Curious-why do people put ADN, RN? It's ASN...

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Specializes in Post Acute, Home, Inpatient, Hospice/Pall Care.

Basically the title says it all! I am curious why anyone would put ADN, RN after their name...you hold an associates in SCIENCE nursing, RN to BSN-bachelors of SCIENCE nursing. Associate Degree Nursing just seems so unprofessional. Maybe that is just me, but I thought I would ask!

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They are just used interchangeably. I don't think it's unprofessional though

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Not everyone with an associate's degree in nursing has an ASN; there are also associate's degree nursing programs that award the AAS degree. "ADN" (for "associate degree in nursing") is an informal acronym that is used to include both degrees.

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Not everyone with an associate's degree in nursing has an ASN; there are also associate's degree nursing programs that award the AAS degree. "ADN" (for "associate degree in nursing") is an informal acronym that is used to include both degrees.

I actually didn't know that! Thanks :) learn something new every day

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Specializes in Medical-Surgical, Telemetry.

My nursing school degree is AAS- associate's in applied science

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Not everyone receives an Associate Science Nursing degree. ADN covers the gamut.

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Specializes in Neuro ICU and Med Surg.

ADN and ASN are used interchangeably. Seriously? How is this unprofessional to use ADN? Am I missing something?

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I always thought it was ASN until I joined here. I suppose this came from the local CC using ASN.

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Specializes in ICU.

It's probably regional, too. I have only ever heard/seen ADN used around here - the colleges themselves list the degree as ADN on their websites. The first time I saw someone write ASN on this board I thought that was weird and I wondered why they were writing that...

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It's probably regional, too. I have only ever heard/seen ADN used around here - the colleges themselves list the degree as ADN on their websites. The first time I saw someone write ASN on this board I thought that was weird and I wondered why they were writing that...

I thought the same when I joined AN. It confused me because we use ADN in my area.

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Specializes in Hospice.
ADN and ASN are used interchangeably. Seriously? How is this unprofessional to use ADN? Am I missing something?

Sometimes people get hung up on titles. They worked hard for their credentials, and want it to be clear what they have. I can't blame them (although, the ones who have 320 letters after their name sometimes make me wonder if they're overcompensating for something 😇).

I'm with the rest of the crowd, though; how is ADN disrespectful? It's a legitimate Nursing degree.

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I thought the same when I joined AN. It confused me because we use ADN in my area.

Me too! I had only heard of ADN. :nurse:

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