"I am a nurse!"

[Emergent]

Ever have a patient or family member who, the first thing out of their mouth is "I am a nurse!". Then they proceed to brag about their illustrious career, showing off their knowledge, grandstanding and expecting the red carpet treatment. They fiddle around with monitors, turn off pumps and saline lock IVs, crossing boundaries right and left.

Then they announce that they love it here and plan on applying! You go to the BON site, verify their status, then email your supervisor ASAP!

[Fuzzy]

I work in veterinary medicine. Whenever I hear a client calling herself a "nurse", I cringe. She usually comes in with a chip on her shoulder and with a very sick animal that she has been "treating at home". She gets upset when we tell her that her pet is extremely sick and needs to be hospitalized. She will turn down diagnostics and treatments because she is a "nurse". She will look over our shoulders and tell us that we are doing our jobs wrong. She does not want "Fluffy" in a cage because that's cruel. An e-collar (cone) is out of the question because "Fluffy" will not chew her IVC out. (Fluffy did so twice). And the aggravation goes on...

Don't get me wrong. Some of our best clients are nurses. In fact we really do not realize that they are nurses until after that fact. The real nurses know that we are on the same side. The intent is that the patient (pet) receive the best care that we can give him so that he can go home and continue to live a wonderful life.

Fuzzy

[Accolay]

I had a fairly nasty experience a few months ago in the ICU with a nurse family member. She even brought a backup nurse one night who was just as unpleasant. They both worked in a very different type of hospital (Level IV Trauma vs Level I- private vs public) in very different types of nursing roles and were advocating.... the wrong way.

ugh...having flashbacks now.

[periwinks00]

Okay...this is the first time that I have ever commented on a post. I don't know how to "quote" a past statement. BUT...I'm in a similar boat. Whenever I'm out with my in-laws, my MiL tells EVERYONE that I am a nurse at the local hospital (which has a growing *poop* reputation - i.e. organization knowingly hired a CNO without an active RN license is the latest of many issues). More recently, she also felt it okay to tell the weirdo server at a local restaurant what town I live in!? I am a single parent (actually divorced from their son - but we maintain our relationship) and obviously I live alone with my child. I live in a decent town, but we are surrounded by sketchy people and I stick out like a sore thumb given my ethnicity. Any advice? It's almost like she's clueless – even after I was being stalked by my neighbor and his dad who ALSO BOTH work at the hospital!? Nothing has happened thus far, but it's bad enough nearly bumping into IVDU patients on the streets when I'm out and about – then she tells every Tom, Dick and Harry she meets that I'm a nurse!?

[NurseSpeedy, ADN, LPN, RN]

My husband let's the staff know every time, whether it's me or him as the patient. I try to hide it but he lets them know ASAP.

Strange thing is I seem to get roped into the care. When I was pregnant in the ER I was told to feel fre to unplug the iv pole and ambulated to the bathroom down the hall and was even left with a flush for my iv when the bag was finished...no alcohol wipe but was handed the flush...

Had to hand it to the nurse who had my husband after outpatient surgery. He was explaining to him that he needed to urinate before leaving. When asked what would happen if he couldn't go he looked at him and said, "then I hope you've been nice to your wife because I'll let her cath you for me. There's different size tubes for her to choose from"...I thought he handled that one well. I absolutely hate being outed to the staff!

[NurseSpeedy, ADN, LPN, RN]

Okay...this is the first time that I have ever commented on a post. I don't know how to "quote" a past statement. BUT...I'm in a similar boat. Whenever I'm out with my in-laws, my MiL tells EVERYONE that I am a nurse at the local hospital (which has a growing *poop* reputation - i.e. organization knowingly hired a CNO without an active RN license is the latest of many issues). More recently, she also felt it okay to tell the weirdo server at a local restaurant what town I live in!? I am a single parent (actually divorced from their son - but we maintain our relationship) and obviously I live alone with my child. I live in a decent town, but we are surrounded by sketchy people and I stick out like a sore thumb given my ethnicity. Any advice? It's almost like she's clueless – even after I was being stalked by my neighbor and his dad who ALSO BOTH work at the hospital!? Nothing has happened thus far, but it's bad enough nearly bumping into IVDU patients on the streets when I'm out and about – then she tells every Tom, Dick and Harry she meets that I'm a nurse!?

I live in an area with MANY hospitals. I drive almost an hour away from my home and pass a few other hospitals to get to mine because I know there is very little chance I will ever run into a patient outside of work. Many of mine are IVDA homeless patients. It's worked because I never have them wonder 30 miles away from the hospital.

I worked at an ALF six miles from my home once. Ran into residents and families EVERYWHERE...including Wally World...always an interesting trip to that store...

