So over it!!

Nurses General Nursing

Published

One of my serious pet peeves is when household staffing agencies call their newborn nannies 'baby nurses.' Apparently, this is a pretty common phenomenon, which is abhorrent to me.

In any event, I came across a website for one of those agencies a few days ago and saw that not only were they advertising 'Baby Nurses,' but for each nanny they had a description like, "Amanda has been a baby nurse for 15 years!" I'd had it. I wrote the agency to explain that not only is this offensive, but also illegal, and I reported the company to its respective state Boards of Nursing. In my email, I even cited the specific laws they were breaking by using the term nurse, which is protected.

Title "Nurse" Protection

The lady got back to me and had the nerve to say that I needed to 'educate myself' about the history of household staffing, and that this was an accepted term. (Seriously??) I replied that maybe she needed to educate herself about the fact that her field is moving away from calling nannies 'baby nurses' because (spoiler alert), various Boards of Nursing have taken legal action against them. Their professional body explicitly advises that they not call their staff nurses because it's illegal.

Baby Nurse vs. Newborn Care Specialist - International Nanny Association

I like to think that I'm a fairly reasonable, understanding person, but this just drives me up the wall! :sniff:

Rant over. Thanks for playing.

Specializes in NICU.

Here in Ontario, Canada I hear the term "night nurse" a lot for rich people who want to pay to have someone come take care of their baby overnight so they can sleep. I have no idea If they are actual RNs or not..

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