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Joana E. Livoti
As a nurse I take care of a patient... a patient is a patient is a patient! This has always been and always will be!
It matters not if a patient is rich or poor, is able to pay or not, has insurance or not! A patient is a patient is a patient! Never a Client! The term client denotes a fiduciary relationship and is not appropriate to the nurse/patient relationship! As a nurse I have a duty to render care, to serve all who are committed to my care! This is our profession and it is why we became nurses! A patient is a patient is a patient!
1/18/2017 3:26:37 AM

Dee
When I worked in a hospital or clinic setting I used the term patient. As a RN is a skin care setting (no insurance, only cash payment) I consider them clients. It gets confusing trying to decipher what is politically correct anymore. I feel those who are ill are patients. Those who participate fully with elective treatments are clients. I may be wrong, but that's my position in my current setting.
10/26/2016 7:58:43 PM

Cathy Weber
I'm really happy to see that the poll results are skewed in the right direction.
9/6/2016 1:33:56 PM

Pamela
I work for a staffing agency as a pediatric home health care RN. Most of the people I work with refer to those we serve as 'patient' but I use the term 'client.' I finished nursing school in 2008, and I seem to remember being instructed to use 'client' by our instructors. I agree with the earlier comment that 'client' seems to reflect more accurately our relationship.
5/7/2016 1:39:05 PM

Carolyn Poulakos
A patient is some one for whom I would go without food or a bathroom break for 12 hours and for whom I would if necessary lay down my life because they are suffering. A client is some one for whom I have a cold, limited fiduciary relationship, the way my attorney does with me.
5/6/2016 3:44:53 AM

Carolyn Poulakos
A patient is some one for whom I will go without food or a bathroom break if necessary for whom I would lay down my life. A client is some one for whom I have a cold professional fiduciary responsibility with legal constraints and limitations.
5/6/2016 3:42:42 AM

Denise
Years ago, I heard Thelma Schorr speak. I'll never forget her statement: "Lawyers have clients, nurses have patients." In all my years of practice in the acute care setting, I've never had a patient think of themselves as anything other than a patient. They know what it means and what it represents.
5/5/2016 1:43:18 PM

Carole
The term client seems to make me feel that the interaction with the patient is more of a business transaction rather than a caring transaction. Patients are used to the term patient and I do not think they would care what the Latin term refers to. So many things are constantly changing in healthcare and some things definitely need to change. Calling our patients clients is not one of those things I think needs to change.
5/5/2016 1:25:14 PM

Theresa
I could possibly see people being referred to as clients in a home health situation. But working in a hospital environment, it would be difficult for me to think of them as anything but a patient.
4/30/2016 5:08:47 PM