I work in a hospital. I work in the Cardiopulmonary Department ( I take care of your heart and lungs) which is sometimes known as Respiratory Therapy.
We have a big turnover, but in our Rehab Unit we don’t. The nurses usually stay.
There’s this one nurse who came to work for us a year ago, who insists on addressing me as Respiratory, even though I have introduced myself to her as “Bill” and asked her to just call if she ever needed anything on 7p-7a. Her name is Julia.
Okay fine. If it were a huge hospital, I would understand, but we are a small-town hospital, and we all know each other by our first names, so what’s the frickin’ problem, Julia???
I thought it was cute at first, and when she called, “Respiratory?” after me as I was walking down the hall one night, I answered back, “Yes, Nursing?”
She ignored it.
One year. Several requests to get her to call me “Bill”.
My first name is Rachel, pronounced RAYchel, not rawSHELL. I used to give teachers two weeks to learn it, and after that I stopped responding when called rawSHELL. Trust me, it works, especially if you keep on walking
What chique said. I recall reading a similiar situation in a recent Reader’s Digest anecdote. When one long-time resident of an apartment building discovered he had been addressing another resident by the wrong name for some 20 years, the other resident replied, “You never heard me answer, did you?”
In most other circumstances, this would be a good idea, but he works in a hospital, and as rude as the nurse in question is, she might be trying to get his attention to help save someone’s life. Of course, if that’s not an issue for his particular line of hospital work, then I say ignore away.
I generally go with the not answering route, I like my name, its what I answer to.
However, in a professional situation…have you tried mentioning it to her? “Julia, I would prefer if you called me Bill rather than Respiratory.” (Feel free to add “I am a person not a function.” after that if you’re as snark as I am.) Perhaps she is intimidated by you or has forgotten your name and is too embarassed to ask you for it again. (I do the latter, my ability to remember names stinks.)
Or try shock therapy. Every time she tries to get your attention without using your name give a good buzz. Then ask if its her final answer.
He said in the OP that he’d made “several requests”.
Quasi, just out of curiosity, under what circumstances did you make those requests? Did you have her full attention? Sometimes people just didn’t listen to you in the first place.
Just passing through and asking if there was anything she needed, like an O2 tank, “Ambu-Bag” or anything. “Oh, Respiratory? Could you bring us some more O2 tubing?”
I too work in a hospital, in Materials Management. If a nurse addressed me as “Materials” I don’t think she would get a response. Just like in every walk of life, Nursing has its saints and its assholes. I am fortunate that the hospital I am at has more of the first and less of the last.
I do favors for the first.
The last have to look up their own damned item numbers and produce a fully filled out, properly approved requisition if they want that bag of coffee or adult diapers.
Well, to me this qualifies as “If it bothers you that much, try and sit down with them and discover if there’s a reason for it.”
Maybe there’s a reason for it, maybe it’s her way of flirting, maybe it’s just the way she thinks of all people… compartmentalizing them by their occupation.
You’re just not going to find out unless you actually stop and ask.
Yeah: does she call other people by their names? Maybe she’s just very cut-and-dried. Maybe she would call you “Bill” in a social situation, but in a work situation, what’s important about you is your professional capacity, not your personality.
Under what circumstances does she have to get your attention? Is it pretty important, like, “Respiratory, patient is cyanotic!” If so, maybe it’s better for her to keep calling you what she’s used to calling you.
A friend of mine once had a similar problem. A new girl at his workplace seemed unable to cope with more than one name and constantly referred to him as “Darren”.
An honest mistake as a Darren did work with them, but hey, surely she could make the effort to remember a paltry two names.
Anyway, he solved the problem by just calling her “Darren” back. After a few funny looks from customers (in whose presence he’d just called her a guy’s name) she learnt his name.
