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.

[nrsang97, BSN, RN]

I just say "I'm a nurse or ICU nurse".

[workingharder]

Due to the number of trees felled to satisfy our growing need for superfluous charting, I am a lumberjack by proxy.

[Debilpn23]

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.

I usually say I am a nurse and I work on an Alzheimers unit.

[nurseprnRN, BSN, RN]

"I'm a legal nurse consultant." Sparks an interesting discussion.

[Dranger]

I say RN, seen so many CNAs lately passing themselves off as a "nurse" to the point where I think the title is too vague

[BrandonLPN, LPN]

Dpends on who asks.

If it's someone in the healthcare field or a patient, I'll say "I'm a LPN".

If it's Joe Q. Public making small talk, I will just say "I'm a nurse" 'cause the vast majority of the general public neither knows nor cares what a LPN vs RN is.

[uRNmyway, ASN, RN]

I just say I'm a nurse unless asked to clarify. Then I'll say RN. ADN vs BSN rarely comes up, but if it does, I'll say that I have the equivalent of an associates, and I'm proud to say people are often surprised lol. Guess I appear more educated than I am .

[SleeepyRN]

I say nurse then sometimes they ask if I'm an RN. Like being an LVN isn't a "real" nurse. Then when they hear I'm an LVN I always get the "Oh". Ugh![/quote']

When I'm asked, I say "I'm a nurse." Like you, I get the "Oh" tone when I'm specifically asked if Im a BSN. I'm an RN and feel the same condescending tone because I don't have my BSN. I think though that we have heard this condescending type tone so much that when asked, much of the time we may be jumping to conclusions that they suddenly respect us less when they hear LPN/LVN or RN with no bachelor's. I have to be careful to not think everyone is looking down on me, when they simply just may be curious. The general population is completely clueless of the differences and similarities among all our NURSING degrees. So they get confused.

When I graduated with my ASN, my mom threw me a graduation party and my entire (huge!) family came. Whenever someone asked me "So what are your plans now?" I would say "I'm looking for a job and going to work on finishing my bachelor's. " They all had a puzzled look that said "Then what are we doing here, I thought you graduated? So you're not a nurse yet?" They didnt mean any disrespect, they just weren't aware of the tiers. I'm learning to brush people's ignorance off, and just be proud of what I've accomplished.

[SleeepyRN]

Nursing is it's own profession it should not be considered the gateway job into the medical field, or that we settled for nursing because we weren't smart enough to be a doctor or PA. Ok...getting off my soap box on that. haha.[/quote']

Oh my gosh, I know. I've heard a good handful of times, "Why don't you become a doctor?" I know they mean it as a compliment, saying that they think I'm smart enough to be a doctor, but I feel it is insulting to nurses. I became a nurse because I wanted to be a NURSE. It wasn't the doctors who inspired me when I was a hospitalized patient before nursing school. It was the CNA's and NURSES. I don't have anything against MDs, don't get me wrong. I'm simply proud of being a nurse.

[emtb2rn, BSN, RN, EMT-B]

I say ER nurse. Never asked if lpn or rn. Been asked a couple of times if I had a bsn, my reply is that i'm working on it as my other degrees don't count at the bedside.

[ParkerBC,MSN,RN, PhD, RN]

I agree. The medical assistant at my PCP's office calls herself a nurse. A "nurse" has either two designations; Registered Nurse (RN) or Licensed Practical Nurse (LPN). You're not a nurse. You are a medical assistant. "It's the same thing." No really, it's not.

Okay, I am done with my rant :-)

I say RN, seen so many CNAs lately passing themselves off as a "nurse" to the point where I think the title is too vague

[Esme12, ASN, BSN, RN]

I agree. The medical assistant at my PCP's office calls herself a nurse. A "nurse" has either two designations; Registered Nurse (RN) or Licensed Practical Nurse (LPN). You're not a nurse. You are a medical assistant. "It's the same thing." No really, it's not.

Okay, I am done with my rant :-)

Unfortunately some states have not passed title nurse protection.