of nursing school. Now I don't have to. I don't view nursing as a primarily business proposition and "client" makes me think of dispensing healing for money, comparable to dispensing affection/ physical caresses for money...:uhoh21:

[joprasklpn]

In home care we do call them clients because we are in the home and they are paying for service. Does sound so cold though, huh. If I had to choose it would be patient. In LTC we called our (patients) residents because that is what management wanted and I guess they really are residents since they live there.

[Riseupandnurse]

Patient, not client. A client can order up whatever I have that he or she is willing to pay for. The customer is always right. This does not describe the nurse-patient relationship. And I do LOTS of things for my patients and their famiies I would never put up with in a client, thank you very much.

[Kiringat]

The word client has become more and more prevelant because hospital admin's have turned it into a business and thus they are putting the dollar in their pockets.

I call them patients. Because that's what they are.

Shiny - well said. I'm sticking with patient, until nursing care is listed under something other that "Room Services" at my hospital.

[CyndieRN2007]

Patient.

[Medic04]

I say patient, BUT customer serv calls them customers or clients .:uhoh21:

[bethin]

Patient, or in LTC resident.

I've been a patient several times and I do not want to be referred to as a client. Lawyers, stockbrokers, etc use the term client. Seems very impersonal to be called a client when I'm getting a colonscopy. You're seeing the most personal side of me and you call me a client? What, am I a side of beef?

[nuangel1, BSN, RN]

for me it will always be patient.i hate client.when i was hospitalized 3 times i was a patient