Seriously?? Small rant.

Sure, its not hard to be a nurse

- especially when you have a dying patient who is drowning in their own body fluids and despite your very best nursing care they and their family members are suffering badly

- or when you have a little old lady who despite being covered in urine or faeces begs you not to move them because shes in so much pain

- Its not hard trying to catheterise a little old man who has multiple urethral scrictures and a massively enlarged prostate, the bladder scan shows 2.5 litres of urine in the bladder

- certainly not hard for the person with the large fungating wound on their face that would rather let flys crawl over it than let the nursing and medical staff touch it because they are in so much pain.

And I could go on.

Before I give the impression its all doom and gloom there are also the equally rewarding moments, I have one of the best jobs in the world. I'm immensely privileged to be able to walk the final path with people who are dying and to care for them in their final days. When the nursing staff manage to heal an unstageable pressure injury, or manage an outbreak effectively.

I worked bloody hard to get my degree. Took me a whole four years to start as a beginning practitioner, four years later I feel like I maybe know about 1% of all there is to know about nursing, but wouldnt swap it for anything. And yes I have an issue with people who call themselves nurses who arent. Mainly for the point that they are unqualified and have the potential to do more harm than good.

You know who says nursing is easy? People who arent nurses. You become more qualified to make that statement when you become a practicing registered/enrolled nurse. Coming into a nursing forum to tell us how precious we are being and how our job is easy is not conducive to a productive conversation and just gets peoples backs up

Good post. Thinking you need to know how to medicate patients with fungating wounds and in to much pain to move though.

It's against TOS, plain and simple

I was reading a post earlier. Normally I love to do that, when I get some downtime I am entertained/educated by posts here and I enjoy it. However I saw something on here that bothered me. It is a recurring theme.

A user said that since a poster was a nursing student and not a nurse she should change her username. I see that a lot here, other users telling posters to change their name because they are students, or CNAs, etc. Does that really bother you??? It's not like it's that big of a deal. If I was a culinary student I would call myself DelaneyBaker and it would be fine. If I was an engineering student I would call myself DelaneyEngineer. It wouldn't be a big deal. Y'all act as if there aren't millions and millions of nurses in the world and are so prideful. It's not that hard to be a nurse. People from dinky little schools are "nurses". People who did things completely online are "nurses". It isn't a big deal.

I don't know why this riled me up so much but it did. Sorry for the rant.

A little recon will serve you well here. And I highly doubt your school nurse was a CNA. Unless you were in school during WW2

Soooo I *actually* read the terms of service for the first time and that was good to know. I'm sorry I was so fiery. It just seemed like you all were trying to be aggressive or belittling instead of what I guess you were actually trying to do. I went to school in a small town and our school nurse was referred to as a "nurse" even though she was a CNA and nobody cared and that's kind of another thing that made me think it was so mean they way y'all attacked people about the username cause it seemed to trivial. i don't mind. I only finished my second year of nursing school so i guess I don't have a good understanding. I mean it's hard, but when my classmates complain or treat the CNAs bad I don't understand. Anyway I guess this is all moot because like i said I finally read terms of service.

You've probably heard this 51 times already but yes, it is a big deal. The title of "nurse" is legally protected. Can you image if anyone could just go around calling themselves "nurse" or "doctor"? Ever wonder why they DON'T do that?

One of my friends got overly excited on FB one day soon after I announced that I had just been accepted to my program. She put 'RN' after my name in a comment. I asked her to take it down. You aren't an RN until you've take and passed the state boards, for the same reasons why you can't call yourself MD.

It's never as hard when you don't do something yourself. Respecfully, I bet if you worked as a CNA long enough, you would likely be a nurse by osmosis? (I've heard that before, or something similar).

Personally, I don't care what you call yourself, names have meaning for each of us. Perhaps yours should be: "Seriously I Messed Up, CNA"?

Nursing IS hard, and if you screw up there are DIRE consequences. Legally, and morally (as in guilt for the rest of your life that your screw up may have ended someone's life that they loved and enjoyed very much. Game over friend).

I could rant at how insulting your rant was, and point out it indicates you don't have a clue about what you speak. I find in these instances it is best not to speak at all any more, because you've already dug yourself in dutch - good and proper.

Perhaps your thread was a purposeful poke in the eye? Well friend: one eye blinded, and slight received. Offense accepted.

Now, off to go do easy things that may end up costing me my license (as Lil Debbie says: "Think I'll bake a cake!") …

Yeah miss know-it-all: Seriously.

Y'all act as if there aren't millions and millions of nurses in the world and are so prideful. It's not that hard to be a nurse. People from dinky little schools are "nurses". People who did things completely online are "nurses". It isn't a big deal.

Hmmm …

Well, DelaneyB, CNA (butcher, baker, candlestick maker, and psychoanalyst to all of nursing:

Matthew 7:1-3King James Version (KJV)

7 Judge not, that ye be not judged.

2 For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again.

This is MY license. There are many like it but this one is MINE.

I was told in a nursing class many years ago that anyone can use the title Nurse but you legally cant use the initials RN or LVN unless you are licensed.......which I thought was odd

I was told in a nursing class many years ago that anyone can use the title Nurse but you legally cant use the initials RN or LVN unless you are licensed.......which I thought was odd

thats inaccurate in at least 38 states. Nurse,RN, registered nurse, LPN, licensed practical nurse are all protected titles.

I was told in a nursing class many years ago that anyone can use the title Nurse but you legally cant use the initials RN or LVN unless you are licensed.......which I thought was odd

Not the case in my state. You cannot use the word "nurse" to describe yourself or another employee unless that person is a licensed RN or LPN. The only remotely allowable deviation would be in the title "Certified Nursing Assistant."

OP----I'm not sure where you get the idea it's not hard to become a nurse.....but, well, yep, it is........harder still, sometimes, to keep ones license safe......

In my state only an RN can call themselves a nurse as a stand alone. An LPN is an LPN, not a nurse alone

Not the case in my state. You cannot use the word "nurse" to describe yourself or another employee unless that person is a licensed RN or LPN. The only remotely allowable deviation would be in the title "Certified Nursing Assistant."