How in the name of God will I write my titles

Jules A, MSN · Dec 21, 2017

Whatever happened to just CRNP or APRN? Nursing's love of alphabet soup is not only confusing but also seems insecure to me.

allnurses Guide · Dec 21, 2017

As long as they get the name right on the paycheck, I don't care what they call me.

I sign with just my NP certification. I don't need all the other mullarkey. It just makes my hand tired.

Bumex, DNP, NP · Dec 23, 2017

I sign as xxxxxx, NP-c. Alphabet soup is pretentious

Tacomaboy3 · Dec 26, 2017

I'm a fan of highest degree, highest title.

Dr. MrsBelle, DNP, ARNP

Putting RN at the end is redundant, and putting all the certifications personally seems excessive.

TheSquire, DNP, APRN, NP · Dec 27, 2017

When signing anything clinical, you're just MrsBelle APRN, just as you're just MrsBelle RN now. The APRN is your legal license.

Your labcoat and your regular signatures shall read MrsBelle DNP, APRN, FNP-C, ACNPC-AG or MrsBelle DNP, APRN, FNP-BC, AGACNP-BC, depending on which certification exams you end up taking.

I disagree with the chorus of people whining about the alphabet soup. As, unlike physicians (who manage to get their abbreviation to do double-duty for their degree and license), our credentialing has multiple parts (degree, license, and certification), therefore all parts need to be represented in our professional communication. That said, there are rules to how you do it, and putting them out of order is one of my minor pet peeves.

If you have RN-contingent additional licenses and certifications, I would omit those in most circumstances as an NP. The only places I put my full alphabet soup - with more letters after my name than in it - is at the top of my Resume/CV and on the syllabi of courses I am a lab/clinical instructor for.

allnurses Guide · Dec 28, 2017

So I'm in a dual role DNP program to get my FNP/AG-ACNP with a cardiovascular sub-speciality.. how the heck will the titles go?
Dr. MrsBelle, DNP, APRN, FNP-C, AG-ACNP or is it
MrsBelle, DNP, APRN, FNP-C, AC-ACNP or some variation I haven't discovered?????

Clinical signature I would use Name, APRN. In emails I would use a generic signature that is more formal: Dr. X, FNP, ACNP.

People that have a problem using a title(s) that you have rightly earned seem insecure to me.

Bluebolt · Dec 28, 2017

I don't know how it's supposed to be done formally but I plan to write mine like this when I graduate, Dr. Bluebolt DNP, CRNA. I'm not putting APRN, CCRN and all the rest. I think people can deduce that if you're a CRNA or FNP you are also considered the umbrella term APRN and don't need it written.

I think name, degree, professional title looks best and doesn't overwhelm the staff or patient.

TheSquire, DNP, APRN, NP · Dec 28, 2017

I don't know how it's supposed to be done formally but I plan to write mine like this when I graduate, Dr. Bluebolt DNP, CRNA. I'm not putting APRN, CCRN and all the rest. I think people can deduce that if you're a CRNA or FNP you are also considered the umbrella term APRN and don't need it written.
I think name, degree, professional title looks best and doesn't overwhelm the staff or patient.

Except that, in most states, you're not practicing on your CRNA, you're practicing on the APRN.

And for formal it goes: name, religious order, religious degree, academic degree(s), license(s), certification(s), fellowship(s). Nowadays it's rare to find a nun or monk as a nurse, so only the last four categories matter. APRN supercedes the RN, like the MSN or DNP supercede the BSN, and if you're practicing as an APRN you probably don't need to list your nursing specialty board (like CCRN) unless you're teaching or trying to impress people.

allnurses Guide · Dec 28, 2017

Except that, in most states, you're not practicing on your CRNA, you're practicing on the APRN.
And for formal it goes: name, religious order, religious degree, academic degree(s), license(s), certification(s), fellowship(s). Nowadays it's rare to find a nun or monk as a nurse, so only the last four categories matter. APRN supercedes the RN, like the MSN or DNP supercede the BSN, and if you're practicing as an APRN you probably don't need to list your nursing specialty board (like CCRN) unless you're teaching or trying to impress people.

In most states you are specifically recognized as a CRNA. A couple of states don't recognize CRNAs as APRNs. CRNAs are the oldest form of APRN and they are several "quirks" with our licensing and education that doesn't apply to other APRNs for example our CRNA degree/education does not have to come from nursing a institution.

3peas · Dec 31, 2017

Whatever happened to just CRNP or APRN? Nursing's love of alphabet soup is not only confusing but also seems insecure to me.

Who cares? Patients won't care. Nurses won't care. You know who might care and still look down on you-physicians.

Do you job and be the best and the letters don't matter. I choose to see two APNP because they are better than the MD's they work for (and it kills me to write that last part).

I'm an education junkie/hoarder/collector-I get it, you work hard for those letters. I have a ton, but I don't showcase them. My work and character show them. I will stand on this box until we as nurses do something-we need to streamline the road to "nurse" not because BSN is better than LVN/LPN or DNP is better than MSN, but there are too many roads and it's divisive. The schools will not decide for us, we will decide.

offlabel · Jan 1, 2018

Highest level of cert for your current role, i.e. Joe Smith, FNP. Or Mary Fox, CRNA. Anything more makes you look like a tool to your medical colleagues.

But some folks don't mind looking like tools. They would if they could hear what the rest of the medical staff had to say about them.