confused over titles !!

[Tina Harrington]

Forgive my ignorance... was reading some of the posts here and well quite frankly I'm confused ! I'm a UK RGN, USA seems to have so many "different" nurse titles, and yet ya all nurses !! Here in the UK we used to have 2 tier nursing RGN and SEN, registered and enrolled, one being a bedside nurse the other the same but with managment responsibilities blah, blah, blah we now have only one qualification RGN, be it diploma or degree, can someone please explain all these tiers you seem to have!!

Thanx

[susie.c.c]

ok, peace man! maybe I did fly off the handle a bit, sorry for being a bit sarcy, I just get fed up with having to justify myself all the time, as this is a bloody hard course, especially as half the time the tutors dont seem to know what they want you to do! Anyway, I would love to work in the US at some time, although just to open another can of worms, I saw a terminal patient last week who had been for a radical new cancer op in the US, not that it did him much good, and he said that nurses in the US

were very technically skilled,(heart & lung sounds etc) but not as caring as Uk nurses. His opinion not mine!!! Any comments, this is interesting as Uk diploma nurses are accused of being too over-educated and technical compared to their "traditonally trained" colleagues, but US nurse education is way more adademic than UK, so does the care factor get lost?

[PPL, BSN, RN]

STOP! You kids are cracking me up! Happy holidays to all of you!

[Tina Harrington, BSN, RN]

Oh....... Peace is restored on my issue but.... LMFAO, susie I just ain't gettin into this one !!! OMG, what have ya started?? LOLOLOLOLOLOL, From the innocent query I asked, the answers are long and varied, as you can see but if i was you I'd close down me putor now... Can of worms ??? More like a neuclear explosion I'm thinking..

:-p, good luck, lolololol

[Tina Harrington, BSN, RN]

[LOL Lita, yes laugh out loud... This was my origional question !! about US titles, but then got into debate about UK titles , anyway RGN = Registered GENERAL Nurse... this course turned you into an all round every department Nurse, during training we did a stint in all areas,(Now obsolete) and no diploma on qualifying, RN = Registered Nurse, This is still a three year course and you do some practice in all areas but you get the option to branch into whatever speciality ie, adult, peads, mental health etc.. more theory and therefore a diploma at qualifying, now I have tried to simplify this explaination as my origional query generated a huge debate !! We are ALL nurses andlets face it there are good and bad in all professions.... no matter what level of academia we study at we all practice to the best of our ability with increasing stresses

due to budgetery constraints, but we all entered to become a NURSE, The one solution for this I think,should be a unified title, something like CFP, caring for people!! So take care, Tina CFP, signing off

[p.rabbit]

Tina,

I think I can cut to the chase. Think of the Great Apes who thump their great barrel chests to scare off the other apes and establish their dominance in the clan/tribe.

Of course we're all basic Nurses inside, so we have to have some kind of Acronym or Initializing method to establish our dominance in our great Nursing Tribe. Look, anybody can get an education. Does it make one a better person? Of course not. Nursing in general, (in the 20th and now 21st century)is like a wayward child, crying out to be heard, all the while forgetting that we already have a history that is thousands of years old. All those initials only serve to confuse the public along with other nurses in our own profession and call attention to our own tottering professional self esteem.

Initials do not denote greatness, but rather they are a stab at questionable self assuredness. But, ya gotta admit, all those initials sure give rise to great possibilities don't they?

p.rabbit, AA-RN, CRTT, RD, OD, IUD, DDT, MRSA,............ad nauseum

[ph_rn_nurse]

Hello Tina

I am RN too like you and i am planning to work in Scotland

I am mainly interested in ER and also OR and i would also like to have continuing education so that i can get a master degree.

I never worked in Uk before. Do you some advices for me.

I don't really know how it works there : shift hours, training, salary, management, salary, insurance

I have often been said life was expensive there. What do you think ?

I guess your experience will be positive for me.

Have a nice day

PH

[Jenny P]

Tina, I don't know if you get the same nursing journals over there or not, but the December issue of Nursing 2000, page 57, has an article titled "ABCs: What do these initials mean?" This is a 2 column list of other initials that can be seen following a nurse's name here in the US, and these are some of the ones that may be cause of resentment/jealosy amoung some nurses. I had to dig it out to see what (if any) of p.rabbits initials stood for. I think he's pulling our legs, and I suspected it only by the last 4 initials: MRSA! Thanks for the alphabet soup homework, p. rabbit! :-)

[This message has been edited by Jenny P (edited December 11, 2000).]

[ClariceS]

Now if that article doesn't cause more confusion I don't know what will. Just looked at the Nursing 2000 article and boy-o-boy do we nurses ever have TON of initials we can use. If we all used these on our nametags we'd run out of room for our name! Yikes!

[Tina Harrington, BSN, RN]

P-rabbit........... LMFAO@U

Totally agree with all you say.....

still loling PRN

[Tina Harrington, BSN, RN]

Hi Jenny, No we don't get the same journals here !!! has nursing 2000 got a site I could visit?? would like to read that article Thanx... Tina

[ClariceS]

Tina,

I don't know if the article is online but Nursing2000's site is www.springnet.com.

[Tina Harrington, BSN, RN]

Gee thanx Clarice ya so helpful