What do you do when you're a pt?

[Sarah G]

Hi all, Just wondering what other folks do when a patient instead of nurse. Do you introduce yourself to other nurses as a nurse yourself? Why? How do you go about doing it without making another nurse potentially uncomfortable?

[camarogirl512]

I dont come right out and say I am a nurse, but sometimes I ask questions that lead to them asking what I do for a living. My care should not be affected by what I do for my profession. Also, I don't believe another nurse should become uncomfortable because I am a nurse, if he/she is doing their job how they are supposed to, it should not matter.

[TheCommuter, BSN, RN]

I was hospitalized overnight after an elective procedure back in 2008. Although I did not tell any of the healthcare workers that I was a nurse, they all seemed to figure it out about four to six hours into each shift. My nurses would walk into the room and say, "You're a nurse? I didn't know that!"

The admission clerk must have included my occupation on my face sheet.

Anyhow, I prefer to not reveal the fact that I am a nurse because I want them to behave naturally. I do not want them to feel nervous. However, I will definitely intervene if someone is reckless or clearly doesn't know what they're doing.

[merlee]

I rarely hold back - somehow everyone finds out, any way. But that doesn't necessarily translate into higher quality care. Like the time I waited 3 hours for pain meds.......

[Rob72, ASN, RN]

Try to make sure they don't kill me. New-RN, long-time healthcare recipient- DMI x38 years. I generally don't say anything specific, just act interested and friendly.

[Heidi the nurse, BSN, RN]

I haven't been in the hospital too many times (mainly just with my 3 kids and one other elective surgery) but it seems like they always figured it out. More than likely something on my chart like a work phone number gave it away. I did have surgery when i was working on a med/surg floor and was given the option of being on the floor or on the short stay floor - I decided to stay on short stay. Just seemed kind of weird to be on the floor I worked on, although several of our nurses and techs did stay on the floor as patients.

[tyvin, BSN, RN]

They always seem to know. I think the docs give them a heads up. They're never uncomfortable since they know what they're doing for the most part.

I had a PA once who I had to educate on the tenets of how to take the dressing off of a negative pressure wound. He was going to just rip it off! Ahhhhhhhhhh...wait get the saline please. The sponge was deep and had dried (I was in surgery when they put it on) anyway, The PA tells me it's better to just rip it off really fast (LOL!) like a band-aid. I got news; it's not just a band-aid and the integrity of the deep wound would be shot to ****. I had him go get saline and it took a half hour to soak and coax the sponge off. Weww; I can't imagine what others have gone through so I told his boss (my doc).

I think the nurses like to know.

[futurernjap]

Tattletale

[2126]

I learned my lesson not to say anything when I was in the hospital with my son. I was still in nursing school and mentioned it as a way of making conversation because I needed to calm myself down during a difficult situation. The nurse was like..."oh...you are. That's nice." ..in a very cold way and I tried to be friendly and alleviate the awkwardness by asking where she went and again she responded coldly. That was that....the rest of the time, every nurse was nice, but the first thing they would say to me is "ohhh, I hear you're in nursing school...". I never wanted to make a point of it or disturb the original nurse...it was completely innocent, but I will never do it again because I saw how uncomfortable it made the nurses. I reiterated that I'm still in school with no experience, so I'm not trying to watch over their shoulder. They clearly knew way more than I know now.

Just wanted to share my experience... :-)

[nurse.sandi]

My son had asthma as a child. He was in and out of the ER and Peds unit all summer. I became a nurse so I would know what they were doing to my child.

Also, I have been a patient..I try not to say anything, but some how nurses just know, including myself. The worst is when you are taking care of a highly successful surgeon. Lots of experiences to share, but I really do not like talking about my patients. It just does not feel right.

[snazzy-jazzy, BSN, RN]

I am a student nurse/midwife at the hospital I was admitted to as a patient. It was always mentioned at bedside handover and it was fine. I was always given my lab results, and was treated just as well as everyone else. It was at the time of the floods here in Australia and we had just been hit with them so there was a shortage of nurses on shift. I found I was more aware of things like that and laid off the call bell.

[BostonMurse]

I appreciate when my patients tell me ahead of time that they are nurses, so that we can do patient education on a higher level and have an honest, open relationship. I can usually tell when a patient or family member is a nurse by the words they use or questions they ask.