Student Nurse or Nursing Student

[realkreativ]

At my school one teacher likes our nursing students to go by "nursing students," another says that we are "student nurses."

A great deal of this question is semantics of course, but enquiring minds want to know: Which is more correct and is there any history behind it?

[JJRN09]

i am not really sure what the "proper" term is but at my school we sign our nurses notes at clinical with our name and the initials sn for student nurse.

[lainith]

My instructors refer to us as Student Nurses. I think it's more a matter of preference than anything else.

[realkreativ]

The teacher that wants us to use "Nursing Student" is adamantly opposed to Student Nurse...That's why I ask.

[hikernurse]

Nursing Student sounds more professional than Student Nurse (medical students v. student doctors); that said, I personally prefer Student Nurse and that's how I referred to myself when I was one :).

[SummerGarden, BSN, MSN, RN]

check out your state's bon. as odd as this sounds, some state bons protects this title as well. in my state we must use student nurse when signing legal documents or while working in the clinical setting. we can call ourselves nursing students in general but that is not to be used when being formal. just as rns must sign rn and have the designation when working in the role, but can state casually that he/she is a nurse without being specific as to what kind of nurse, though the title nurse is protected as well.

[groovy jeff, RN]

My instructors call me knucklehead!

[beth66335, BSN, RN]

The teacher that wants us to use "Nursing Student" is adamantly opposed to Student Nurse...That's why I ask.

I always introduce myself to my pt as their student nurse (some of the older ones stop listening when the hear the "nurse" part, so I put it at the end to make sure they know who I am), but when I talk to people about school I always say I am a nursing student at.... we sign our med sheets during med admin as "Beth_____ ,RSSN "( Roane State Student Nurse)

[corbinRN]

I choose to sign my name with ,SN behind it, but in the electronic medical chart system at the hospital, my name is signed automatically with ,NS behind it.

But I just think that Student Nurse sounds better.

[JaxiaKiley]

Hmm ... I really use both of them, but I do sign things SN.

[JBudd, MSN]

If you go by the grammar of it, student nurse: adjective student, noun nurse. You aren't actually a nurse yet, so the noun is wrong. Nursing student: adjective nursing, noun student. You are most definitely a student, the adjective describes what you are studying.

To a patient, not likely much difference, after all, you are in there doing nursing functions with an instructor hovering in the background somewhere if not in the room with you.

As a mind set, its a reminder to you that you aren't a nurse yet. Some of my students have needed that little extra "curb" or reminder, most don't. They sign "SN" after their name, "__CCSN".

[realkreativ]

Thank you, this has been really helpful. I will look at our Board of Nursing and see what they say about it...