Nurses – How to Display Your Credentials
It can be confusing how to list credentials after your name and it can also be confusing for those interpreting the name and credentials. That is why the American Nurses Association (ANA), has ensured a standard way to list credentials so that everyone can understand the significance of these credentials. Nurse.org (2017) provided an article on “How to Display you Nursing Credentials” and uses the following example:
- Start with education
- Directly after a name the highest degree should be listed, these stay throughout your professional life; if you have earned a non-nursing degree that is usually not listed unless it is directly related to your nursing job/career. This for most people, is Bachelor’s Degree of Science in Nursing (BSN) or Master’s Degree in Nursing (MSN)
- Licensure
- Next to highest degree earned, should come the licensure. An example is Registered Nurse (RN) or Nurse Practitioner (NP)
- Specialty
- Lastly, comes any nursing specialties for which an accredited certification was received an example can include Critical Care Registered Nurse (CCRN)
A final note, nursing credentials should be separated with a comma from your name and from each other and do not include any periods.
(Nurse.org, 2017)
To see a complete list of common nursing certifications see https://nurse.org/articles/nursing-certifications-credentials-list/
Nurse.org (2017). How to display your nursing credentials. Retrieved from https://nurse.org/articles/displaying-your-nursing-credentials/