What should your title look like?

[moonshadeau]

So why do so RN's put their degree first instead of RN? Are we not all RN's first and foremost, regardless of what degree from ADN to PhD we earn? Does the patient care that a nurse at the bedside has a specific degree?

There has been ONE document written by Mary C. Smolenski on how to write our nursing license and credentials. This one article has become the prime source of evidence for all nursing. It states that nurses nurses should sign their name:

Jane Doe, BSN, RN

I say that we should all put our degree first to be:

Jane Doe, RN, BSN.

What do you all think? Should we let academia and non-clinicians dictate how we sign our name?

:

[nerdtonurse?, BSN, RN]

*snort*

Just having a mental image of someone with a cascade of ID tags to hold all their certifications...

Mine would look like:

nerdtonurse? BA, BA, MS, HPUX CSA, HPUX CSE High Availability, MCSE, LPN

If I manage to make it all the way before I go stark ravin' crazy, there will be a ADN/BSN/MSN Nurse practitioner to add to it...

Yup, my ID will say "continued on back...."

[moonshadeau, ADN, BSN, MSN, RN, APN, NP, CNS]

I have heard the arguement that "you can never take away the nursing degree". In actuality, an educational insitution can revoke your degree, mostly on the basis of fraud (it is rare, but has happened and is documented). You can google it to see...

But I ask this... if you RN license is taken away and all you have left is a BSN, MSN, DNP or whatever degree in nursing- what are you really going to do that is going to matter, because you certainly won't be doing nursing.

When you go to the patient's bedside, do you not say "I am a nurse" regardless of what degree that you have. Do you not get the family phone calls asking your thoughts about their latest ailment - calling you the nurse, not the ADN, BSN, but the nurse.

Why do we continue to splinter ourselves on educational preparation and speciality areas, when in reality we all nurses and what power we would have to identify ourselves as such. I am a nurse first and foremost is how I have framed my entire nursing practice from ADN to APN, and I will always be a nurse.

There is no consensus on how we should designate ourselves on paper. While there are probably more pressing issues in health care and in the world today, if we don't have an opinion or are vocal about this; I can tell you it will be decided for you.

[ToxicShock]

I don't care what order it goes in: as soon as I get my degree, I'm writing "RN" on EVERYTHING! Expect a ToxicShockRN in the next (million) years!

[NurseKatie08, MSN]

But following this logic, what good is the academic degree if you do not hold the RN license? You certainly wouldn't be signing your name with MSN if you were not an RN. Can't think of any instance where this would be appropriate.

I don't recall stating that I would sign my name with BSN or MSN if I were not an RN. I was just making a comment that I'd heard somewhere that it goes degree, then license (if you feel the need to list alphabet soup), and if you read the thread, another poster states that it is APA format to list degrees & then licenses.

While I am proud of earning my BSN, I see no reason to sign BSN, RN in the workplace...all that matters to my patients is that I am their nurse. If they are interested in how I got there, they will ask. Outside of the workplace, I simply sign my legal name, with no RN (except a few occasions by accident, lol)

[moonshadeau, ADN, BSN, MSN, RN, APN, NP, CNS]

I don't recall stating that I would sign my name with BSN or MSN if I were not an RN. I was just making a comment that I'd heard somewhere that it goes degree, then license (if you feel the need to list alphabet soup), and if you read the thread, another poster states that it is APA format to list degrees & then licenses.

While I am proud of earning my BSN, I see no reason to sign BSN, RN in the workplace...all that matters to my patients is that I am their nurse. If they are interested in how I got there, they will ask. Outside of the workplace, I simply sign my legal name, with no RN (except a few occasions by accident, lol)

I was simply pointing out a common counterpoint- it was not an attack you or any particular comment that was made by any of the posts.

I don't think the question is how you sign your name outside of work. It is how you sign at work, when writing a journal article, when presenting yourself professionally. In my personal life, I never sign my name as a nurse.

[Otessa, BSN, RN]

I've always had my name badge with RN only-no BSN. I do send e-mails (I work with administration now) and my signature is "Jane Doe RN, BSN". My name tag states 'registered nurse'. I am working on my MSN and will only be changing my e-mail signature-not my name badge.

otessa

[llg, PhD, RN]

It doesn't make sense for every discipline to make up its own rules about the proper protocol about these things. That would create a confusing mess. So, most disciplines follow the standard protocols that have been in place for centuries -- placing the highest academic degree first, followed by any licenses or official certifications of note, followed by "honors."

For nursing to follow this standard protocol, it places us as equals among those of other disciplines as colleagues of equal standing. The purpose of listing credentials is to inform other people what our qualifications are. If we don't follow the standard conventions, it makes us look as we are not really "members of the same club" with legitimate credentials that are as valid as anyone else's. Either that or it makes us look as if we are ignorant of the proper way to list our credentials, i.e. too stupid to know the right way to do it.

I prefer to list mine the proper way so that people in other disciplines recognize my credentials as being equal to theirs.

llg, PhD, RN