The Complexity of Nursing Credentials and How to Present Yourself.

Abstract

We have had multiple occasions to notice the array of credentials that nurse faculty and clinicians use to display their accomplishments. Despite clear, comprehensive details presented by the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC, 2013) and other professional organizations, confusion abounds in both the academic and practice communities.Nurses may use six types of credentials after their names: degree, licensure, state designation/requirement, national certification, awards/honors, and other miscellaneous certifications by credentialing agencies. In addition, a range of academic credentials can be used. These include the relatively new Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) and the now retired (at least by most individuals and all schools) DrNP. We also now have a number of EdD programs that are focused on nursing education, in contrast to the EdD programs many nurses attended in the past (other than the Teachers College, Columbia University program). As an aside, it is worth pointing out that the DNP is the wrong title for the professional doctorate in nursing. No other discipline has practice in the degree title, even those that are comparable professional disciplines, such as pharmacy, with the PharmD degree, physical therapy, with the DPT, and, of course, medicine (MD) and dentistry (DDS).Some individuals list all their academic degrees, from the baccalaureate through the doctorate. With today's emphasis on lifelong learning and the likelihood that nurses will have more and more degrees, it is worth asking if we need to list BSN, MSN, and PhD, when all are in nursing. What does one do if the academic degree is in another discipline? For example, it has become customary to list degrees such as MBA (Masters of Business Administration) or MPA (Masters of Public Administration), especially among those who are in management and leadership positions.Some nurses list their credentials in the order in which they were obtained. For example, a nurse who received a diploma in nursing and then obtained a higher degree may want to list the RN credential first.Questions have also been raised about whether to list honorary doctorates. For the individual who has one or two honorary degrees, it may be reasonable to list them. After all, they represent recognition of one's stature in the scholarly community. But if an individual has five or more honorary degrees, as some distinguished nurse leaders do, perhaps listing a few is sufficient.Clinical credentials are even more confusing because they are influenced by both state licensing requirements (which, of course, differ by state) and national certifying bodies. The only credentials that nurses must use for practice are those required by the states in which they practice. For example, what difference is there between an ACNPC, credentialed by the American Association of Critical Care Nurses, and the ACNP-BC, credentialed by the ANCC? …