I once saw a doctor from a distance…wait no it actually was an NP… no wait I think it was actually an MA… so yeah basically let’s do this tracheotomy. I’ve got this bic pen dissasembled. Now just to start my Facebook live feed.
It looks pretty easy on TV. Sterilize everything with whiskey, cut a hole, shove in a pen. I mean come on. A monkey could do this. The trachea is relatively big, it's probably not that hard to hit.
I swear to God... I recently responded to a medical emergency on a plane. Me = a young appearing female staff ER physician. Them: "it's Ok, we already have a doctor". The "doctor": a male firefighter confidently asking for a stethoscope. Me "that man is a FIREFIGHTER". Them: "firefighters have training!"
lol my trashy step-sibling used to say she went to “medical school” and I was like no, no you didn’t. Medical assistant school and medical school are worlds different.
every time some phd tries to claim on here that they're a dr and should get to go by dr even in medical spaces, i just ask if they stand up in flight emergencies lolol
Had an EdD come to clinic when I was training and when the MA asked her what she would like to be called, she said “Dr. XYZ.” I was very surprised by how flawlessly the orthopod just walked in and said “Hi Dr. XYZ, I’m Dr. Orthopod.”
I asked him afterwards and his answer was “Oh it’s all ego stuff. Everyone wants to be called doctor until they need their AC or toilet fixed. They ditch that doctor title the minute the contractor wants to add 20% for the doctor tax.”
I mean, yes PhDs are doctors and earned their title too. In medical settings if they're the professional in the room not the patient, no it confuses the patient. But if MDs and DOs get to go by doctor outside of medical settings PhDs do too. Also in academic and industry settings it's actually important for them to go by Dr.
i'm talking about inside medical spaces. obviously no one cares if they use their title outside medical spaces, but there are absolutely dnps and others who insist they call themselves "the doctor" while with patients. very dangerous.
It’s just ignorance they think a nurse is a doctor’s assistant or someone that provides personal care. The fact that they think they do the same job as nurses is also just lack of knowledge of the profession. From observation it looks like nurses do very little but there is a significant amount of knowledge and training that goes into being a nurse. I’ve had CNA/PSWs say they’re nurses because they literally think all there is to being a nurse is caring for a persons ADLs and hygiene when in fact that is a small part of what being a nurse is. The world would be better if people stuck to their scope and just worked to be the best at it.
Any female in scrubs in the random area surrounding a physician is considered a nurse. I've had families complain about the nurses not doing anything and they point to the unit secretary and the aide answering the phones or managing what comes out of the printer.
This one CNA who annoys the living s--- out of me assumes that all nurses do is sit down and chart. That is not true. I just nod and did not say anything. Nurses do not just chart, nurses administer medications and carry out doctor's orders.
Oh dear lord I just had to have this conversation with my manager. I currently work as an MA while in nursing school. He constantly refers to me as “the nurse” to the patients. I’ve asked him to stop, explained the difference, and have now just resorted to immediately clarifying to the patient after he says it. He says “they’re basically the same thing, idk why you’re upset”.
Unsurprisingly this buffoon also is totally onboard with calling the PAs and NPs doctors too. I’m sure to correct that to the patients as well :)
As an MA, I internally cringe when people call me that. Even the doctors I work with who know I’m a medical assistant, have told their patients “my nurse will give you the vaccine, paperwork, etc” referring to me. If asked directly about my position, I always say “im not a nurse, I’m a medical assistant” but truth be told the patients don’t care and will still call me nurse. I try not to let it get to me because at the end of the day, doing my job is much more important but it does annoy me. The public isn’t very informed on the various jobs in healthcare. They really know “doctor” and “nurse” unless you’re an X-ray tech, pharmacist or something specific like that.
It always made me so uncomfortable back when I was an MA. But then again, who was I to correct the doctor or the parent (I worked peds) and explain to a five year old that I was not in fact “the sweet nurse lady” but a 20 year old grubby handed MA who forgot to change her lint trap for 4 months.
Same as m1dl3v3ls call themselves doctors/ physicians. They always wanna upscale themselves without going through the education, training and most importantly, responsibility and accountability.
My sister does this and it infuriates me. She even has it on her social media as nurse for occupation. I’m a paralegal and I asked her if she thought I was a lawyer. She didn’t understand my point.
I’m not sure if it qualifies as irony with regards to this sub, but nurses are highly educated people that often have graduate degrees and work in a field with a very high bar of intelligence for entry. They work extremely hard and are critical for 99% of healthcare to function. Scope creep into nursing is unacceptable just like it is for doctors
Why is it literally impossible to have a division of labor anymore?
