Alright Love? As a professional should you always use a patients name

Ireland’s health service have made a recommendation to call patients by their first name rather than use generic terms such as love or dear. Do they need to be told! As a professional you always call patients by their name, and in some cases this would be their surname as it might seem more appropriate. This infers that you have read the client’s notes and identified them. If the name is wrong then you will have looked at the wrong notes!

Calling someone love is ageist – both old and young and demeaning. My hair is no longer dyed the vibrant red it used to be, and I am treated differently to the way I used to. People call me dear or love more than they did. Do they consider me as somehow less able than them because I have hair a lovely shade of pewter?

In the unlikely event that I ever have to live in a retirement home, carers who remember that I am Jennie, not Jennifer, might remember that I drink tea very weak and without milk, hate mashed spuds and most green things and prefer University Challenge to Eastenders.

I am not generic and neither is anyone else!