what title should they add after their names

[nursing4all]

Hey guys

I really wondering by the different titles that nurses used to put after their names especially during giving presentations

RN= Register Nurse

BSN= Bachelor of Science in Nursing

These are so popular and well known but how about other qualifications such as

BNurs, PhD, RGN, RSCN, RHV, NDN Cert, FRSH

RN, BN (ACU), MN(Hons), PhD, MRCNA, MACCCN, MACE

BTh, MCouns, PhD

Any idea about the mentions above titles

[Silverdragon102, BSN]

Plenty of threads discussing this recently have you checked them out?

This is a recent one How do you sign? - Nursing for Nurses

[Flying ICU RN]

Every now and then, just to throw people off, I'm tempted to add RN CFI, (Certified Flight Instructor).

[itsmejuli]

I'd like to use this one: RBOV

Rather Be On Vacation

[regularRN]

Sometimes I wish there were no letters after my name... actually, I really wish my name didn't appear at all... !!!

[noahsmama]

It's not clear to me if you want to know what all of those abbreviations mean, or if you're soliciting our opinions on whether people should use them or not.

If you want to know what they mean, I suggest googling them or, if they're coming up during a presentation, ask the presenter.

If you want to know whether or not we think people should use them -- personally, if I was going to put initials after my name, I would want to feel reasonably confident that my audience would know what they mean, and also that they were relevant for the presentation. So, for example, if I were giving a talk on public health nursing, I might include "PHN", as well as, or instead of, "RN". If I thought the title was relevant but wasn't confident that my audience would know what the abbreviation meant, I would spell it out, e.g. "Public Health Nurse".

Hope that answers the question.

[traumaRUs, MSN, APRN]

It depends on who you are presenting to:

1. If a group of peers, using abbreviations is fine.

2. If to a group of non-nurses, I would spell it out.

[ImThatGuy, BSN, RN]

Patients recognize the well publicized initials such as MD, DDS, RN, and CPA......had to throw that one in, lol.

I think SHI is sufficient. Sundry Healthcare Initials.

[AgentBeast, BSN, RN]

I find it acceptable to have the following after one's name. RN(License) Highest Education Obtained (ADN, BSN, MSN, DNP, Phd) + one recent or most relevant certification(CNP, CRNA, CPNP ect.) Anything more than this is just ridiculous. Although really all this alphabet soup is only really necessary when one is trying to distinguish what one says from the guy flipping burgers at the local McDonald's.

[LifelongDream]

All else fails, GOOGLE IT!!!! I googled "listing nursing credentials":yeah: and this is what I found:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_nursing_credentials

Even though it is wikipedia, it still has a wealth of information on how it's done/what the initials stand for. Hope this helps! :)

[GreyGull]

For a presentation or seminar, the person may list their highest education if it is a Bachelors degree or higher, their license and/or title and whatever professional certifications that are relevant to their topic. Included in the presentation syllabus will generally be an "About the Presenter" narrative which can spell out the meaning of the letters if appropriate. For a presentation you may also be able to take the liberty of placing several additional licenses, titles, certifications and degrees. An example would be a nursing degreed RN who also has a law degree and credentials speaking on legal aspects of nursing. Another example would be CEO as an official title followed by education and another qualifying title or license; MBA, BSN, RN.

If an RN is speaking to an audience of EMTs or Paramedic, he/she might also place their cert or title of Paramedic with their name to have some common ground with the audience. However, if the RN places a cert like the entry level EMT behind their name when they are speaking about pharmacology, it may be a distractor, regardless of the RN title, since EMTs generally do not get much medication education at the Basic level.

You would have to know your audience so that you use the appropriate listing of your certs. If you keep it too short and leave off some credentials that would further qualify or lend credibility to your presentation, a well educated audience might look at your name and think "is that all?" In an academic, scientific and/or clinically aggressive audience that could lead to the wrong impression about you. However, if you are speaking to EMTs or Paramedics, they might believe you to be pretentious since higher education is not promoted in EMS even at the instructor level. For that audience I would probably recommend only using the title RN and maybe one professsional cert like CEN or CFRN but leave off any education references. The education or too many professional certs might just be distractors unless they are something that could be related to in EMS.

Edit: I will place a disclaimer on my comments about EMS education which apply to the United States and not Canada, Australia or many of the European countries where higher education is generally required.