What initials do I place after my name?? - Page 3

Well, actually you can. I'm a diploma educated nurse and one of my classmates (yes, in my diploma programme!) already had an MScN. She was a "foreign medical graduate" from communist China whose parents, in an effort to protect her after the whole Tiananmen Square deal, sent her here to live. She discovered very quickly that she wasn't ever going to be able to use her medical degree to support herself and a family friend suggested that she instead do a MScN and become an NP. The university accepted her on the basis of her degree in medicine, took her money, educated her as an MScN in the NP track and then turned her loose. She applied for nursing licensure after graduation and the regulatory body laughed her out of the office. You can't be registered as anurse unless you've taken a basic nursing education programme and she hadn't. So there she was in my diploma programme learning how to be a nurse so she could get her license to be a nurse practitioner. Stranger than fiction.

Academics are recomending this practice:

a. Degree confired---once granted can't be taken away unless academic fraud (extremely rare). List highest education level.
b. Licensure: which CAN be easily taken away if poor practice standards, drug/ ETOH addicition, failure to pay licnese fees
c. Certifications: have expiration period and must meet recerification guidleines to keep so frequently can change.
d. Job Title: if indicated above staff nurse level

NRSKaren BSN, RN -- automatic after all these years even when signing just payroll forms.

NRSKaren BSN, RN CI Manager when communicating about work issues.
CI = Central Intake in my homecare agency.

With respect, never bought into the academicians call on this one. Tony Soprano might ask: "Who died and left them in charge?"

How'd they came up with the concept of "most permanent initials first" anyway? Seems pretty artificial.

I say, so long as we're functioning in the nursing arena -- granted a huge stadium -- we're primarily nurses. Hence, when generally on the floor, I'd sign-off, Mary Smith, RN. Any additional degree abbreviation would be superfluous.

If I were in a special role, I'd request that my badge include "Wound, Ostomy, Continence Nurse," or other specialty designation, below my name line. That would help in communicating my particular focus to the professional staff and others.

On a professional paper, presentation, curriculum vitae, resume, etc., I'd include any relevant education: Mary Smith, RN, BS, MBA. But I'm not gonna add my CPR, BLS, ACLS certifications after my name.

Also agree with a previous poster. If you have an MSN, there's no real need to also mention the BSN, AAS, ADN, etc.

Think all this stems from a misguided effort to professionalize our industry. "More initials means more ability, more credence, more professional."

However, beyond the essential, it reminds one more of table servers at TGIF with all those different badges on their shirt.

Sometimes less is more.

The facility where one is signing things may have a preferred form. Nurses sign the signature sheets on the charts on my unit with RN only. That is also what is displayed on our badges.

As someone else stated, there are other places--professional letters, articles, participation in panel discussions, etc.--where additional degree, credential and certification information is entirely appropriate.

I'm not trying to be "wise" here but you CAN acutally get your MSN without a BSN. There are programs for RNs with non-nursing, Bachelor degrees to enroll and obtain their MSN.

There are several RN-MSN programs out there now as well (no bachelors whatsoever required), you do the basic core work from a BSN then go right into the MSN course work, at the end of it all you get the MSN but are not awarded a BSN, there are some that you are awarded the BSN but those are fewer than the RN-MSN tracks, however to be a CRNA you have have a BSN or BS-chemistry heavy, a few schools tried RN-MSN/CRNA but they went under and had to restructure and went back to requiring a BS.

I'm a BSN and work with a lot and have only seen people sign RN on documentation...or RN-C.

not to be rude, but i noticed that people who ask this question are usually students who have no idea how many times he/she will be signing documents throughout a shift. i think once they start signing off on documents they will no longer asdk this quesiton.

the only time i ever see anything other then rn behind a nurse's signature is when he/she is giving a presentation or writing a document for training purposes. therefore, all day long the bsns, msns, mbas, etc write j.doe, rn. nothing more and nothing else! even the docs and other professionals sign license information. i never ever see degrees behind their names either. this makes sense, right????

when you read notes, do you care about degrees??? no, you want to know the professional who signed off. sometimes all i can read (or care to see) is md.. the rest of the signature is garble-goop anyway.

i just write my name. i don't place anything after my name. my nurse manager said that that is OK to do because an RN giving care is an expectation. what i don't understand is when an RN puts those initials after everything and anything. i don't get it. where i work, the doctors usually just write their name as well. if it works for them, then it works for me!

i strongly agree with the person who posted above this! nurses have to sign their name on so many different pieces of paper to the point of being outright annoying. i think it's a waste of time for someone to write Jane Doe, BSN, RN, mother, caregiver, documenter, astrophysicist, wonder woman, etc after their name (unless you're giving a powerpoint/presentation)

Forgot to add: counselor, advocate, dishwasher, waitress, PR person, paper girl/boy, cook, supervisor, educator, case manager, floor cleaner, bed-maker, family go-between...

But as implied previously, don't all those other duties and initials truly become redundant after we sign... "RN."