When do you NOT want people to know you're a Nurse

Nurses General Nursing

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1. Do you ever call to have estimates on something in your house or take your car to get fixed and wished your nursing ID card was at the bottom of your dark, dark bag.

I find that estimates go way, way up when someone figures out you're a nurse.

2. All of a sudden you're getting invitations from people for baby showers, weddings, etc. and your not even friends (not sure you like them)

3. Or the brave one's who just out right say "you're making the big bucks now, can I borrow money"

How much a person makes is relative to their financial responsibilities. People are too busy trying to count your dollars reading adds that say "Nursing wanted up to $70hr only 3 days a week :chuckle:chuckle:chuckle:chuckle All I have to say is DEBT-TO-INCOME RATIO

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Specializes in ER.

At $70 an hour I'll be hitting myself up for cash...where's that?

I prefer to be incognito except at work, and I try to forget all the gruesome family details I find out.

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Specializes in Med-Surg, ED.

The only time I don't want to be identified as a nurse when I am not at work is if I am at the pharmacy or store and someone is coughing or sniffling or otherwise having annoying cold symptoms...I just don't want to be latched onto for advice or help choosing OTC meds etc.

Otherwise, I don't mind people knowing. I think that when people know what I do, they are actually nicer.

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Specializes in ICU/Critical Care.

I try to keep my work life and home life separate. I hate when people start asking me questions about what its like to be a nurse? When I'm home I don't want to think about work.

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Specializes in Case mgmt., rehab, (CRRN), LTC & psych.

Anytime I'm off the clock, I really don't want people knowing that I'm a nurse. Once they know, they bother me for medical advice and want me to diagnose their afflictions.

Nursing is not who I am; rather, it is what I do for a living.

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Any more, I don't care to admit to it. I have gotten to the point that I don't think hospital nursing is respectable because you have to be extremely submissive and passive to take the BS they dish out so I don't brag about it.

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Specializes in SICU.

I don't want anyone to know I'm a nurse, except when I'm at work or I'm assisting another family member with a medical situation (like a doctor's appointment or being in the hospital). Otherwise, I keep it as much a secret as possible. About the money situation, it's amazing that people think we're rolling in the dough just because I'm an RN. Family seems to be the worst.

I think what peeves me off the most, though, is when I'm sitting on my front porch, enjoying one of my days off that fall on a weekday, and I get comments from my across-the-street neighbor (who otherwise is a nice guy) of "must be nice to be you, sitting on your duff while everyone else is working." I smile and do the polite little laugh because he really is a decent fella most of the time, but I'm thinking "Yeah right, I'll remember how nice it is to be me when I'm wiping someone's poopy crack on Christmas Day and you're opening presents and drinking cider, you JERK."

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Specializes in Emergency & Trauma/Adult ICU.

I guess my experience is different.

Nursing is a middle-income profession - I have not met anyone who thinks I'm rolling in the money because I'm a nurse.

I do find it to be common that people I believe I am somehow on call or working a bazillion hours a week -- other than occasional OT, I work 40 hours weekly, no more or less than the vast majority of people employed full-time in all fields.

Except on rare occasion I have not been inappropriately asked for medical advice.

I do hate when I get stuck around a conversation in which someone ascribes to the Oprah/Dateline/Today Show media hype about "how to get better medical treatment" or describes in great detail some diet/alternative treatment self-help book written by someone with a degree in basket-weaving. I'm still working on the proper noncommital nod/turn of the head /change of topic. :rolleyes:

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Specializes in med-surg.

I started noticing the difference in the way people treat me during my first year of nursing school. I had the cute little nurse's bags and the class t-shirts and the little pins. It was cute.

Until people started talking to me. At Wal-Mart, the bank, the MDs office where I'm sitting looking miserable with an SpO2 of what turns out to be 89 from pnuemonia, the cute little boy in the next cubie at work that's only 6 years older than my nephew. I discovered that perfect strangers will strike up conversations and give you more detail then you ever wanted to know if they think you are nurse (needless to say, I live in a very friendly city).

So I turn my bags so the nurse logos face into my body. I only wear the t-shirts to class. I smile patiently and wonder how Demi got so lucky as cute little boy chronicles his latest health complaints. Its not that I don't care, I do. I'm going into nursing because I do care for people, but I can't bear the weight of the world on my shoulders either. And just because I am going into nursing doesn't mean that I don't have other interests as well.

So while all of my classmates are collecting every cute thing with R.N. attached in anticipation of graduation, I'm not. I not ashamed or embarassed to be nurse, but I don't need to be a billboard either.

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I smile and do the polite little laugh because he really is a decent fella most of the time, but I'm thinking "Yeah right, I'll remember how nice it is to be me when I'm wiping someone's poopy crack on Christmas Day and you're opening presents and drinking cider, you JERK."

LMAO!!!! Our gifts are when we open the diapers of incontinent patients, eating food out of a cup, drinking an ensure that dietary was so kind to give you :bugeyes:

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Specializes in Nephrology, Cardiology, ER, ICU.

I'm an APN and live in a rural area...have literally had neighbors knock on my door and ask me to look at lacerations "do I need to go to the ER?" lol

Don't mind, don't give out advice. I'm also a volunteer on our rescue squad so most folks know this doesn't bother me. I'm very careful about giving out advice though due to liability issues.

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Specializes in Med-Surg, Peds.

I don't care who knows.

If they want to talk about their medical problems I'm game - I like the medical field, it's all interesting to me. If they ask me something I don't know, I say "I don't know, let me look it up for you." If they ask me to dx something I say, "See your doctor, that's past my capabilities." When they respond, "But I just want your opinion..." I say with a grin, "My opinion is you should see your doctor." No biggie.

I don't mind jumping into emergencies... like "She's unresponsive, call 911" or "Don't slap him on the back please, he's coughing, he's moving air, he's ok." I stop at serious car accidents, do the little I can - doesn't freak me out.

And everyone I know makes either a little more than me, the same as me, or a little less. So, no issue there either.

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