[idialyze, BSN, RN]

My Mom was the same way, she would always introduce me as "My daughter the nurse ". I would ask her why she never introduced my sister as "My daughter, the Human Resource Director"?

[idialyze, BSN, RN]

The other side to this is that some family members who are nurses raise legitimate concerns about the patient (as do some non-nurse family members), and the nurse due to prejudice is unable to hear what they are saying or respond appropriately to the concern, and the patient suffers. Egos can get in the way on both sides.

When I am the family member I don't mention that I am a nurse, or ask questions that will obviously reveal this, as I have found that nurses tend to become defensive when they suspect a family member is a nurse, and this results in unproductive behavior, but I will ask questions I consider necessary to my relative's care or take necessary action to assure the safety of my relative. If a nurse/physician concludes that I am a nurse, that's fine with me, and if I think the situation warrants it I have no problem telling them that I am a nurse. If staff ask me directly I will tell them I am a nurse, and my relatives are likely to volunteer this anyway. I try to be respectful and considerate towards the staff, and I am a generally quiet presence, but I don't dumb my behavior down as I don't believe that is in the interest of my relative (the patient).

My 14 year old niece had major jaw surgery (think breaking her jaws , pulling wisdom teeth, and wiring jaws ) . No way was I not going to be there since her Mom, my sister has no type medical experience and, it's her only child. During surgery we went to her hospital room to wait, and I noticed there wasn't suction set up. When her nurse came in to introduce herself, I requested she get it ready, so much for keeping myself undercover as an RN.

Well, she came back to the room coughing and vomiting blood, still no suction. The PACU nurse left to find our nurse with my niece starting to turn blue. She returned and they both started fumbling around with the wall suction equipment while I was getting madder and my niece was turning bluer. Her Mom started freaking and I snatched the suction from these two nurses, hooked it up and started clearing my nieces airway while saying some really bad words😱😱.

Formal apologies from hospital officials and MDs, my sister and I never left her bedside until a week later when she was discharged.

I'm not sorry I revealed my being a nurse!!

[llerkl, ADN]

I agree with others here who have said they NEVER identify themselves as nurses when seeking care for themselves or a family member. I have ALWAYS wanted to respond to the "I'm a nurse!" comment.....with something like....."well that's awesome! Then you should totally understand why I need to do X, W and Z for your loved one now, instead of stand here talking about YOUR nursing career".

Don't worry....it's only in my bubble, have never actually done it

[dec2007]

Yes!!!

[Double Dunker]

I once had a family member who was related to the patient by marriage, who also happened to be the chief of surgery at our sister hospital. Said chief told me he wanted me to put in an order for a bunch of labs. Nope. That's not how this works.

[Medic/Nurse, BSN, RN]

I am currently a *housewife* or *unemployed* or *just a patient*. It's just blank on my chart. I'm the Payor -or unemployed or all.

I was hit head-on and 23 months later I was t-boned (both MVC's required extrication) - I have crippling PTSD, 5 herniated discs in my neck and everything that goes with those (nothing good - and turns out I did not win the genetic lottery in my spine and have a very tiny spinal canal -- why not a tiny bum, to go with big boobs, but oh well -- can't have everything!), sheared nerves in both arms, chronic bicep tendinitis in both arms, a torn labrum in my R shoulder, a partially torn rotator cuff in L shoulder, blinding headaches and yada, yada. Fun, eh? But, hey - it could be so much freaking worse - I can walk (which is an awesome residual!!) and who really needs to drive anyway (yeah, that's a problem?

I do not make it known, nor is it a "secret" - if it's necessary in the course of my care to share my nurse or paramedic background, I will.

I will say as this saga has proceeded, my tolerance for bad bahavior is becoming less and less. I have been astonished at how difficult it is to advocate for myself at times. I've been desperate for a diagnosis and pain relief. I have a world-class neurosurgeon and am followed by spinal orthopedics with serial MRI's. Pain Management has been somewhat an epic journey and is, at best, fought with near resigned desperation knowing in the end that I'd be left in misery. I will advocate for my patients without hesitation - and when it has mattered, I've advocated for my family to the point you could say, I would have no fear of "backing the devil himself into hell" - but, I've endured some nonsense I'd call out in a nonosecond if a patient was on the receiving end. What is going on?

I'm at the "nope point" in my care going foreward. Future interactions that involve bad behavior will result in appropriate action.

I had a doctor come into my room and to my face say, "So you think you are special?" I'm like what? This was in response to a resident coming into the room and reviewing my meds (meds I had been on for MONTHS) and he comes up with an interaction -- he asks me about it. I explain I only take it infrequently (PRN) and tell him I used to be a critical care nurse. The resident leaves the room and my doc comes in yelling at me. WTF. How did this happen? So now I'm off a needed med. Must choose to treat pain or pain disorder/PTSD. Both meds long term, the PTSD/pain med is actually 1/2 of what it had been in last few months -- never had a problem. No regular dosing. Just screaming. SO YOU THINK YOU ARE SPECIAL. Yeah, I have it on tape.

