Why do Nurse's wear there degree on there name badges?

[Medic_Kev]

I have never had anyone give me a straight answear to this question, Why do nurses wear there degree on the badge uniforms? I see few other people in the hospital setting that do it except for nurses, why is this? Is it an ego thing? I would understand if you were qualified for various postions ie RN, EMT-P, RRT, but the whole concept of wearing your degree seems to have a I'm better than you attitude. Personnally myself being a military man I find the postion you hold carries more clout than your degree. I have seen ADN's as Supervisors and MSN's doing floor work. Does the degree vs the certification(CEN,CCN) make a difference? As a pre- hospital care worker when I go in the ER or up to a floor the only thing I ever notice is that the higher the degree the less likely that person is to assist you, not always but more often than not this is the case. I would welcome any feed back on this. Thanks Kev

[hotflashion, BSN, RN]

My point was this...why is it not okay (according to upper management at my facility) to put my first and last name on the board if my pt is a prisoner, but its okay to do it with other patients? And I'm not really concerned about patients, more about their visitors because we have adopted a 24/7 anyone and everyone visitation policy that has brought some questionable people out of the woodwork and into my workplace.

I'm being paranoid because of my past and that will never change, sorry 'bout it!

P.S. I treat all of my patients with respect, despite whether I tell them my real name or that I'm Patsy Cline. If they ask, and I'm comfortable, I will tell them and it won't affect the care I give them (sorry, no research to support that, just personal experience).

I should have said I was sorry that you'd been stalked, had to go through what must've been a terrifying experience. Were you stalked by someone with whom you had contact as a nurse?

Maybe your hospital shouldn't have a board; mine doesn't. It sounds like it's visible to the public? If it is, it shouldn't be.

I've had bad experiences too, but. I almost always find hope in hearing about other people's experiences, because it helps me to understand the wider world and not just my (possibly unfortunate) corner of it. Research also does this, for me, anyway. After I wrote that response I did some looking around for research on stalking and health care professionals, because if I am ever (please, please, please) employed as a nurse, I will be annoyed if my employer requires that I leave my last name off my badge unless they can give me some hard facts about how risky it is.

I wasn't saying that you, specifically, were paranoid. Maybe you are; and maybe there's good reason to be. For me that "good reason" must be larger than the experience of one or two or three people. And for me, it's still important to be who I am in public.

[BabyLady, BSN, RN]

I do NOT agree with removing the last name from name badges, period.

At our hospital, when taking care of a prisoner, you hand your badge to the guard outside the door before you go in...so they don't know your first or last name.

As far as everyone else, if we are going to call ourselves licensed professionals, then we need to act like licensed professionals.

You don't see physicians hiding their hame...and they make decisions that kill people.

You don't see lawyers hiding their name...and a bad case can send someone to prison.

You don't see police officers hiding their name...because the law states you have the right to know their name.

You don't see judges hiding their name....can you imagine how many enemies they have?

What what makes US think that we are special????? Just because most of us are women.

Sorry, but you aren't going to find research to back it up that would support hiding your name.

The public has the right to know who is treating them...and to do anything less than full transparency, is just flat-out paranoia that is 100% unjustified.

And before someone makes the claim, "Oh, well, we have to leave at night".....so what...so does a lot of other professions. If you get "attacked" in a parking lot it probably has more to do with the fact that it's what can happen to women in dark parking lots rather than having your last name on your badge.

[traveler85]

For me it is a matter of pride, not arrogance. I worked darn hard for that degree, and to be able to put it on my tag is like wearing my badge of honor. Also, since I look pretty young for my age (I'm 24 and once had a patient ask me if I was old enough to be giving him his medication), it allows my patients to see that I have been through the schooling, and yes, am old enough, to give them good care.

[ItsTheDude]

it's an ego thing, a nurse is a nurse (diploma, adn, bsn). not many people outside of nursing or health care have a clue what an adn or bsn is, but they might know what a rn is, heck many people don't know there's a difference between a lpn and rn.

[RN-ing, BSN, MSN, NP]

I do NOT agree with removing the last name from name badges, period.

At our hospital, when taking care of a prisoner, you hand your badge to the guard outside the door before you go in...so they don't know your first or last name.

As far as everyone else, if we are going to call ourselves licensed professionals, then we need to act like licensed professionals.

You don't see physicians hiding their hame...and they make decisions that kill people.

You don't see lawyers hiding their name...and a bad case can send someone to prison.

