I know this has been discussed before, but recent activity on a different thread has made me wonder. Do you tell doctors/nurses etc what you do for a living when you're on the other side of the bed?
I saw a thread from 2010 where most people said they did not. Either they didn't want to be THAT person or they didn't want to make staff nervous etc.
For me it depends on the situation, but I frequently will tell them. First off, I feel like I'm lying, especially when they are talking to me in lay persons' terms or explaining procedures I'm already familiar with. Also, if a person is good at what they do, they should not be intimidated by this information. Why are we not embracing our nursing brothers and sisters? The response should be "oh you're one of us, so good to have a member of the club here."
Would any other profession be this way? Physicians roll out the red carpet for each other,
firefighters call each other brother no matter if they work a thousand miles away from each other. Would a lawyer, cop, auto mechanic hide their expertise if they were the client of one of their own kind? I highly doubt it. Even waitstaff tip each other better because they know each other's pain.
I say, let's say announce it with pride and treat our colleagues, who happen to be patients, with the love and respect they deserve.
Specializes in SCI/TBI, Hospice, Legal Nurse Consulting.
In some situations, we do develop relationships like that with our patients and their families. I work in acute rehab and we have our patients any where from 30 days to 10 months, or longer. In that time period ito is impossible to not develop some sort of relationship where compassion truly comes in. That said, our rule about relationships, with patients and their families, is intentionally vague but states that once you, the provider , is getting more out of the relationship than the patient, you have crossed a line.
Raicho, BSN, MSN, RN
45 Posts
In some situations, we do develop relationships like that with our patients and their families. I work in acute rehab and we have our patients any where from 30 days to 10 months, or longer. In that time period ito is impossible to not develop some sort of relationship where compassion truly comes in. That said, our rule about relationships, with patients and their families, is intentionally vague but states that once you, the provider , is getting more out of the relationship than the patient, you have crossed a line.