Nurse titles?!

[Josefin, BSN, PhD, RN]

I`m not quite sure about the meaning of the nurse-titles in the US. Could anyone explain them to me? In Swden we have (simply explained) 4 groups of nurses:

*Specialist-RN. Ex. anesthesia, midwifery etc. Thise nurses have the 3-year university education + specialist competence (1 1/2 year more at uni).

*Registerd Nurse. 3 year university education.

*Assistant nurse. 1 year education, you are not licenced and this education is NOT on university-level.

*Nurses-aid. About 4 week course, not university-level.

The work is pretty strict between the different titles. For ex. a RN seldom do beds, preform hygiene on patients etc. That`s the AN`s or the aid`s job. Ofcourse when you work in care-teams you need to back up eachother, but in general I would say that swedish RN`s do alot of paperwork and more advanced medical tasks.

[CEN35]

there are so many........they are basicall certifications if thats what you are thinking of? like cns = clinical nurse specialist, or cen certifired emergency nurse, etc etc. or are you referring to rn, lpn, cna etc?

[Josefin, BSN, PhD, RN]

Aha... I see... CNS and CEN must be examples of what we call "specialist nurses". In Sweden though our title for that is for example "Specialist nurse in ambulatory care".

Ok now i understand that part. But what exactly does LPN and CNA stand for? I assume that the RN means the same in the US as here: You are a registerd licenced nurse with 3 years of university education. Or am I wrong? Somewhere I think I read that In the US you have a nurseeducation which is all from 1 to 5 years??!! Does the title change then from every year you add?Heeeelp! It`s a bit hard for me to follow some of the discussions here when I`m not sure about the titles discussed...

[Q.]

An RN can have a 3 year degree or a 4 year degree - which would then make you an RN, BSN. (Bachelor of Science-Nursing)

You don't have to be an RN to get a BSN, and you don't have to get a BSN to be an RN.

LPNs are Licensed Practical Nurses, who usually have 2-3 years of education, however, that would best be answered by an LPN.

Trust me, this confuses us just as much, as well as the general public, which is why there is a movement to standardize nursing and it's point of entry into the profession.

[Josefin, BSN, PhD, RN]

Ok. We can choose if we want to graduate with or without Bachelor of Science-Nursing. I will choose with. In the futute it`s likely that a BD will be needed to attend the specialist-educations, so I thought this would be the best option. Still you can apply for the same jobs i you have a BD or not in your exam, the education is 3 years in both cases.

[P_RN, ADN, RN]

http://www.useic.ru/us-educ/fstmednr.htm

This is a pretty good explanation. It's a Russian site but very clear.

[Josefin, BSN, PhD, RN]

Thank you! Exactly what I was looking for!:)