My supervisor told me tonight that HR was getting complaints from patients stating, "The BSN nurse gave better care than the non-BSN nurse." End result, only RN will go on namebadge.
I do not want to debate whether BSN nurses are better or worse. What I would like feedback on is:
1.) Can a hospital legally take away your title of RN, BSN or RN MSN, etc.?
2.) I personally feel that is a "slap" in the face and demoralizes nursing and education! Am I the only one who feels like this?
Who cares if you have BSN on your name tag. BSN is a DEGREE not a CERTIFICATION (CCRN, CEN, CNOR) nor license (RN, LPN, CNA). There are bigger fish to fry in the nursing world than having "RN BSN" on your hospital ID.
As I passed a door, I actually heard a family member tell the pt "I'm going to complain that you only got a LPN," referring to one of the best critical thinkers and most experienced nurses on our floor.
So I'm all for removing tags that let ignorant troublemakers "compare" one nurse with another on the totally bogus basis of alphabet soup.
Keep your trophy shelf at home, guys. A pt has the therapeutically beneficial right to totally trust her assigned nurse.
I totally agree. Patients and family members have plenty of ways to make a nurse's life difficult without givng them the added ammunition of an ASN vs BSN, BSN vs MSN, etc. Not to mention the fact that SOME people (not all of course) pull out the "education card" four or five times a day and use it as a big hammer on fellow employees. My last employer wouldn't allow people to hang any diplomas or certificates on their office walls just for that reason. If you have the education, people are going to know it. There is no point in wearing a billboard advertising the fact.
Oh my...another ASN vs. BSN discussion huh? In my opinion, RN is RN...how many humanity classes one took to gain their BSN over ADN means little in the clinical arena. I've worked with a lot of new grads thru the last years and I've yet to see a BSN grad that is more clinically competent than an ASN grad. They are equal.
And this attitude that "I'm a BSN and that makes me a better nurse than that ASN..." doesn't win you any brownie points in my eyes. ASN's and BSN's take the EXACT SAME STATE BOARDS.
I'm assuming this isn't a magnet hospital. All of the magnet facilities I've worked out seem to encourage nurses to have BSN, MSN, CCRN, etc on their badges, and yes, we do have some LPN's and non-BSN RN's.
Specializes in Vents, Telemetry, Home Care, Home infusion.
In the good old days, the comments from a few patients would be " I don't want a St Joe's nurse...I want a PGH or Presby nurse with the ruffled cap cause they've seen it all" as identity was tied into nurses cap.
We told patients then: you get whose assigned to your hall as our staff are held to the hospitals same high nursing standards.
About 15 -20 years ago, many facilities did not permit RN on name tags. One was a "Patient Clinician I" or "Patient Clinician II", etc. They did this to blur the line between levels of nursing or aides, put everybody in scrubs, so that it looked like there was a lot more licensed staff....whether there was or not.
Eventially, there was a large backlash on this....and we have hospitals getting into the, "we need to be able to ID the RN"...after they themselves fostered blurring the lines.
I have a lot of initials that I can put after my name, but at work the main one that is important to the pt is RN.
It is also your employers choice as to what you will be titled as far as your job....it is THEIR name tag that IDs your position with THEM.
Specializes in Psych/CD/Medical/Emp Hlth/Staff ED.
My unit recently had a long discussion about this and I am still on the fence. I'm all for some way of recognizing achievements, and I understand stating a person's level of education and credentials when authoring a study or making a high level practice recommendation, but on a name tag it makes it appear to the general public like we didn't feel the title "RN" was sufficient and that we therefore had to supplement it with other, more "impressive" credentials.
Specializes in burn ICU, SICU, ER, Trauma Rapid Response.
I am a ICU & ER nurse at a large Magnet certified, trauma center / teaching hospital. I have a BSN and these certifications - CCRN, CEN. CRNI. We are allowed to put anything we want on our ID badges. Here is what I have on my badge:
My Name RN
That tells everybody everything they need to know about me.
:lol2:
meandragonbrett
2,438 Posts
Who cares if you have BSN on your name tag. BSN is a DEGREE not a CERTIFICATION (CCRN, CEN, CNOR) nor license (RN, LPN, CNA). There are bigger fish to fry in the nursing world than having "RN BSN" on your hospital ID.