Nursing student or student nurse?

[newbie08]

I figured since I am in a 2-year program, I would call myself a nursing student the first year then a student nurse the 2nd year since it sounds more official to me. How do you refer to yourself??

[calypte]

in my area we are "nursing students" as here the term "nurse" is a legal title identifying Registered Nurses and Licensed Practical Nurses. Our nametags say "NS" after our names. (Or "PNS" for practical nursing)

There was some kind of 'executive decision' made at some point I suppose...

Not sure how it all works, apparently they just changed it recently...

[JBudd, MSN]

The two terms are not actually equivalent.

The most accurate is "nursing student", which is what you are, a student studying to become a nurse.

The term "student nurse" implies you are already a nurse, adjective student, noun nurse.

(Yes, my students signed "SN" because that is the way it has always been done)

But language also reflects mindset: calling yourself a student reminds you your primary purpose for being in clinical is to be a student; the primary nurse is ultimately responsible for the patient, not you and your instructor. You aren't there as a nurse, you are there as a student. It also reminds the staff you aren't there to be slave labor, (nursing student, not nursing aide; but that you want to be in on learning and doing new things. Again, language influences and reflects mindset.

Climbing off soap box now :bowingpur

[hypocaffeinemia, BSN, RN]

The two terms are not actually equivalent.

The most accurate is "nursing student", which is what you are, a student studying to become a nurse.

The term "student nurse" implies you are already a nurse, adjective student, noun nurse.

(Yes, my students signed "SN" because that is the way it has always been done)

But language also reflects mindset: calling yourself a student reminds you your primary purpose for being in clinical is to be a student; the primary nurse is ultimately responsible for the patient, not you and your instructor. You aren't there as a nurse, you are there as a student. It also reminds the staff you aren't there to be slave labor, (nursing student, not nursing aide; but that you want to be in on learning and doing new things. Again, language influences and reflects mindset.

Climbing off soap box now :bowingpur

Considering we operate on a temporary and restricted student nurse license, I disagree.

Besides, if that's the case, there's an entire forum worth of people at studentdoctor.net that are illegally falsely identifying as physicians.

Noun is indeed nurse, but adjectives modify nouns. Take half liter for instance. Liter is the noun, but the adjective modifies it to mean there is only 1/2 the liter. It does not imply we have a liter first. Student nurse changes the meaning. It clearly shows we are not registered, licensed nurses-- it shows we are students learning the functional role of nursing.