Certified Medical Assistants Calling Themselves Nurses

I was recently seeing  a patient in my office and a family member was in during the visit and was asking some very interesting questions. Since she was knowledgeable, I asked if she was in the medical field somewhere. She said that she was a nurse. I asked her what type of nurse she was and she told me that she was a CMA (certified medical assistant). "Ah, I said, you aren't actually a nurse," and I told her to be very careful about giving the impression that she was one without an actual degree as such. I explained, in a nice way, that it is illegal to portray yourself as a nurse when you are not and that you can get into trouble. " As clearly stated onemedicalassistants.com" , a medical assistant calling herself a nurse is not just confusing patients but also committing a crime." I told her it was the same as if I told people that I was a medical doctor rather than a Nurse Practitioner and that I could lose my license.In fact, it's a pretty hot topic on some nursing forums. Below is a response to the same question by an LPN."It's very simple, really. If you are not a licensed nurse--you are not a nurse. The title carries with it a certain level of responsibility and education (not time, but content). A CMA/MA should identify themselves appropriately, and then docs and patients will catch on. I drew blood and ran lab tests but never called myself the lab technician. Same with taking xrays. I am a nurse because I went to school to be a nurse and took my boards and passed...
Source: The Nurse Practitioner's Place - Category: Nursing Authors: Source Type: blogs