Things that are wrong with the education of nurses comes to the forefront most often right now: little to no preparation for the world of acute care, too much hand-holding through clinical experiences, unrealistic perceptions of the nurse's role within the healthcare continuum, and the fact that it takes four years to teach students skills and concepts that could be taught more effectively by taking them in pairs to the wilderness and shooting one in the leg while handing the other a belt and a book on nursing diagnoses, to name a few (more on the result of this later).
All in all, there have been a number of disturbing discoveries; none, however, as disturbing as the insistence of the Nursing Faculty to continually refer to those under our care as "clients". As far as I can recall, people requiring medical care from medical professionals were referred to as "patients" and there was a very good reason for this (I don't get tips from patients). Let me begin by being very dry for a moment and pull some definitions from the dictionary.
cli·ent
–noun
ənt
1. a person or group that uses the professional advice or services of a lawyer, accountant, advertising agency, architect, etc.
2. a person who is receiving the benefits, services, etc., of a social welfare agency, a government bureau, etc.
3. a customer.
4. anyone under the patronage of another; a dependent.
You may begin to understand the origin of my disgust after reading the definition. You may say, "Yeah, but #1 and #2 fit the bill pretty well" and I'd agree with you up to the point where we both read #3. Regardless of seeming to fit, I will fight tooth and nail against any insinuation through terminology that health professionals in Canada have "customers".
In contrast, the definition for "patient".
–noun
1. a person who is under medical care or treatment.
2. a person or thing that undergoes some action.
3. Archaic . a sufferer or victim.
I like this much better. Even "sufferer" and "victim" fit the bill better than "client". This is simply because if the individual is under the care of a nurse who feels a little "icky" because they drank too much the night before and just can't seem to locate their self-respect and a doctor who can't remember if he's getting four-hundred or five-hundred dollars per person for selflessly exacerbating drug-seeking behaviour at a walk-in clinic two nights a week then, gosh darn it, they are on the road to victimhood.
Quite simply, I've never heard or, more importantly, read one shred of logic behind the switch that seemingly took place over night.
Honestly, I'm looking for some answers here. Answer me. Educate me. Give me something because I'm not seeing how referring to the people who require medical care in the same way as those who requisition the services of an attractive, ambitious, yet uninhibited woman is doing the medical profession any favours.
Oh, and as for the two scrub-bunnies previously mentioned (I know that's demeaning to me as well, thanks); eventually, one of them will figure out that the belt is for the wound and the book of oh-so-useful nursing diagnoses is for toilet paper.
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I agree! I remember the switch from patient to client happening in my 3rd year of nursing. I continued to use "patient" and will continue to do so. If I wanted clients, I would have taken a business degree.
ReplyDeleteNursing education: Battle Royale style. I like this. I like this a lot.
ReplyDelete