• Skip to main content
  • Skip to footer

Incredible Health

Empowering healthcare professionals to find and do their best work.

  • Nurses
    • Get Hired
    • Career
      • Job Search Guides
      • Licensure Guides
      • For New Grads
      • Specialty Guides
      • Nursing Degree Guides
      • Resume Guide
      • Cover Letter Guide
      • Interview Questions
      • Conferences
    • Free Nursing Continuing Education Courses
    • Salaries
      • Salary Estimator
      • Highest-Paying States
      • Highest-Paying Cities
      • Highest-Paying Jobs
    • Discounts
    • Resources
      • Nurses Blog
      • Nurse Advice Q&A
      • Nurse Specialty Quiz
      • Personal Finance
      • Employer Overviews
      • Hiring Locations
  • Employers
    • Employers Blog
  • About
    • Reviews
    • Inside Incredible Health
    • Press
    • Careers
    • Contact
  • Browse Jobs
    • ER Nurse Jobs
    • ICU Nurse Jobs
    • OR Nurse Jobs
    • Labor & Delivery Nurse Jobs
    • Browse All Jobs
  • Sign In
  • Sign Up

How to Display Your Nursing Credentials

WRITTEN BY Journi Gillette
DATE

Aug 30 2022


CATEGORIES Nursing Careers

If you’ve recently earned a nursing degree, you’re probably wondering how to structure your nursing credentials. You might be applying for jobs and need it for your resume or for filling out medical documents. 

The nursing profession prides itself on decorum and order. Nurses need to clean a wound before sewing stitches. The same applies for listing nursing credentials. You can’t just arrange things randomly. There’s a definite process for ordering your various titles. 

In this blog post, we will cover the format for listing credentials. 

  • In what order should I list my nursing credentials?
    • Highest degree earned
    • Licensure
    • State designations or requirements
    • National certification
    • Other recognitions 
  • When do I use my nursing credentials?
  • What if I have more than one of the same type of credential?

Keep reading to find out more! 

In what order should I list my nursing credentials? 

According to the American Nurses Credentialing Center, the industry standard for ordering your credentials is:

Highest degree earned

The reason for this order has to do with permanence. You want to put your degree first because once you’ve earned your nursing degree, it’s yours to keep.

Licensure 

Licensces come after the degree since they are likely to change throughout your nursing career. A license can expire or you can simply choose not to renew them. 

Common licensure credentials include registered nurse (RN), nurse practitioner (NP), and licensed practical nurse (LPN). 

State designations or requirements

After licensure, there are state designations and national certifications. State designations include advanced practice nurses like APRN (advanced practice registered nurse), NP (nurse practitioner), and CNS (clinical nurse specialist). 

National certification

National certifications include awards given through certifying bodies like the ANCC. These include the RN-BC (Registered Nurse-Board Certified) and FNP-BC (Family Nurse Practitioner-Board Certified). Awards and honors 

Following that are awards and honors, which include the FAAN (Fellow of the American Academy of Nursing) and FCCM (Fellow of Critical Care Medicine). 

Other recognitions 

If you have more than one type of the same nursing credential, you can list them by relevance to your current practice or the order in which you obtained them. 

When do I use my nursing credentials?

This alphabet soup of credentials doesn’t need to come out all the time. There are specific instances that warrant the use of credentials. 

It’s essential to put your credentials on any legal or medical documents that you sign. This would include medical charts, prescriptions, and patient records. 

Another critical time to use your credentials is when you’re writing for a nursing journal. This is crucial because it shows you’re a subject expert. 

What if I have more than one of the same type of credential?

Some nurses have many of the same credentials. To sort this out and not get lost in the weeds, you need to put the highest education degree first. For example, Larry David, Ph.D., MSN. 

If your degree happens to be in another relevant field,  it may be in your best interest to list it. If you are in executive leadership as a nurse, and have a relevant second degree that’s more advanced than your nursing degree, list it first. 

For instance, you have a Master’s of Science in Organizational Leadership (MSOL). You would list that first over a BSN. As such, your credential list would look like: Mary Sullivan, MSOL, BSN, RN. 

Next steps

If you just graduated from a nursing program and are ready to start your career, Incredible Health is here to help. All you need to do is sign up and we will work hard to get you hired.

Written by Journi Gillette

Journi is dedicated to helping businesses amplify their voice and place within their markets, and has years of experience providing value to intended audiences through content writing.

Read more from Journi

Footer

NURSES

  • Browse jobs
  • Discounts
  • Free nursing CEUs
  • Interview questions
  • Job search guides
  • New nurse graduates
  • Nurse advice Q&A
  • Nurse specialty quiz
  • Nurses blog
  • Nursing degree guides
  • Personal finance
  • Resume guide
  • Salaries

BROWSE JOBS

  • Atlanta
  • Baltimore
  • Boston
  • Dallas
  • Fort Worth
  • Los Angeles
  • Miami
  • New York
  • Philadelphia
  • Richmond
  • San Francisco
  • Seattle
  • Washington, DC
  • See all

EMPLOYERS

  • Why Incredible Health
  • How it works
  • Employers blog
  • Pricing
  • Free consultation

COMPANY

  • About
  • Inside Incredible Health
  • Reviews
  • Press
  • Careers
  • Contact & support
[email protected]
​+1 888 410 1479
San Francisco
California

 

Download on the App Store
Get it on Google Play

  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • Twitter
  • Terms
  • Privacy

Copyright © 2023 · Incredible Health