When someone asks you what you do for a living, do you say "nurse" or "RN" or "LVN"?

[HHN2472]

I always say "I'm a nurse" and only today has anyone asked me "RN or LVN?" When I worked in the hospital it seemed nobody thought there was a difference and we are all just nurses, as we are, but in the community people seem more curious.

[lisaannejo]

I usually say "nurse". But then I do get the RN question. When I say yes, I do sometimes get the BSN question.

[ChristineN, BSN, RN]

I have never had someone ask me if I have my BSN. Once in a while pts will ask me how long I have been a nurse and when I tell them they always seem surprised since the years doesn't seem to match up with my perceived age. They are always surprised when I tell them I got my diploma first, something that is not very common in my part of the country.

When people ask what I do I will say "nurse," or say that I am a nurse in the ER

[joyfullpn]

I usually say I'm a pediatric nurse.

[JesusKeepMe]

I just say Im an RN, of course they ask "Well what kind of nurse are you?" I have to follow up with "Private Duty Nurse and Psych Nurse." Then I get the "Ohhhhhh, how can you do that!?" Yeah...the questions never end.

[vintage_RN, BSN, RN]

I always just say nurse, because if i say RPN then they ask me what that is and I have to explain the difference or when I say RPN they think of nursing assistant (RPNs used to be RNAs back in the day) and think im an assistant. So I just say nurse.

[DoeRN]

I used to say a nurse. But then people would ask me if I was a CNA. So then I had to correct them and say RN. Now I saw RN and if asked what kind I respond saying I float to all the hospital floors except L&D and the OR.

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[psu_213, BSN, RN]

I say "I'm a nurse...." and if I feel like it I will say "at Memorial [name changed to protect the innocent] Hospital." I've never been asked the RN or LPN question--as someone else said, I think there are a lot of people of people out there who don't know (or care about?) the difference.

[tyvin, BSN, RN]

I worked hard for my degree and I'm proud of it; I say RN when asked .

[lemur00, BSN, RN]

There's actually a long standing misperception in some places I've worked that LPNs can't tell people they are "nurses" (totally false and I've told many people so). Even without that, I've noticed that most LPNs I know say they are "LPN"s while most RNs say they are nurses.

When asked what I do for a living I usually say "whatever I want".

[NurseDirtyBird]

I have friends/acquaintances who ask, and I tell the truth. That's when I get "What's the worst thing you've ever seen?" question. Strangers, especially on airplanes, get a tight smile and "I work in health care." You DO NOT tell airplane strangers you're a nurse. That's how you find out all about their IBS .

[LadyFree28, BSN, LPN, RN]

Nurse works just fine...and the option of what type of nurse I am; ie, Pediatric nurse, etc...

[Meriwhen, ASN, BSN, MSN, RN]

If the question is coming from someone not in healthcare, I say "nurse."

If coming from someone in healthcare, then I'll say "RN" because if I say "nurse," the next question I usually get is "RN or LVN?"

Depending on how I'm feeling, I may throw in the speciality.