Are you a 24/7 Nurse?

This post was written by CHMP Graduate Fellow Amanda Anderson RN, BSN, CCRN

Recently, I posed the following question to a group of my RN friends on Facebook: “Are you nurses ashamed of being nurses? Why aren’t you telling everybody with an ‘RN’”? You see, I follow my Facebook name with the letters, “RN,” and proudly. In response, my friends told me that they kept their nurse status secret when off the job. Some spoke of liability, others, fears that neighbors would show up with weird spots and bumps on their days off.

These concerns are real, but are they valid? Is nursing something to hide, or is it a vocation that should be shared 100% of the time, in everything we do, in every situation we’re in?

My response to their responses was simply, “How is this any different than walking away from a coding person on the street?” A response, I realize, that is quite direct and some might say harsh, but wouldn’t you consider it valid, too?