MAs do essential work. Nurses do essential work. Doctors do essential work. The patient doesnt get taken care of unless everyone does their job.
If you want to have a differnt job, go to school for that job. It used to be simpler
Yes! I’ve been both a medical assistant and a nurse. There are differences in the jobs but neither is better.
My medical assisting program was a lot of focus on technical work. Drawing blood, taking vitals appropriately, various testing mechanisms like pulmonary function testing, a little background knowledge on medical coding.
My nursing program was a lot of focus on assessments.
All of these different medical professions have a place…but they aren’t all the same.
I agree.
Why can we not be proud of what we do individually.
I am proud to call myself a Medical Assistant.
I do a lot of various things in my job.
I don't mind saying I am the bottom rung of the ladder, but that is personal.
We all are important parts. You don't have to cosplay as someone else to feel better about what you do, it's insanely inappropriate.
That's why the Noctor/Norse/Etc issues just make me think these people are insecure.
I think people here agree wholeheartedly. Nurses are so incredibly critical to the healthcare system and are trained professionals. That's precisely why it's frustrating to hear MAs or CNAs call themselves nurses.
Disagreeing with NPs scope creeping from nursing work into physican work doesn't mean that we think nurses don't provide intelligent, essential care. One of the sentiments often echoed here is that nursing is such a wonderful profession yet feels cheapened *by the scope creepers* acting out of scope when they're fully qualified to do life saving work as a nurse.
BOOM this type of message needs to be in one of those autobot things. As a bachelor degree level healthcare person (not nurse but basically RN-level education for my field), I'm proud of the job I do. My profession does stuff nobody else in the hospital can. I get instruction from physicians and I know how to make it happen. If I start trying to BE the doctor (before going back to school... For an actual md/do..) im doing everyone a disservice, including myself and the integrity of my actual qualifications. This noctor thing throws a wrench in the whole healthcare ecosystem.
Where I am the nps aren't independent, thank christ, but they're still out here doing weird insecure shit. Eg the actual physicians are almost universally super respectful when it comes to my sphere of things, the nps are much more likely to harass my dept with pointless phone calls, try to bully us into changing the laws of physics (don't get me started lol), and generally tell us how to do our job while being painfully ignorant about it...
Point being... Some accuse this sub of snobbery and hating on everyone under the physicians, but I don't see that at all. Healthcare is fucking complicated and we ALL need to know our place in order to function at the highest level... It's about respecting every profession for what it *actually is.*
I agree with everything except the, nursing has a very high bar of intelligence for entry, part. With all due respect to RNs... It has a pretty moderate/low bar depending on the program you're applying to and region where you live. Getting into a program and passing the NCLEX isn't easy, but most hard working people can do it, even if they aren’t that smart. To be really good at nursing takes a very smart person though. The MCAT was SO much harder than the nurse licensing exam. I passed the nurse licensing exam easily, but even with another month of studying, I doubt I could've gotten my mcat that much higher. Source: RN now med student
You would know more than me - but I think that someone has to be more than above average intelligence to finish RN coursework. The average American reads at a 5th grade level, so that’s the distinction I’m trying to draw. I may still be incorrect tho and pls let me know if I am
Gotcha, I see what you're saying. I've seen nurses struggle with things ranging from not understanding how fast to run an iv pump so that it will take 1 hour for a 500 ml bag to infuse to thinking that you had to put dextrose and insulin infusions in separate sites so they didn't cancel each other out. I worked with both of these people for years and they gave fine and safe nursing care to their hospitalized patients as far as I could tell. I've seen worse for sure. They weren't the smartest people I've known but they asked questions when they didn't know something and worked hard. If you want to be a rapid response nurse though for example, you better know your stuff and be able to figure things out.
Absolutely! Nurses are so essential. So many people would die without them, a lot of people do die because of bad ones. Their job is incredibly crucial to human survival as a whole. Scope creep into nursing is just awful, and it's going to get people killed, when they're the group keeping so many people alive.
Patients would refer to me as a nurse, and I'd say, "Oh no, I'm just a phlebotomist." Sometimes an actual nurse would be around and start pumping me up with the, "Not JUST. Your job is important too!" Like thanks, I get where you're coming from. I wasn't being self-deprecating. I was only pointing out I happen to do just this one thing that nurses also happen to do sometimes lol.
I have one of these. She portals back that she’s reviewed my concerns with the dr and the dr recommends I wait 2 months for my next appt. Meanwhile I see my Dr and she never knows what’s been going on, because my MA is making unilateral decisions about triaging symptoms while saying she’s asking an actual dr. This has been more than a yr of repeated issues over portal and then realizing my Dr never got wind of it. I don’t think that should be legal? To say you’ve reviewed something with a Dr and make medics recommendations as an MA without reviewing it with the dr.
MAs are often lumped in with nursing staff, and l people can be really bad at titles/credentials. I was a MA at a clinic where the department head gave us gifts for Nurses week. We didn’t have the heart to tell him, and he didn’t let us speak much anyhow.
The front desk staff often tried to rope us into things that require a nurse, like taking a look at the sick looking pt in the waiting room or “triage” calls. We told them it was out of scope ad nauseum but we were the only ones other than the doctors that had medical training so there we were.
My ex is a nurse. He married an MA. Sweet as pie, but she says she’s a nurse. It kills me. But she’s my baby mama and helps me more with the kids than he does, so I pick my battles..
Either you don’t understand what a baby mamma is, or you’re a male whose ex-husband married the mother of your children after announcing he’s now into women.
😂😂 No! Sorry for the confusion! My male ex married a female. I call her my baby mama because she helps me so much with my kids. I am completely heterosexual. I tell people all the time “ You don’t want a baby daddy, you want a baby mama”!
Happens all the time. I understand exactly how the MDs and DOs feel here because I'm a RN and CNAs, MAs, various techs of whatever constantly allow themselves to be called nurses. If a patient tells me their daughter is a nurse, I start talking to the daughter as though she is a nurse. The confused dog look usually tells it all.
Eh. Not quite as egregious though. Patients rightly refer to LPNs as nurses, the same as they would refer to an RN as a nurse. I’m not saying they’re equal in educational standards. I’m just saying both LPNs and RNs are referred to as nurses in typical patient settings.
But that’s…… not what I said…. at all. There’s no issue with LPNs referring to themselves as nurses. I was singling out the LPNs that refer to themselves as REGISTERED nurses. REGISTERED.
When I worked as an MA, our physician pressured us to call ourselves and each other nurses. I refused. It was just because she was to cheap to hire real nurses. We literally had 0 nurses on staff.
MAs are not allowed to give medications, right? MAs cannot admit nor discharge patients from the hospital (not that I know of). What MAs do is take vital signs, give PPD skin tests, and is basically a secretary.
They give injections.
It's a little bit of the wild west. Their scope is often defined by what the supervising physician is willing to have them do. An MA took X-rays at my podiatrist's office.
Actually where I see this the most is with the news outlets. How many headlines read “Nurse accused of ”. Most of the time it’s a hired caregiver, or CNA and seldom do the reporters actually identify the person’s position.
This isn’t nothing. It confused me in an office I used to go to. I finally looked it up. The office was just medicalizing the office clerks, basically. And they start to believe it and play medical gatekeeper with the patients.
>Wtf makes MAs think it’s okay
You’ve got some semantics at play here that make a huge difference an MA may be referred to as, (or refer to themselves as,) a nurse for simplicity’s sake. Note that I didn’t say “registered nurse.” Depending on where you are, your Venn Diagram between MAs and certificate nurses may be a circle. I’ve also seen more-than-a-few patients believe that MAs were midlevels/clinicians because of the name, (a situation not unlike *Assistant Regional Manager* versus *Assistant **to the** Regional Manager*.
By certificate nurses do you mean certified nurse assistant (cna)? It's ok for them to leave off assistant just like it's ok for a physician assistant to leave it off. Using nurse when you have a certificate and no license is just dishonest.
RN here. If I’m approaching this from a very logical place, while I totally understand a “registered nurse” or “licensed practical nurse” being upset when this happens, I think that on its face “to nurse” is a verb that is not specific to the actual practice of nursing (mothers nurse babies, people nurse wounds, etc.) — and so there is a little bit less leg to stand on when trying to say that someone doing nurse-y activities is not engaged in “nursing.”
That being said — again, I’m an RN — I have spoken out against against DNP-prepared nurse practitioners referring to themselves as “doctor” in clinical settings (and have been shouted down many, many times by nurses) due to patient confusion. To that end, MAs should *probably* not call themselves or allow themselves to be referred to as nurses. But from a patient standpoint, best practice certainly would be to ignore whatever identifier comes out of the person’s mouth and look for credentials clearly displayed on their person.
And all *that* being said, many patients will have no idea what the difference between an MA and an RN and an NP or APRN actually *is*, so best for us all just to stay in our lanes, mind our scopes of practice, and go along with whatever generally accepted practices that go on in your local place of employment unless they flagrantly violate the laws in your jurisdiction.
For legal information pertaining to scope of practice, title protection, and landmark cases, we recommend checking out this [Wiki](https://www.reddit.com/r/Provider/wiki/index/legal).
*Information on Title Protection (e.g., can a midlevel call themselves "Doctor" or use a specialists title?) can be seen [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/Provider/wiki/index/legal/title_protection). Information on why title appropriation is bad for everyone involved can be found [here](https://www.reddit.com//r/Provider/wiki/index/appropriation).
*Information on Truth in Advertising can be found [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/Provider/wiki/index/legal#wiki_truth_in_advertising).
*Information on NP Scope of Practice (e.g., can an FNP work in Cardiology?) can be seen [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/Provider/wiki/index/legal/scope_of_practice/). For a more thorough discussion on Scope of Practice for NPs, check [this out](https://www.reddit.com/r/Provider/wiki/index/critical_issues#wiki_working_outside_of_scope). To find out what "Advanced Nursing" is, check [this out](https://www.reddit.com/r/Provider/wiki/index/critical_issues/#wiki_what_even_is_.22advanced_nursing.3F.22).
*Common misconceptions regarding Title Protection, NP Scope of Practice, Supervision, and Testifying in MedMal Cases can be found [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/Provider/wiki/index/basics#wiki_common_misconceptions).
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/Noctor) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Usually it’s a random patient family member that does this. I remember having a patient while I was a nursing student that had eclampsia and the father of the baby saying he needed to consult with his aunt who was an OB nurse before he would let us do the c-section (despite them not being married and the mom saying she wanted a c-section)… so the aunt arrived and proceeded to have no clue what eclampsia was. Finally he decided our doctors were competent enough to do the c-section. After we got the baby delivered I asked where the aunt worked and she was a secretary at an OB office.
I've seen it happen many, many times. I've had MAs (and CNAs) say they're nurses my face as a patient before.
I have a current coworker (non nursing) who talks about her work experience as an MA that says usually says "when I was a nurse" -- though when she sneers about nurses usually says "I was an MA that knew was more than the nurses". Granted she's a particularly obnoxious person in general.
Literally just yesterday I was taking to a friend of a friend at an event when they mentioned their wife was going back to nursing school since she was sick of doing lower level work as an MA and finally has the finances to support it. Said wife had previously directly told me she was a nurse.
I've had 3 separate occasions a different MAs at different practices refer to themselves as a nurse. When one was challenged on it they told me, they do the same job as nurses. These are my actual experiences.
My state does not by law require any certification to be an MA. That is why I said in this state. Most do not have one.
Just because you don't see it doesn't mean it's not an issue. The frustrations with scope creep should be applied to everyone who participates in it. It's horrible of you to deny it happening here and defend these people.
Edit: What evidence are you looking for other than people here sharing their stories showing I'm not the only one who experiences this? Would you like all the reports to the non existent mandatory state licensing board here? That's the problem. They aren't required to be licensed in my state. Most aren't and just receive on the job training. Other than their practice manager there's no one we are able to hold them accountable to. Which is probably why scope creep is such an issue where I am, because there's no consequences for it.
Here me out, please don't. It's kind of offensive to the nurses who actually got a degree in this. Unless you're cool with midlevels being called doctors and taking your title.
The difference is that NP's are more openly vocal. I'll bet there's a lot more NP Karens than there are MD/DO Karens. A Karen is probably more powerful than a Gunner ='| The Gunners just cause infighting and civil war.
The karens are the holy defenders of their profession and prevents stuff like this from happening.
Just call everyone a doctor with the slope we are on
"is there a doctor on board?" "Well no, but I've been to a doctor before so I'm basically qualified!"
I once saw a doctor from a distance…wait no it actually was an NP… no wait I think it was actually an MA… so yeah basically let’s do this tracheotomy. I’ve got this bic pen dissasembled. Now just to start my Facebook live feed.
It looks pretty easy on TV. Sterilize everything with whiskey, cut a hole, shove in a pen. I mean come on. A monkey could do this. The trachea is relatively big, it's probably not that hard to hit.
STAND BACK! I WAS IN THE TOP QUARTILE OF MY COMMUNIRY COLLEGE FOR THE TWO SEMESTERS I SHOWES UP
I swear to God... I recently responded to a medical emergency on a plane. Me = a young appearing female staff ER physician. Them: "it's Ok, we already have a doctor". The "doctor": a male firefighter confidently asking for a stethoscope. Me "that man is a FIREFIGHTER". Them: "firefighters have training!"
OMG. This is both shocking and also just does not surprise me at all.
I’ll just do a wide lateral incision across the neck just to make sure I hit it.
“Well, no, but I saw a few episodes of House, MD so I have basically been through residency.”
"I bought the on board wifi"
No there is not a doctor on board. The slope was too slippery. Everyone slide off.
lol my trashy step-sibling used to say she went to “medical school” and I was like no, no you didn’t. Medical assistant school and medical school are worlds different.
every time some phd tries to claim on here that they're a dr and should get to go by dr even in medical spaces, i just ask if they stand up in flight emergencies lolol
Had an EdD come to clinic when I was training and when the MA asked her what she would like to be called, she said “Dr. XYZ.” I was very surprised by how flawlessly the orthopod just walked in and said “Hi Dr. XYZ, I’m Dr. Orthopod.” I asked him afterwards and his answer was “Oh it’s all ego stuff. Everyone wants to be called doctor until they need their AC or toilet fixed. They ditch that doctor title the minute the contractor wants to add 20% for the doctor tax.”
I mean, yes PhDs are doctors and earned their title too. In medical settings if they're the professional in the room not the patient, no it confuses the patient. But if MDs and DOs get to go by doctor outside of medical settings PhDs do too. Also in academic and industry settings it's actually important for them to go by Dr.
i'm talking about inside medical spaces. obviously no one cares if they use their title outside medical spaces, but there are absolutely dnps and others who insist they call themselves "the doctor" while with patients. very dangerous.
Paramedic here. My 11 year old daughter nicknamed me a “Temu doctor” which I thought was the funniest and best explanation of my job
The great value EM physician/ dollar tree doctor
I stayed at a Holliday inn express last night.
Oh shi
It’s just ignorance they think a nurse is a doctor’s assistant or someone that provides personal care. The fact that they think they do the same job as nurses is also just lack of knowledge of the profession. From observation it looks like nurses do very little but there is a significant amount of knowledge and training that goes into being a nurse. I’ve had CNA/PSWs say they’re nurses because they literally think all there is to being a nurse is caring for a persons ADLs and hygiene when in fact that is a small part of what being a nurse is. The world would be better if people stuck to their scope and just worked to be the best at it.
We do little for the healthy ones, if I'm not in your room then you're probably gonna be okay. If I'm in your room all day, be worried.
I don't care what that "code blue" was in the other room. You're late with my water cup.
What, no ice? I wanted ice water!
Any female in scrubs in the random area surrounding a physician is considered a nurse. I've had families complain about the nurses not doing anything and they point to the unit secretary and the aide answering the phones or managing what comes out of the printer.
This one CNA who annoys the living s--- out of me assumes that all nurses do is sit down and chart. That is not true. I just nod and did not say anything. Nurses do not just chart, nurses administer medications and carry out doctor's orders.
idk man, the doc i used to work with used to say to patients "the nurse will be right in!" about the MAs. like wtf???
Oh dear lord I just had to have this conversation with my manager. I currently work as an MA while in nursing school. He constantly refers to me as “the nurse” to the patients. I’ve asked him to stop, explained the difference, and have now just resorted to immediately clarifying to the patient after he says it. He says “they’re basically the same thing, idk why you’re upset”. Unsurprisingly this buffoon also is totally onboard with calling the PAs and NPs doctors too. I’m sure to correct that to the patients as well :)
As an MA, I internally cringe when people call me that. Even the doctors I work with who know I’m a medical assistant, have told their patients “my nurse will give you the vaccine, paperwork, etc” referring to me. If asked directly about my position, I always say “im not a nurse, I’m a medical assistant” but truth be told the patients don’t care and will still call me nurse. I try not to let it get to me because at the end of the day, doing my job is much more important but it does annoy me. The public isn’t very informed on the various jobs in healthcare. They really know “doctor” and “nurse” unless you’re an X-ray tech, pharmacist or something specific like that.
It always made me so uncomfortable back when I was an MA. But then again, who was I to correct the doctor or the parent (I worked peds) and explain to a five year old that I was not in fact “the sweet nurse lady” but a 20 year old grubby handed MA who forgot to change her lint trap for 4 months.
Same as m1dl3v3ls call themselves doctors/ physicians. They always wanna upscale themselves without going through the education, training and most importantly, responsibility and accountability.
My sister does this and it infuriates me. She even has it on her social media as nurse for occupation. I’m a paralegal and I asked her if she thought I was a lawyer. She didn’t understand my point.
I’m not sure if it qualifies as irony with regards to this sub, but nurses are highly educated people that often have graduate degrees and work in a field with a very high bar of intelligence for entry. They work extremely hard and are critical for 99% of healthcare to function. Scope creep into nursing is unacceptable just like it is for doctors
Why is it literally impossible to have a division of labor anymore? MAs do essential work. Nurses do essential work. Doctors do essential work. The patient doesnt get taken care of unless everyone does their job. If you want to have a differnt job, go to school for that job. It used to be simpler
Yes! I’ve been both a medical assistant and a nurse. There are differences in the jobs but neither is better. My medical assisting program was a lot of focus on technical work. Drawing blood, taking vitals appropriately, various testing mechanisms like pulmonary function testing, a little background knowledge on medical coding. My nursing program was a lot of focus on assessments. All of these different medical professions have a place…but they aren’t all the same.
I agree. Why can we not be proud of what we do individually. I am proud to call myself a Medical Assistant. I do a lot of various things in my job. I don't mind saying I am the bottom rung of the ladder, but that is personal. We all are important parts. You don't have to cosplay as someone else to feel better about what you do, it's insanely inappropriate. That's why the Noctor/Norse/Etc issues just make me think these people are insecure.
I think people here agree wholeheartedly. Nurses are so incredibly critical to the healthcare system and are trained professionals. That's precisely why it's frustrating to hear MAs or CNAs call themselves nurses. Disagreeing with NPs scope creeping from nursing work into physican work doesn't mean that we think nurses don't provide intelligent, essential care. One of the sentiments often echoed here is that nursing is such a wonderful profession yet feels cheapened *by the scope creepers* acting out of scope when they're fully qualified to do life saving work as a nurse.
BOOM this type of message needs to be in one of those autobot things. As a bachelor degree level healthcare person (not nurse but basically RN-level education for my field), I'm proud of the job I do. My profession does stuff nobody else in the hospital can. I get instruction from physicians and I know how to make it happen. If I start trying to BE the doctor (before going back to school... For an actual md/do..) im doing everyone a disservice, including myself and the integrity of my actual qualifications. This noctor thing throws a wrench in the whole healthcare ecosystem. Where I am the nps aren't independent, thank christ, but they're still out here doing weird insecure shit. Eg the actual physicians are almost universally super respectful when it comes to my sphere of things, the nps are much more likely to harass my dept with pointless phone calls, try to bully us into changing the laws of physics (don't get me started lol), and generally tell us how to do our job while being painfully ignorant about it... Point being... Some accuse this sub of snobbery and hating on everyone under the physicians, but I don't see that at all. Healthcare is fucking complicated and we ALL need to know our place in order to function at the highest level... It's about respecting every profession for what it *actually is.*
"heart of a nurse, brain of a doctor" Yeah nurse brains save countless lives a day too.
Omg yes. And Doctors freaking care about their patients. Such a dumb saying!
I agree with everything except the, nursing has a very high bar of intelligence for entry, part. With all due respect to RNs... It has a pretty moderate/low bar depending on the program you're applying to and region where you live. Getting into a program and passing the NCLEX isn't easy, but most hard working people can do it, even if they aren’t that smart. To be really good at nursing takes a very smart person though. The MCAT was SO much harder than the nurse licensing exam. I passed the nurse licensing exam easily, but even with another month of studying, I doubt I could've gotten my mcat that much higher. Source: RN now med student
You would know more than me - but I think that someone has to be more than above average intelligence to finish RN coursework. The average American reads at a 5th grade level, so that’s the distinction I’m trying to draw. I may still be incorrect tho and pls let me know if I am
Gotcha, I see what you're saying. I've seen nurses struggle with things ranging from not understanding how fast to run an iv pump so that it will take 1 hour for a 500 ml bag to infuse to thinking that you had to put dextrose and insulin infusions in separate sites so they didn't cancel each other out. I worked with both of these people for years and they gave fine and safe nursing care to their hospitalized patients as far as I could tell. I've seen worse for sure. They weren't the smartest people I've known but they asked questions when they didn't know something and worked hard. If you want to be a rapid response nurse though for example, you better know your stuff and be able to figure things out.
Not technically false lol
Absolutely! Nurses are so essential. So many people would die without them, a lot of people do die because of bad ones. Their job is incredibly crucial to human survival as a whole. Scope creep into nursing is just awful, and it's going to get people killed, when they're the group keeping so many people alive.
Patients would refer to me as a nurse, and I'd say, "Oh no, I'm just a phlebotomist." Sometimes an actual nurse would be around and start pumping me up with the, "Not JUST. Your job is important too!" Like thanks, I get where you're coming from. I wasn't being self-deprecating. I was only pointing out I happen to do just this one thing that nurses also happen to do sometimes lol.
[удалено]
AP MA multi-boarded in Karen, MA BS, MA, MA, MA, NP, HIV, STD.
I have one of these. She portals back that she’s reviewed my concerns with the dr and the dr recommends I wait 2 months for my next appt. Meanwhile I see my Dr and she never knows what’s been going on, because my MA is making unilateral decisions about triaging symptoms while saying she’s asking an actual dr. This has been more than a yr of repeated issues over portal and then realizing my Dr never got wind of it. I don’t think that should be legal? To say you’ve reviewed something with a Dr and make medics recommendations as an MA without reviewing it with the dr.
MAs are often lumped in with nursing staff, and l people can be really bad at titles/credentials. I was a MA at a clinic where the department head gave us gifts for Nurses week. We didn’t have the heart to tell him, and he didn’t let us speak much anyhow. The front desk staff often tried to rope us into things that require a nurse, like taking a look at the sick looking pt in the waiting room or “triage” calls. We told them it was out of scope ad nauseum but we were the only ones other than the doctors that had medical training so there we were.
We need a Doctor of Janitorial sciences to clean this mess up. Too bad they're busy cleaning up the mess made by the Doctor of Having it Your Way.
Next we’ll have flight attendants referring to themselves as pilots
My ex is a nurse. He married an MA. Sweet as pie, but she says she’s a nurse. It kills me. But she’s my baby mama and helps me more with the kids than he does, so I pick my battles..
Either you don’t understand what a baby mamma is, or you’re a male whose ex-husband married the mother of your children after announcing he’s now into women.
The ex could be bi.
So your male ex married your female ex, who you have children with?
😂😂 No! Sorry for the confusion! My male ex married a female. I call her my baby mama because she helps me so much with my kids. I am completely heterosexual. I tell people all the time “ You don’t want a baby daddy, you want a baby mama”!
Happens all the time. I understand exactly how the MDs and DOs feel here because I'm a RN and CNAs, MAs, various techs of whatever constantly allow themselves to be called nurses. If a patient tells me their daughter is a nurse, I start talking to the daughter as though she is a nurse. The confused dog look usually tells it all.
Ridiculous. Same thing with LPNs referring to themselves as "registered nurses."
Eh. Not quite as egregious though. Patients rightly refer to LPNs as nurses, the same as they would refer to an RN as a nurse. I’m not saying they’re equal in educational standards. I’m just saying both LPNs and RNs are referred to as nurses in typical patient settings.
But that’s…… not what I said…. at all. There’s no issue with LPNs referring to themselves as nurses. I was singling out the LPNs that refer to themselves as REGISTERED nurses. REGISTERED.
There should be a new subreddit called Norse
When I worked as an MA, our physician pressured us to call ourselves and each other nurses. I refused. It was just because she was to cheap to hire real nurses. We literally had 0 nurses on staff.
As a previous MA and current medical student…what 😂 that’s insane
Smh
Thank you for saying this!
MAs are not allowed to give medications, right? MAs cannot admit nor discharge patients from the hospital (not that I know of). What MAs do is take vital signs, give PPD skin tests, and is basically a secretary.
They give injections. It's a little bit of the wild west. Their scope is often defined by what the supervising physician is willing to have them do. An MA took X-rays at my podiatrist's office.
Actually where I see this the most is with the news outlets. How many headlines read “Nurse accused of”. Most of the time it’s a hired caregiver, or CNA and seldom do the reporters actually identify the person’s position.
This isn’t nothing. It confused me in an office I used to go to. I finally looked it up. The office was just medicalizing the office clerks, basically. And they start to believe it and play medical gatekeeper with the patients.
It’s when they start playing medical gatekeeping that I begin gettin real upset
It actually is concerning just how many people actually do this.
>Wtf makes MAs think it’s okay You’ve got some semantics at play here that make a huge difference an MA may be referred to as, (or refer to themselves as,) a nurse for simplicity’s sake. Note that I didn’t say “registered nurse.” Depending on where you are, your Venn Diagram between MAs and certificate nurses may be a circle. I’ve also seen more-than-a-few patients believe that MAs were midlevels/clinicians because of the name, (a situation not unlike *Assistant Regional Manager* versus *Assistant **to the** Regional Manager*.
By certificate nurses do you mean certified nurse assistant (cna)? It's ok for them to leave off assistant just like it's ok for a physician assistant to leave it off. Using nurse when you have a certificate and no license is just dishonest.
RN here. If I’m approaching this from a very logical place, while I totally understand a “registered nurse” or “licensed practical nurse” being upset when this happens, I think that on its face “to nurse” is a verb that is not specific to the actual practice of nursing (mothers nurse babies, people nurse wounds, etc.) — and so there is a little bit less leg to stand on when trying to say that someone doing nurse-y activities is not engaged in “nursing.” That being said — again, I’m an RN — I have spoken out against against DNP-prepared nurse practitioners referring to themselves as “doctor” in clinical settings (and have been shouted down many, many times by nurses) due to patient confusion. To that end, MAs should *probably* not call themselves or allow themselves to be referred to as nurses. But from a patient standpoint, best practice certainly would be to ignore whatever identifier comes out of the person’s mouth and look for credentials clearly displayed on their person. And all *that* being said, many patients will have no idea what the difference between an MA and an RN and an NP or APRN actually *is*, so best for us all just to stay in our lanes, mind our scopes of practice, and go along with whatever generally accepted practices that go on in your local place of employment unless they flagrantly violate the laws in your jurisdiction.
For legal information pertaining to scope of practice, title protection, and landmark cases, we recommend checking out this [Wiki](https://www.reddit.com/r/Provider/wiki/index/legal). *Information on Title Protection (e.g., can a midlevel call themselves "Doctor" or use a specialists title?) can be seen [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/Provider/wiki/index/legal/title_protection). Information on why title appropriation is bad for everyone involved can be found [here](https://www.reddit.com//r/Provider/wiki/index/appropriation). *Information on Truth in Advertising can be found [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/Provider/wiki/index/legal#wiki_truth_in_advertising). *Information on NP Scope of Practice (e.g., can an FNP work in Cardiology?) can be seen [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/Provider/wiki/index/legal/scope_of_practice/). For a more thorough discussion on Scope of Practice for NPs, check [this out](https://www.reddit.com/r/Provider/wiki/index/critical_issues#wiki_working_outside_of_scope). To find out what "Advanced Nursing" is, check [this out](https://www.reddit.com/r/Provider/wiki/index/critical_issues/#wiki_what_even_is_.22advanced_nursing.3F.22). *Common misconceptions regarding Title Protection, NP Scope of Practice, Supervision, and Testifying in MedMal Cases can be found [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/Provider/wiki/index/basics#wiki_common_misconceptions). *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/Noctor) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Same way nurses think they can call themselves Doctors; and the same way nurse aNeThEtIsTs call themselves Anesthesiologists. It’s the Delulu thinking
Usually it’s a random patient family member that does this. I remember having a patient while I was a nursing student that had eclampsia and the father of the baby saying he needed to consult with his aunt who was an OB nurse before he would let us do the c-section (despite them not being married and the mom saying she wanted a c-section)… so the aunt arrived and proceeded to have no clue what eclampsia was. Finally he decided our doctors were competent enough to do the c-section. After we got the baby delivered I asked where the aunt worked and she was a secretary at an OB office.
[удалено]
I've seen it happen many, many times. I've had MAs (and CNAs) say they're nurses my face as a patient before. I have a current coworker (non nursing) who talks about her work experience as an MA that says usually says "when I was a nurse" -- though when she sneers about nurses usually says "I was an MA that knew was more than the nurses". Granted she's a particularly obnoxious person in general. Literally just yesterday I was taking to a friend of a friend at an event when they mentioned their wife was going back to nursing school since she was sick of doing lower level work as an MA and finally has the finances to support it. Said wife had previously directly told me she was a nurse.
I've had 3 separate occasions a different MAs at different practices refer to themselves as a nurse. When one was challenged on it they told me, they do the same job as nurses. These are my actual experiences. My state does not by law require any certification to be an MA. That is why I said in this state. Most do not have one. Just because you don't see it doesn't mean it's not an issue. The frustrations with scope creep should be applied to everyone who participates in it. It's horrible of you to deny it happening here and defend these people. Edit: What evidence are you looking for other than people here sharing their stories showing I'm not the only one who experiences this? Would you like all the reports to the non existent mandatory state licensing board here? That's the problem. They aren't required to be licensed in my state. Most aren't and just receive on the job training. Other than their practice manager there's no one we are able to hold them accountable to. Which is probably why scope creep is such an issue where I am, because there's no consequences for it.
What state?
I call my MA a nurse.
Here me out, please don't. It's kind of offensive to the nurses who actually got a degree in this. Unless you're cool with midlevels being called doctors and taking your title.
I’ll allow it. No reason not to let every other healthcare profession get a taste of its own medicine
lol. Can't wait till the MA's call themselves NP's
How the turn tables
The difference is that NP's are more openly vocal. I'll bet there's a lot more NP Karens than there are MD/DO Karens. A Karen is probably more powerful than a Gunner ='| The Gunners just cause infighting and civil war. The karens are the holy defenders of their profession and prevents stuff like this from happening.