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.

Thanks, guys! I feel a lot better. :up:

As an update, the lady wrote me back and said, "Best of luck on your pointless crusade," to which I almost responded, "And best of luck to you, in your crusade to overcharge nervous parents for a glorified babysitter by illegally appropriating a protected term from a respected profession."

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But then I thought better of it. :rolleyes:

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Specializes in Case Manager/Administrator.

I love ya'll snarkness.

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Specializes in Critical care.
Lol, I mentioned that in my email.

On an unrelated note, I did once have a dad in the NICU who erroneously thought that NICU nurses are where donor breastmilk comes from. He literally told us that was, "great farm-to-table service." I had to explain that I'm not that kind of nurse. :rolleyes:

If this were true I would always have cream for my coffee at night!

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Say it!!!! LOL

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Hey you were nice to warn them!

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Specializes in Psych (25 years), Medical (15 years).
Sadly, we've been changing our time for years in Indiana now :sorry:

Oh shoot! I did not know that, Hoosier_RN!

The last time I drove my '85 Toyota pickup to Greenfield Indiana to visit my Ex's son and his family was...

...2001! Wow. 17 years ago!

I guess the time change thing happened sometime since then. I always thought the time change thing was silly and appreciated the fact that Indiana didn't do it.

Oh well. Thanks for the update!

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Specializes in OB-Gyn/Primary Care/Ambulatory Leadership.

AZ is the only place that doesn't change time. Except on some of the Indian reservations where DST is recognized. You can literally go across the street and it's an hour later.

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Specializes in NICU.

Thank you! Great catch!:up: I know I take great pride in the sweat and tears it took to earn my nursing degree and then licensure.. to think that other people are able to carry the title nurse without any legitimate work or accountability is ridiculous! Thank God for the "Nurse" protection act.. the remaining states need to get on board.

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Specializes in Pediatrics, Pediatric Float, PICU, NICU.

I had a side gig in Phoenix where I was an actual "Baby Nurse" for some high-profile MLB players during Spring Training. Basically, they came into town for Spring Training with their wives, usually rented some AirBnB mansion, and for some reason they wanted actual RNs overnight to babysit their newborn/infants even though they didn't have a medical need for an RN. But, they paid us good pay. There was a group of about 3 players that consistently used a group of us pediatric nurses to have every night covered. One year a rookie wanted in on it, but was smart and realized he could just pay a babysitter a lot cheaper since they had no need for an actual nurse. I never understood the whole phenomenon, but it paid good and was the easiest money I made.

That being said, I whole heartedly agree with this post. Don't use the title if you didn't earn the title. It is misleading.

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Specializes in Retired NICU.

This reminds me of one of my pet peeves on the flip side of the coin: calling the NICU the nursery, and the NICU nurses: nursery nurses; as though all we do is feed and hold babies!

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Sadly, we've been changing our time for years in Indiana now :sorry:

Worst thing ever was when we decided to change our clocks here in Indiana. It's been years and I'm still disgruntled over it!!

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I guess it depends on your state. Here is a link that shows all the states where "nurse" is a protected term. It's from 2013 by the way.

Title "Nurse" Protection

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