How do you feel on displaying your certification credentials on your badge?

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Nurses, How do you feel on displaying certification credentials on your badge or nurses who displays them on their id/work badge? I am proud of them because they were a lot of hard work and time but I also do not want to seem like a show-off.

Specializes in Retired.
4 hours ago, MrNurse(x2) said:

I agree that education is important, but experience is importanter (kinda scared autocorrect didn't come on) and from a patient standpoint, I would want to see RN, no letters. Bedside, give me the nurse who had thousands of hours bedside before graduation than one with a hundred or so. That is the downfall, those nurses who worked at their education through their career may be viewed as less experienced than others by informed clientele. Other than advanced practice, little taught at BSN levels matters to knowledge base.

And how would you know that since you don't have a BSN? More nurse-bashing.

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Specializes in ICU.
4 hours ago, Horseshoe said:

I don't have any certifications other than RN, but I completely disagree that having them on a name badge is "showing off." Only in nursing have I observed such disdain for those who choose to advance their educations. It seems like some nurses are threatened by their peers who further their education-these people go out of their way to make sure these nurses know that they are NO BETTER than someone who doesn't advance their education. It doesn't matter how many degrees they get-these folks will insist that those who furthered their formal education don't know any more than any other nurse. I guess they believe these nurses just sit around learning nothing but "fluff" for years and years. I see that word used a lot to denigrate someone's advanced education.

This right here! I have never encountered such a field of study that despises their members who choose to advance their academic standing.

If anything, I'm envious of those who have the time and money it takes to pursue advanced academic degrees.

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1 hour ago, MunoRN said:

Certifications don't convey your level of practice, using Benner's stages of nursing practice model, the most a certification by itself gets you is to the "competent" stage, which is halfway up the level of practice ladder. Knowledge is certainly a critical component of moving up to the upper levels of nursing practice, but it's a relatively small component. If you want to convey to a patient the quality of nursing care you provide, then the best way to do that is to provide quality nursing care, which patients are far more likely to understand and recognize than an acronym that's relatively unknown outside of nursing.

Extremely well put!!

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7 minutes ago, L-ICURN said:

This right here! I have never encountered such a field of study that despises their members who choose to advance their academic standing.

If anything, I'm envious of those who have the time and money it takes to pursue advanced academic degrees.

Whatever makes me a better nurse! My gosh I have never known anyone to put anyone’s degree down, I’m gonna start listening harder. There are quite a few that refuse to get more expensive certifications because they wouldn’t get reimbursed for it, and frankly I don’t blame them.

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11 minutes ago, L-ICURN said:

This right here! I have never encountered such a field of study that despises their members who choose to advance their academic standing.

If anything, I'm envious of those who have the time and money it takes to pursue advanced academic degrees.

I have been in nursing for 20 years and seen quite a few coworkers leave for other professions, no one ever cared that they left! Do what you love!!

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My gosh I have never known anyone to put anyone’s degree down, I’m gonna start listening harder.

This attitude is all over AN.

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Specializes in Nursing Professional Development.
1 hour ago, tammymize said:

That’s funny! I have never heard any physician say that!

why would anyone care??

Oh, there are lots of physicians ... and nurses ... who don't like nurses with PhD's and DNP's using the title "Doctor." You've never heard a physician say that they don't think people who are not physicians should not use the title?

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3 hours ago, MrNurse(x2) said:

Remember, I have a lot of career to look back on, the specifics may be off, but I know I worked with a nurse who got her CCRN as soon as you could. I also worked with a valedictorian from a prestigious university who gave a pt 100K units of heparin subQ first week off orientation. The point remains that a nurse with two years is still a novice. I realize for all the new nurses on here who work in units with 90% turnover that you may be, God forbid, orienting new nurses after a year, but you are not experienced. This is a career and takes a bit of time to be considered experienced.

Eperience is the key. And we need to be kind, supportive mentors to our younglings.

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21 hours ago, L-ICURN said:

I worked with a pharmD and a DPT, who both referred to themselves as "doctor." Physicians didn't have a problem with them doing it, but they verbalized unhappiness when the DNPs did it. I have a problem with misleading a patient about the type of doctorate, but they earned their degree just like the DPT and the pharmD. If the pharmacist and physical therapist can do it, why can't the nurse who earned a terminal degree?

I think it would make things more clear if they introduced themselves as, "I am Dr._____, your pharmacist, or DR----your Nurse Practitioner or Dr.----Your physician. This isn't about ego; it is about clarity for patients and families.

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1 hour ago, Undercat said:

If I were just the regular everyday Joanna, I would think from your initials that you are an LPN. Only nurses know what a BSN is for the most part. Are you a fancy LPN with some other degree? Why wouldn't you want the patient to know that you are an RN? No one presses the call bell for a BSN to my room, please.

She is not an RN. She either didn’t take NCLEX or didn’t pass it. I’m not sure if she has ever clarified that point.

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2 hours ago, llg said:

As for physicians not liking people with other doctoral degrees using the title "Dr." ...

Physicians would do well to remember that the academic doctoral degree (PhD) was around and commonly used by academicians long before physicians had a doctoral level practice degree. Physicians have tried to usurp the Dr. title from the academic doctorates for decades. The academics owned that title first -- and it is the physicians who have muddied the waters by telling people that the title really belongs to them and only them. They wanted the prestige of the academic doctors to rub off on them (with their practice degree) and so they started using the doctor title.

If physicians want a title that is theirs alone -- they should come up with their own title and stop trying to derive their prestige from the respect that the academicians developed over centuries by using the same "Dr." title that historically belongs to the academicians.

llg, PhD, RN-BC

This isn't about ego; it is about clarity for patients and families. I am Dr.---your Physician. I am Dr.---your Nurse Practitioner. I am Dr.---your Pharmacist. I am Dr.---I am an English professor who is visiting the patient next door.

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1 hour ago, tammymize said:

That’s funny! I have never heard any physician say that!

why would anyone care??

I would guess that the physicians who take that position are more likely to say it to someone who has the doctorate rather than to a less educated staff nurse (like myself). I imagine people with Ph.Ds and other doctorate degrees have experienced it at some point in their careers.

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