When I have no one to go with me, I started taping my appointments so I don't miss things. It's that bad.

THE EMG TAPE IS ALMOST AS BAD. I AM NOT HAVING IT.

I had a neurologist come in to do an EMG on my hands and lower arms and WITHOUT knowing any HISTORY, he goes ahead and commented that "carpal tunnel" was very common in my "demographic" and not really an issue medicine can solve. Yeah, really.

I wasn't complaining of "carpal tunnel" per se, I was having issues r/t having spasms in my hands, difficulty in my hands. History of injury had been gripping the steering wheel in the second crash. The issues in my hands/arms started immediately post crash and the MD's at the time thought it to be an exacerbation of my neck issues, but my hands felt different, felt heavy. 10 days post crash, I was trying to make breakfast and literally put a knife through my left hand partially severing my medial nerve just below my L index finger and did not feel it (the blood spurting across the kitchen alerted me tho). Almost 20 months post crash, I was having continued sensation deficits in my hands - not explained by my neck.

I asked was demographic was this non-medical carpal tunnel was so common in?

Ex-CIA Snipers? Jackhammers operators? Factory workers? Upper middle class, middle-aged white women that have not done repetitive work in their non dominate hand?

When this mysterious epidemic of "carpal tunnel" shows in the non-dominate hand, of middle-aged, pampered upper-middle class white women it is really a non-issue? Correct.

Shouldn't we have walks for a cure or something? Ribbons? These are the hands of privilege.

Do you know anything about my background of any possible mechanism of injury?

Does it say why we are doing this test?

You are an idiot and disrespectful.

Yeah, when the nurse has to come out - she doesn't mess with pumps or dressings (tho if safety was impacted in a life and death matter, I might * a dressing falling off a central line might get taped back in place after calls to the desk in a non-responsive ICU, a kinked VT tube unkinked if calls were unanswered. Also, I might unkink IV tubing if it was causing a pump to alarm - maybe, depending, if I could do it quietly and it would depend on if I was the patient or just *who* the patient is - relationship matters here. Point - I'm less interested in proving what I know and currently just trying to survive as a patient).

I am always respectful of nurses, techs and support staff. Even if there was an incident or behavior issue - I would see it as an opportunity to "exchange information" and would not be a blind GOTCHA complaint matter to management, unless I could not resolve it directly.

Most issues I've had have been MD driven and that's where I've lost my integrity as a nurse. I'm past it now. Next MD that dispespects me in any way will find themselves discussing the matter with corporate compliance. Not related to being a nurse. Just a patient, but knowledge is privilege.

:angel:

[Medic/Nurse, BSN, RN]

My hubby had surgery at a hospital I spent a long time as a staff RN at and had a "complication" (desaturated to 90% on RA s/p surgery 24 hours) and his RN said she called his MD.

NO ORDERS OBTAINED. WHAT? REALLY?

This was 4am.

I promptly called the ER doc and asked what should I do? I had not worked there in 5+ years. He knew me, I was flying and still visited often. He said you know what to do. If it gets too bad, you also know what to do. He asked me what the surgeon said. I said he gave no orders. We both thought that weird as we thought my hubby needed to be in CT to r/o a embolism. I was getting prickly.

Long story short. I obtained a NC and put my husband on supplemental oxygen. His RN did not like it, I told her to do whatever she thought best about it. Not in confrontation, just wasn't going to let my hubby go down the tubes any further. "

Turns out the RN did NOT call any one. At 6:10 an the S222 hit the fan. The surgeon arrived.

Sent my husband directly to CT. CONFIRMED NO CALL TO HIS GROUP, SERVICE. OMG, I knew him for 15 years and had NEVER heard him yell or yell like that. It was shattering. He went fully to the zoo on that nurse. Past the lions, monkeys and tossed the peanuts off the train. Went full zoo! It was bad. And deserved. She lied. She could have killed my hubby. Well, no, I'd have called a RAPID RESPONSE AT 86%, but that's another topic. It's the lie -- and she was caged. Had she done this before???? Big question???????

Administration arrives at 8 am to discuss the matter with us. It's a non-issue as far as I'm/We are concerned. Ultimately my husband was monitored by me, did not suffer harm thankfully. Let's handle this "in house" and make sure that this is not a repetitive incident.

I tell the CNO I have complete confidence that she can manage this with me instigating BON action. Its her decision. I'm going to focus in my hubby. And hopefully get him well enough to go home so I can go back to work.

See, all good with the nurse set. I think the right thing is the direct thing.

:angel: