anybody else tired of being called a nurse?

[Hurricane]

I'm not one of those jackasses with the vanity plates who throws a hissy fit if my waiter doesn't address me as doctor, nor am I a bra-burning feminist, but it would be nice if when I walked into the room, the patient for whom I've been taking care of for the past 24 hours wouldn't say "I gotta get off the phone, the nurse is here." I mean, with the stupid white coat and jumble of badges I have to wear, some form of the word "doctor" is only written on me like 3 or 4 times. Sheesh.

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[erichaj]

I'm not one of those jackasses with the vanity plates who throws a hissy fit if my waiter doesn't address me as doctor, nor am I a bra-burning feminist, but it would be nice if when I walked into the room, the patient for whom I've been taking care of for the past 24 hours wouldn't say "I gotta get off the phone, the nurse is here." I mean, with the stupid white coat and jumble of badges I have to wear, some form of the word "doctor" is only written on me like 3 or 4 times. Sheesh.

Next time you walk in, tell you patient you are ordering a complete enema for her and q 1 hr rectal exams.

That will get her attention.

When she asked, Who are you again? Tell her "Tell her your doctor ASSMAN".

 

[dpmd]

I have had that happen too. I am sure it doesn't help that I look about 12 years old. Now, I was a nurse for a while so I don't think of it as an insult when they call me a nurse. However, I find it sad that people equate female with nurse and male with doctor. Hy husband is a nurse, and people often think he is the doctor even after he introduces himself as the nurse. I guess as more men and women cross these traditional gender lines, people will quit making so many assumptions.

 

[tiredmom]

Same thing happens to me. I've even had people ask what I do (like at my daughter's school) and I reply, "I'm a medical student." I've had more people then ask, "So, are you studying to be a nurse?"

 

[tiredmom]

Same thing happens to me. I've even had people ask what I do (like at my daughter's school) and I reply, "I'm a medical student." I've had more people then ask, "So, are you studying to be a nurse?"

 

[Bertelman]

Ouch. I've seen this happen countless times on the wards. I do, however, enjoy the old vets and others who refer to their female physicians as "lady doctors". As though they aren't *quite* doctors. Makes me chuckle every time. Then I thank my lucky stars I'm a man.

When I was on OB, we had a woman present in active labor. Everyone was hustling to get the info before proceeding for C/S. Inside the drapes were an attending, chief resident, and intern -- all women -- the patient, and MS3 (yours truly). The anesthesia resident walks in, sizes the place, looks ME in the eyes and asks for the history. I gave the sheepish look and a sly head nod to the attending.

 

[AF_PedsBoy]

Heh heh - on the other hand, when I walk in a delivery I usually hit the nurse or corpsman up for the history since the attending is usually a colonel/captain and I want to stay below the radar as much as possible!!!

 

[Leukocyte]

When I was a MS3 in my Surgery core,... the chief surgical resident (a petite PGY-5 lady) and I entered the patient's room just before his surgery.

While we were doing the pre-surgical H&P, the patient asked my chief resident,..."So, if you are the one who will be doing my surgery, then what will he (pointing to me) be doing?" His wife, who was sitting beside him quickly replied..."Oh silly you, she is a girl! She needs a man to be with her." (She was serious).

 

[LovelyRita]

Pt to my male senior resident: "And who's this? Is this your nurse?"
Senior resident getting salty: "NO, sir, she is not a nurse. Not all women in healthcare are nurses. She is a doctor in training."

I do have to say, it's nice to be out of the med school days when my short jacket identified me only as a space-consumer and annoying pain in the ass. It is nice to plow into a room now and thrust my hand out and say, "hello, I'm Dr. LovelyRita!"

 

[Leukocyte]

Actually one time during my anesthesia rotation, I mistook my attending for a nurse! You cannot blame me...she always wears that "universal traditional nurse outfit", you know the "nurse scubs" that has ponies, teddy-bears, and rainbows all over it. If that does not scream "NURSE" at you, I do not know what will!

Anyhow, she turned out to be a sport...and never held it against me.

 

[DOtobe]

I do have to say, it's nice to be out of the med school days when my short jacket identified me only as a space-consumer and annoying pain in the ass. It is nice to plow into a room now and thrust my hand out and say, "hello, I'm Dr. LovelyRita!"

I introduce myself as "Dr. DOtobe" and I still get called a nurse. I've just learned to ignore it...

 

[ivan lewis]

Actually one time during my anesthesia rotation, I mistook my attending for a nurse! You cannot blame me...she always wears that "universal traditional nurse outfit", you know the "nurse scubs" that has ponies, teddy-bears, and rainbows all over it. If that does not scream "NURSE" at you, I do not know what will!

Anyhow, she turned out to be a sport...and never held it against me.

Holy $hite! That's hillarious. Although, with that get up, I'm sure she gets that a lot.

 

[med_heidelberg]

Oh yea this is annoying. I know how it feels too! Even if you wear a white coat and have a badge, they call you nurse, or here in germany, Schwester. I think my second name on the wards was Schwester. The elderly patients especially dont seem to get it!

 

[irishdoctor]

I have accepted the fact that I will always be the nurse. Either that or Respiratory Therapy

 

[MacGyver]

I mean, with the stupid white coat and jumble of badges I have to wear, some form of the word "doctor" is only written on me like 3 or 4 times. Sheesh.

White coat means nothing. Nurses, scrub techs, resp techs, PAs, NPs, and janitors all wear white coats these days.

The only way somebody can tell that you are a doctor is if they read your badge, and usually the print is too small to see very well.

 

[Brooklyndo2.1]

I saw the following happen on call in the er:
My co-MS3 (guy) wearing his uniform of starched white shirt, nice power tie, impecably white coat, etc etc, wearing a nice beard, was watching as his CHIEF resident was talking to the patient. She was wearing her long coat, the one that said Dr.Hottie (which she was) , scurb pants and a belly shirt. (dont ask)

About ten minutes later, the patient turns to my friend the MS3 and says "hey doctor, your nurse is real nice and all, but why arent you asking anything?"

happens quite a bit and I understand any female resident or student who gets annoyed by it...but dont take it out on us...we are innocent bystanders...just happen to be male...

 

[allylz]

I'm a little blonde girl, but I have found I am more likely to be called a nurse when I am outside the med center in casual clothes. I try to be unassuming and tell people "I go to school at the med center" and they inevitably say "oh, you're a nursing student?" which is a bit offputting because as you know, the nursing students really do look like high school girlies. So it's funny because I have these male mentors who always say "don't call me Doctor, call me Tom (or Dave, or Mike or whatever)" to patients, and tell me they hate it when 'pompous jerks' introduce themselves as Doctor Whoever all the time. Talk about not knowing how it feels. But I do get a little burst of pride when I come into the room and the patient says "I have to get off the phone, the doctor is here". YESSSSS! the doctor is IN!!

I'm 5'3" and I think I look only slightly younger than my age, but my mom was 5' and looked quite a bit younger back in 1979 when she was in med school. So she had it quite a bit worse. She told me about wandering around the pediatrics floor on her first day of the rotation and having the nurse scold her and say "what are you doing out of your room at this hour?" - seriously, mistook her for a patient. Despite whatever she was wearing that might have indicated otherwise.

 

[45408]

I'm 5'3" and I think I look only slightly younger than my age, but my mom was 5' and looked quite a bit younger back in 1979 when she was in med school. So she had it quite a bit worse. She told me about wandering around the pediatrics floor on her first day of the rotation and having the nurse scold her and say "what are you doing out of your room at this hour?" - seriously, mistook her for a patient. Despite whatever she was wearing that might have indicated otherwise.

that's hilarious

 

[Leukocyte]

..........but my mom was 5' and looked quite a bit younger back in 1979 when she was in med school. So she had it quite a bit worse. She told me about wandering around the pediatrics floor on her first day of the rotation and having the nurse scold her and say "what are you doing out of your room at this hour?" - seriously, mistook her for a patient. Despite whatever she was wearing that might have indicated otherwise.

 

[Hurricane]

Today, during the longest elevator ride ever (you know, the kind where the elevator was supposed to go up but went down instead, then stopped on every floor while masses of slow people who didn't know where they wanted to go got on and off)

Anyway, a group of girls gets on, in white coats. Their badges say something about being high school students.

Random lady asks them "oh, are you nursing students?" and they say no, they're in some high school program. Then they get off.

After that the lady turned to me and asks "so are you studying to be a nurse too?"

 

[erichaj]

I once dressed up as a nurse for halloween.

 

[Savasana]

Ha, I wanted to do that for Halloween too, and be ironic, but my husband told me I was the only one who would get my bitter little joke. Oh well.

I, too, get called nurse, even after I've just introduced myself as "Dr. Savasana." It's even better when I've goen through the whole H&P, and the patient asks me, "so when am I gonna see a doctor?" (usually elderly, too). I take the opportunity to explain that I AM their doctor, and they could ask me any questions they had regarding their care. Sometimes it helps, sometimes it doesn't.

 

[lowbudget]

2 different male patients have now called me "Boy". The next one who does that will be made NPO and have all pain meds d/c'ed.

 

[NonTradMed]

Funny stories.

I am an MS1 and have not done my hospital rotations yet. However, when I went to the dentist's office, one of the dental assistants chatted with me and asked about my plans. I said I was going to attend med school, and so thereafter she kept on asking me if I was studying to be a nurse and if I already got my prereqs in. I think I corrected her three times that I was NOT studying to be a nurse since I was attending medical school and not nursing school (that seems to have confused her a bit LOL). Anyway, I have nothing against nurses but I thought it was amusing that this nice young lady had a hard time believing I was studying medicine.

I am a nontrad (27) but I am always surprised when people look at me and assume I am fresh out of college. I guess it's a good thing I didn't go the traditional medical route where I would have been a resident by this time....I wonder what kind reactions I would have gotten then....

 

[Hoo\/er]

I'm not one of those jackasses with the vanity plates who throws a hissy fit if my waiter doesn't address me as doctor, nor am I a bra-burning feminist, but it would be nice if when I walked into the room, the patient for whom I've been taking care of for the past 24 hours wouldn't say "I gotta get off the phone, the nurse is here." I mean, with the stupid white coat and jumble of badges I have to wear, some form of the word "doctor" is only written on me like 3 or 4 times. Sheesh.

LOL classic.

 

[outofhere]

When I was an intern, someone thought I was a candy striper...

 

[Purifyer]

When I was an intern, someone thought I was a candy striper...

Slightly off topic, but in New Zealand we don't have candy stripers. A few weeks back I was at the video store and saw a movie I mistakenly thought was called 'candy strippers' set in a hospital environment - obviously I rented it instantly. Long story short - worst movie ever.

I've also had many occasions in which I have been mistaken for the registrar(resident above intern) [while I was your equivalent of a 3rd year] - especially when I was on all female teams. I remember once I was with my mate starting a new ENT run (again '3rd year'). The intern introduced us to the attending as 'your new registrar and a med student are here to see you Mr. Soso'. Much amusement.

We of course don't wear white coats, short or long, so I guess that can make it harder to instantly judge the status of someone.

 

[anon-y-mouse]

We of course don't wear white coats, short or long, so I guess that can make it harder to instantly judge the status of someone.

"of course"?

 

[tec]

I'm doing my prelim year and we spend a lot of our time in the adjoining VA. I am 35 and I will scream if one more elderly man calls me "sweetheart"!!!!!!!!!

 

[supercut]

I'm doing my prelim year and we spend a lot of our time in the adjoining VA. I am 35 and I will scream if one more elderly man calls me "sweetheart"!!!!!!!!!

I agree. The other names I get called are much worse than being called nurse (though I find that very annoying as well) Sweetheart, babe, darling. And how about when the guy acknowleges you are a doctor and says something like "Well, I've never had such a pretty doctor before" (said despite the fact that I'm basically of average appearance)

 

[Leukocyte]

I agree. The other names I get called are much worse than being called nurse (though I find that very annoying as well) Sweetheart, babe, darling. And how about when the guy acknowleges you are a doctor and says something like "Well, I've never had such a pretty doctor before" (said despite the fact that I'm basically of average appearance)

Holly molly supercut! You are a Chick???!!!!

 

[Hurricane]

Yeah, this is rampant at the VA. I got my first taste as a med student, when we were sent over there to practice our physical exam skills. After about an hour, during which our group of 4 female med students chatted with the patient about medical school and what specialties we were interested in etc, we were on our way out and the old guy smiled and waved and said "You girls is gonna make FINE nurses someday!"

 

[MirrorTodd]

"of course"?

Slightly off topic, but in New Zealand

There's your answer. I guess they don't do the whole white coat thing over there.

 

[gutonc]

I'm doing my prelim year and we spend a lot of our time in the adjoining VA. I am 35 and I will scream if one more elderly man calls me "sweetheart"!!!!!!!!!

If you're going to spend any time at all in a VA and continue to be a woman you should get used to it. My attending last month at the VA, a 40-something woman, got called sweetheart by ~ 1/2 of the guys. The other 1/2 were either women or AMS.

 

[fab4fan]

Pt to my male senior resident: "And who's this? Is this your nurse?"
Senior resident getting salty: "NO, sir, she is not a nurse. Not all women in healthcare are nurses. She is a doctor in training."

I do have to say, it's nice to be out of the med school days when my short jacket identified me only as a space-consumer and annoying pain in the ass. It is nice to plow into a room now and thrust my hand out and say, "hello, I'm Dr. LovelyRita!"

I'll bet no one mistakes you for a meter maid.

 

[chicamedica]

i commiserate with this as well. I never realized the extent to which medical history in the US is male-dominated. Not only in patients' perception (not always though. . .), but the worst, imo, are the older (and sometimes not so old) male attendings who from the get-go have higher expectations of the male med students or residents than the female med students or residents. i often am made to feel like i need to prove myself, especially if i'm working with a guy co-intern or even med student, and i've started to realize why some female physicians have ended up somewhat aggressive. It's unfortunate how sexist the medical arena still is. It has come a long way, but old traditions seem to die very hard. My parents are from eastern europe, where women have been in what were traditionally male professions, since at least WWII.

 

[chicamedica]

.

 

[superspec]

DUDE.....I wish I'd seen this thread earlier. I'm an MS4, going into ob/gyn. FOr the past four years, I've totally gotten the thing where people ask what you do, and when you respond "I'm in medical school" they get this very confused look on their face and then say, "So....you're studying to be a nurse?" Seriously, it makes me want to say to them, "No, you sexist a**hole, that is NURSING school, and you know the difference between nursing school and medical school. Give me a break."

After a while, I decided it wasn't worth my time to get so riled up. So I developed a standard response. When they say back to me, "So....you're studying to be a nurse?" I just get this really wide eyed look, tilt my head to the side, and ask in my sweetest voice, "Why no. Are you?"

CEO, doctors, lawyers, business people, I don't give a **** if they have on a policeman's outfit and are obviously not in nursing school, thats what I say. Generally, after a few confused minutes, they get my point.

 

[DropkickMurphy]

White coat means nothing. Nurses, scrub techs, resp techs, PAs, NPs, and janitors all wear white coats these days.

The only way somebody can tell that you are a doctor is if they read your badge, and usually the print is too small to see very well.

Excellent point.....at a hospital I used to work at, we had a med student who was on the verge of tears because she couldn't understand how I (the "lowly" respiratory therapist) was allowed to wear a long lab coat and she wasn't. I loved the Chief of Surgery's response "Because he's done with his schooling and his opinion matters somewhat, at least a lot more than yours does at this point Miss."

 

[Leukocyte]

deleted

 

[NavyDMO]

It never ends! Although I wear the long white coat, green scrubs (not animal print), and introduce myself as Doctor_____. I am still called nurse!

 

[raspberry swirl]

Same thing happens to me. I've even had people ask what I do (like at my daughter's school) and I reply, "I'm a medical student." I've had more people then ask, "So, are you studying to be a nurse?"

this is my biggest pet peeve in life. i have lost count the number of times i have gotten that response. the first couple of times, i got confused, then i started to get annoyed, and now, unfortunately for the niave questioner, i get mildly irate. ok maybe its not possible to get midly irate. lets just say i get mad. and i usually end up saying something snotty (i try not to, but it inevitably comes out that way) such as, "I said medical school, not nursing school", in a tone that implies i meant to say "duh, what are you, a total *****??" i feel bad, but they dont understand that i've already had 50 people say the same stupid thing to me. again, nothing against nurses, but im not working this hard for people not to get what MEDICAL SCHOOL means.

on a side note, maybe its not their fault. there used to be a huge billboard in erie right next to the hospital that said "Want to go to one of the best medical schools in the country?". the first time i saw it, i did a double take, thinking it was about my school (which i love, but is definitely not the best medical school in the country). even worse, the billboard was actually for the technical school, where you could get you certificate in medical assistance! since when is that medical school?? no wonder the general public is confused.

 

[Leukocyte]

Deleted

 

[shortbread9]

i completely agree with all you! i am so sick and tired of being called nurse. especially after saying i go to medical school. ive realized that people are just dumb and it never crosses their minds that women actually go to medical school...not just nursing.

one day i was in an elevator with two other female med students and a female attending. an old man got on with us and he said "oh...isnt this so sweet, i am so lucky to share an elevator with 4 pretty nurses".
the attending glared at him and said "actually you are in an elevator with 4 women doctors!"
ahhh...what a great moment!

another story told to me by an er resident:
she went in to the room, introduced herself as doctor and did the h & P. when she was done the family got all upset and wanted to know how much longer it was going to be before any doctor came in. So she told them that she would be right back...she literally pulled the curtain open..stepped out...closed teh curtain....waited 2 seconds and then opened it again and said "hi im dr so and so , ill be the doctor taking care of you"

the moral of these stories is that once in a while...its way more fun to get back at ignorant people than to be annoyed and hold it in.

 

[Winged Scapula]

Gals - sorry to tell you, but it doesn't end, even when you are old and haggard looking from your surgical residency and are clearly old enough to be the attending.

 

[OldPsychDoc]

Yeah, this is rampant at the VA. I got my first taste as a med student, when we were sent over there to practice our physical exam skills. After about an hour, during which our group of 4 female med students chatted with the patient about medical school and what specialties we were interested in etc, we were on our way out and the old guy smiled and waved and said "You girls is gonna make FINE nurses someday!"

Merely passing through the doors of a VA can turn the clocks back 50 years in real time....

 

[fab4fan]

i completely agree with all you! i am so sick and tired of being called nurse. especially after saying i go to medical school. ive realized that people are just dumb and it never crosses their minds that women actually go to medical school...not just nursing.

one day i was in an elevator with two other female med students and a female attending. an old man got on with us and he said "oh...isnt this so sweet, i am so lucky to share an elevator with 4 pretty nurses".
the attending glared at him and said "actually you are in an elevator with 4 women doctors!"
ahhh...what a great moment!

I hope your attending felt better after publicly smacking down an old man.

 

[Llenroc]

That's why females should just stick to nursing. It's how the good Lord intended things to be, and the patients seem to agree.

 

[superspec]

He should feel fortunate he made it to octogenarian status before someone corrected his ignorance!

I hope your attending felt better after publicly smacking down an old man.

 

[Leukocyte]

He should feel fortunate he made it to octogenarian status before someone corrected his ignorance!

Why? You would have "Dr. Rey'ed" him?