To ask if you knew that in the UK anyone can call themselves a nurse?

[BoreOfWhabylon]

Anyone can use the title to offer professional advice and services even if they have no professional qualification, experience or have been struck off a professional register.
To protect the public, the title should be restricted to those who are registered with professional regulators such as Registered Nurses and Dental Nurses. This would be the same as titles such as paramedic, physiotherapist and hearing aid dispenser which are limited to those on the professional registers.

If you think, as I do, that this is wrong, please pop over to the Petitions Board, where @Arbella2 has a thread with more information and links to the petition.
www.mumsnet.com/Talk/petitions_noticeboard/a4368136-protect-the-title-nurse-in-uk-law-petition-the-title-nurse-can-be-used-by-anyone-in-the-uk-petition-created-by-professor-alison-leary-rn?msgid=111544580#111544580

Please consider signing the petition to protect the title nurse.

A recent high-profile case underlined the limitations of 'Nurse' not being a protected title.
Prominent Covid-denier and anti vaccination campaigner struck off NMC register in May 2021. A Fitness to Practise Panel determined that she was no longer a safe or effective nurse. Her behaviour had fallen seriously short of the standards expected of a registered nurse and amounted to misconduct. The NMC panel heard that she had spoken at protests and actively discouraged people from wearing masks, adhering to social distancing and taking vaccinations. She had also made derogatory comments about other nursing and healthcare professionals. She had described nurses as being "complicit in genocide" and "criminals and liars". The panel determined she had placed members of the public "at serious risk of harm"
She told the Nursing Times that she did not plan to appeal and would continue to call herself a nurse regardless. She noted that it was 'registered nurse' that was a protected title and not simply 'nurse'. "I don't need to be a nurse to practise aesthetics and I don't need to be a nurse to use my diploma in personal nutrition. But I am a nurse and I will state I am a nurse"
From the Nursing Times 04/06/21

Now 31,438 signatures.

By Christmas there could be 32,500 signatures, and this thread will be full and a new one will be needed.

Anyone can call themselves an Engineer too. Truly annoying given how hard it is to get a proper Engineering degree.

Anyone can call themselves Doctor too - I found this out recently when Dr X turned up to assess my foster daughter. If he’s a doctor just call me Tarzan!

Talks between government and nursing leaders already in progress, so not just reliant on petition now. Just a matter of time. Petition actuality finishes before Christmas so no worries.
Thanks so much for bumping the thread !

@KimmyandMe

Anyone can call themselves Doctor too - I found this out recently when Dr X turned up to assess my foster daughter. If he’s a doctor just call me Tarzan!

Yes, doctor isn't protected , only doctor of medicine.

@SkiingIsHeaven

Anyone can call themselves an Engineer too. Truly annoying given how hard it is to get a proper Engineering degree.

Yes , all these titles need looking at.

"Looking at the data scrape around 10% of nursing jobs now open to those without nursing qualifications"
Professor Alison Leary
Twitter 30/10/21

Nursing is a distinct scientific field and an autonomous profession. Nurses follow a unique holistic practice model that emphasises preventive care and overall wellbeing.
From 'Saving Lives by Sandy Summers and Harry Jacobs Summers 2014

@Arbella2

Please consider signing this petition. Patient safety at risk.

Petition

[quote Arbella2]https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/587939[/quote]
Protect Nurse Title petition

[quote Arbella2]https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/587939[/quote]
Petition

Registered nurse is protected. So is doctor and solicitor and barrister (but not therapist or lawyer). So any tom dick or harry can say they are a therapist or lawyer as long as they do not breach trade descriptions law in a more broader sense. However people who are not a solicitor may not call themselves solicitor.

[quote Arbella2]https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/587939[/quote]
Petition

@Xenia

Registered nurse is protected. So is doctor and solicitor and barrister (but not therapist or lawyer). So any tom dick or harry can say they are a therapist or lawyer as long as they do not breach trade descriptions law in a more broader sense. However people who are not a solicitor may not call themselves solicitor.

Doctor isn't protected. Only doctor of medicine is protected

[quote Arbella2]https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/587939[/quote]
Petition

[quote Arbella2]https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/587939[/quote]
Petition

@SkiingIsHeaven

Anyone can call themselves an Engineer too. Truly annoying given how hard it is to get a proper Engineering degree.

But an engineering degree alone doesn’t make someone an engineer. They still need chartered status.

This petition is pointless because protecting a generic word (nurse, accountant, engineer) is too broad a scope.
Protecting titles (registered nurse, chartered accountant) makes sense. Why not educate the general public on looking for someone with professional qualifications rather than trying to regulate things which nobody has money to enforce anyway?

Also paramedic and physiotherapists are very specific so not comparable.

[quote Arbella2]https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/587939[/quote]
Petition

[quote Arbella2]https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/587939[/quote]
Petition

[quote Arbella2]https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/587939[/quote]
Petition

@TractorAndHeadphones

Also paramedic and physiotherapists are very specific so not comparable.

You've said this petition is pointless. Genuine question for you and anyone else with a similar view. I'm assuming that you have read the thread and we can keep to the topic of nurse. I'm a retired registered nurse with experience of working at a senior level and with experience of nurse recruitment. Given that protecting the title (remember it's the title, not the noun or the verb) is the only way is to stop its misuse, how do you marry up your opinion with how you will feel when you have a loved one in hospital ? You will want the very best care for them, you will want them to be safe. So will you hold your present view or will the actual stark reality shift it ?