You don't see police officers hiding their name...because the law states you have the right to know their name.

You don't see judges hiding their name....can you imagine how many enemies they have?

What what makes US think that we are special????? Just because most of us are women.

Sorry, but you aren't going to find research to back it up that would support hiding your name.

The public has the right to know who is treating them...and to do anything less than full transparency, is just flat-out paranoia that is 100% unjustified.

And before someone makes the claim, "Oh, well, we have to leave at night".....so what...so does a lot of other professions. If you get "attacked" in a parking lot it probably has more to do with the fact that it's what can happen to women in dark parking lots rather than having your last name on your badge.

I think any research on that topic would be quite unethical!

[RN-ing, BSN, MSN, NP]

I should have said I was sorry that you'd been stalked, had to go through what must've been a terrifying experience. Were you stalked by someone with whom you had contact as a nurse?

Maybe your hospital shouldn't have a board; mine doesn't. It sounds like it's visible to the public? If it is, it shouldn't be.

I've had bad experiences too, but. I almost always find hope in hearing about other people's experiences, because it helps me to understand the wider world and not just my (possibly unfortunate) corner of it. Research also does this, for me, anyway. After I wrote that response I did some looking around for research on stalking and health care professionals, because if I am ever (please, please, please) employed as a nurse, I will be annoyed if my employer requires that I leave my last name off my badge unless they can give me some hard facts about how risky it is.

I wasn't saying that you, specifically, were paranoid. Maybe you are; and maybe there's good reason to be. For me that "good reason" must be larger than the experience of one or two or three people. And for me, it's still important to be who I am in public.

I was not stalked as a nurse, I was much younger and it was very scary. I admit I am paranoid. There has been an incident recently at work where a nurse was been threatened by family members, and this kind of thing happens every now and then (different families respond differently to stress!). I just think it was bad timing for our hospital to initiate this new "policy".

I feel I must reiterate that my profesionalism as a nurse is in no way affected by whether or not I give my last name.

Thanks for writing back...

[hotflashion, BSN, RN]

I think any research on that topic would be quite unethical!

I'm not sure what topic you mean. There is research on stalking, quite a lot of it. The US Department of Justice is very interested in stalking: http://www.ovw.usdoj.gov/aboutstalking.htm

It's harder to find information about stalking of healthcare professionals; there's some, but I'm looking for more. I'm going to take this discussion to a more appropriate thread.

[kanzi monkey]

it's an ego thing, a nurse is a nurse (diploma, adn, bsn). not many people outside of nursing or health care have a clue what an adn or bsn is, but they might know what a rn is, heck many people don't know there's a difference between a lpn and rn.

I'm a new NP. My dad keeps congratulating me on becoming an LPN

It's what you do that matters, not the letters.

And yeah, my dad knows what I do :)

[murphyle, BSN, RN]

Our hospital's ID badges always used to have full names up until very recently. If you were a licensed professional, your badge also carried a "professional stripe" (a wide blue oblong with white text identifying your role: RN, PA, PT/OT, RPh, etc). Physician badges differed by having a red professional stripe, while anyone in L&D got a pink professional stripe indicating that they were security-cleared for handling infants. Degrees are not and have never been listed on staff badges. In recent years, due to security concerns, they changed the staff badges to the common first name, last initial format, while physicians kept the full name.

Interestingly, our EC has now started issuing physician badges that look just like ours: first name, last initial, blue professional stripe reading "DR". (You'll notice it does NOT say MD or DO.) You guessed it, it's for security. Scuttlebutt has it that all physician badges will soon follow.

[RN-ing, BSN, MSN, NP]

I'm not sure what topic you mean. There is research on stalking, quite a lot of it. The US Department of Justice is very interested in stalking: http://www.ovw.usdoj.gov/aboutstalking.htm

It's harder to find information about stalking of healthcare professionals; there's some, but I'm looking for more. I'm going to take this discussion to a more appropriate thread.

Thanks for the link! I am interested in finding out more since it is such a hot topic at my workplace.

[HeartsOpenWide, RN]

I would be courious to know who is more likely to argue against having the degree next to the name...the ASN nurse or the BSN nurse?

[Emile]

I would be courious to know who is more likely to argue against having the degree next to the name...the ASN nurse or the BSN nurse?

Most likely the ASN because they are more likely to feel insecure about not having BSN next to their name. Well I say if you feel so bad about it go and seek a BSN, can't be that hard with all these online RN-BSN programs.