Wearing name plates or not?

[Bernhard]

Recently I was part of a small fight with a patient's drunken relative who thought that we didn't treat his family member right - he attacked a colleague of the other ambulance, we others could release him an hold him down until police arrived on scene (needless to say the patient got a completely adequate treatment anyway). This wasn't the first occurence of violence almost out of nothing on scene to me, many more times I was able to verbally calm down such a situation. Including beaing insulterd and threatened ("I know your name I'll find you!"). Up to now, this never really made me anxious since they were too drunk to remember anything and/or from somewhere else out of my home town However, the last one gave me some thoughts, since the attacker is known for violence especially when drunk (including usage of knifes, already had some years in prison) and doesn't live far away from our village, probably often attending festivities (including alcohol) where we are on standby. Chances are high, that we meet him in future (actually I met him two days after the incident in a super market, but he couldn't see me) and even that he could track us down simply in the phone book by our names: we wear them (first letter of first name, full family name) on our jackets...

Since I'm able to change our politics here, I now consider to get rid of this possible threat. Some of my thoughts:

• Names are useful in team work - we wear the same uniform in larger disaster teams or on larger event standby duty, where we don't necessary know the other medics from everyday work. It's helpful to address a collegue by name, so the nameplates sure help in getting work done.
• Usually we're calling us with our first names, even those colleagues we don't know. So for internal reference the first name on nameplate would be enough.
• However, if dealing with the public (which we're supposed to), I consider the "first name only" not a professional appearance in a serious business as ours. I have no experience with that, so I may be misleaded here.

Now I'm stuck without a real solution and need opinions...please feel free to give me some. Thank you in advance!

(actually in the situation above I removed my velcro nameplate while we hold the attacker down, so I might have a chance that he had not the time to read and remember my name, but this is not possible in every situation)

[HellsBells]

If your nameplate is velcro then dont wear it. I took mine off as soon as I received my new coat.

[flamingemt2011]

Yes, your full name should be embroidered on your uniform so that you can not remove it. You are a public servant, and your patients blindly trust you with their care. How many times have you had a patient really refuse to let you do what you need to do, or ask to see your credentials before you do it ? In the past 40 years of EMS, how many medics have been killed by psycho patients, I imagine less than 1%. You are far more likely to die in an ambulance crash. I imagine you have disclosed far more personal information on Facebook.

[WolfmanHarris]

My ID that I wear on my uniform has my first name and badge number. My badge and ministry ID are in a wallet and have my full name on them.

There is no reason for anyone to have my full name as any inquiries will be directed to the service or MoH and my OASIS number is all they need. Heck the address of the call and date of service is more than enough.

Certainly I don't feel any huge concern about the risks of having my last name known by a Pt or family, but I see no countervailing need to have your surname visible.

[Kiwiology]

The old name badges we had back in the day were inscribed with our first and last name however people covered up last names with stickers or bits of tape or laundry marker. The Ambulance Service figured they looked unprofessional so the new tags have the option of only having first name

[Happiness]

We have our first or last name, not both. It wouldnt really matter here as every one knows who we are and were we live.

[usalsfyre]

flamingEMT, I'm not a "public servant" any more than any other healthcare worker. To answer your question, I've never had anyone ask to see my credentials prior to allowing me to treat them.

I like first name only personally. If a complaintaint is unwilling to give enough information to track down who the complaint pertains to, it shouldn't be taken seriously anyway.

[JPINFV]

If someone, especially the patient, wants access to your name, they're going to get it. Is it on the patient care report?

Would you go to a physician who wouldn't let you know what their last name was? If you had a complaint about a nurse in a hospital, would you not expect to know what their name was? How much of this is public record anyways, with varying amounts of difficulty to obtain? The fact is, if I really wanted to know the name of someone who showed up on scene, there are more than enough ways to find out. Hence, hiding a surname is really more of a false sense of security.

[WolfmanHarris]

If you had a complaint about a nurse in a hospital, would you not expect to know what their name was?

It's like you read my mind on this one, apparently it's policy at one of the three hospitals we frequent that Nurses in emerg will only provide their first name. One of the medics from the service to the north of us had to write an incident report and was getting the info for those involved in the continuity of care and was told by triage that policy was to only give out first name and that from their anything else would need to be an official request.

As for being a public servant, with EMS being municipally run third service under the greater umbrella of our public health care system, I am a public servant.

[Richard B the EMT]

Prior to the EMS/FDNY merger, EMS personnel had to wear name tags in addition to the badge. Some wore last name, some first initial and last name, some with their title following. One wiseguy (NOT me, for once) had his badge number ONLY on his name tag.

The "Duty" jacket FDNY has the EMS folks wearing now, has the last name, only, embroidered on, those of supervisory rank have their title as well as the last name. The "Turn-Out" coats have, on the backs, a reflective "FDNY", "EMT" or "Paramedic", and then their last name (supervisors have the title above the name). EMT and Paramedic's orange helmets have the badge number on the backs.