NURSE SPECIALIST: AM I ALLOWED TO CALL MYSELF THIS AS A NURSE??
From 2020, there will be a new job title in Germany Nursing Specialist or. Nursing specialist (neutral: nursing specialist) – however who may carry this occupation designation and who must?
They usually wear the small name tag on their chest with pride in the hospital: Health and medical nurse, Health and pediatric nurse or Specialist health care worker and nurse. Many also still decorates the job title Nurse or. nurse.
What do all these nursing job titles have in common??
Correct, no matter what is written on it, patients maintain in old tradition usually the address nurse or caregiver. But in this case it is about the following aspect: the right to carry this job title was awarded at different times and certifies to have mastered an extremely demanding education.
Scientist, journalist, pedagogue or insurance agent can be called anyone who wants to. However, anyone who calls himself a health care worker, nurse or even geriatric nurse without being able to prove a corresponding degree in the form of a professional certificate, is not liable to prosecution, but commits a misdemeanor. This is due to the fact that in Germany, some job titles are protected by law and others are not.
As a nurse / pediatric nurse, may I call myself a nurse specialist??
The once won degrees are legally protected job titles. The question is now: "may one call himself nursing specialist or nursing specialist and carry this occupational title also on the sign, even if on the examination certificate nurse / nurse or health and nurse resp. Health-. nurse stands?"
Note: We have in the meantime (04.03.2021) contradictory statements regarding the interpretation of the relevant passages in the PflBG before! It is to be pointed out therefore at this point expressly that there are readings, after which "expressly only persons may carry the occupation designation Pflegefachfrau / Pflegefachmann, if they completed the appropriate new generalistsiche AUsbildung."We are currently trying to clarify the following information.
The answer is: Yes, you can actually do that!
Who until 2004 Training degree as a nurse or nurse or. to the pediatric nurse or to the Pediatric nurse may actually call themselves nursing specialists from 2020 onwards.
Who from 2004 or. 2007 a Graduation as a health and nursing professional or. to the health and child nurse or to the health and child nurse has made, may likewise starting from 2020 care specialist and/or. Nursing specialist call.
Likewise nurses with a Graduation as geriatric nurse or. to the geriatric nurse call themselves nurse or nursing specialist.
Statutory regulation for the occupational title of nurse specialist
From 2020, geriatric care, health and nursing care, and health and children's nursing care will be combined in the new profession of nursing specialist. Instead of different training courses, there should henceforth be a so-called generalist nursing education give. The first degrees in nursing will be awarded in 2023.
In this transitional phase, 2 paragraphs of the law on nursing professions regulate that with other degrees in nursing, the new professional title of nursing specialist may also be worn
Nursing Professions Act (Pflegeberufegesetz – PflBG) § 1 Use of the professional title
(1) Anyone wishing to use the professional title of "nursing specialist" requires permission to do so. Persons with training in accordance with Part 3 use the professional title "nursing specialist" with the academic degree.
(2) The certificate for the permit pursuant to subsection (1) shall contain, in addition to the professional title pursuant to subsection (1), a reference to the in-depth assignment carried out pursuant to § 7 subsection (4) sentence 1.
Nursing Professions Act (Pflegeberufegesetz – PflBG) § 64 Continued validity of the professional title
A permit to use the professional title under the Nursing Act as amended on 31. December 2019 in the version applicable on 31 December 2019 or under the Nursing Care for the Elderly Act in the version applicable on 31. The version in force on December 2019 shall remain unaffected by this Act. It is also valid as a permit according to § 1 paragraph 1 sentence 1. The provisions relating to the permit pursuant to Section 1 (1) sentence 1 shall apply mutatis mutandis.
Questions
Do I have to apply to the health department or elsewhere to carry the professional title of nursing specialist if I have learned an older equivalent profession in care?
No, this is actually not necessary.
Is there the professional title of certified nursing specialist?
Often the term "certified" is prefixed to the title of a nurse. This is actually superfluous. In any case, only nurses who have obtained a state-recognized degree defined according to certain rules are allowed to use the professional titles mentioned at the beginning of this article. The term examiniert is however today often still used as a demarcation term, if a difference between a Pflegefachkraft and a Pflegehilfskraft is to be clarified. The same also applies to the new professional qualification of nursing specialist.
Your opinion as a nursing professional
What degree in nursing did you do, what job title do you personally find most appropriate, and what does your tag say?? Tell us in the comments.
Note: this article is explicitly not legal advice.
Hello, I am a pediatric nurse and I am proud of it and I want everyone to read it. In our company, everyone is now supposed to use the title "nursing specialist. May that be decided simply in such a way. If I don't comply, it will cause problems?
thank you very much for your message.
We can understand it well that one would like to have a profession, behind which one stands with body and soul, also in the form outwardly communicated. Precisely because you can also show others: "look here, you – or in this case your children, your most important, are resp. are in good hands!"
For this reason we can absolutely not understand that not at least once an employee survey is made, in order to find out: "Is the occupation designation perhaps something, which our coworkers understand as absolutely identity-forming and important?."Who decided at that time, I would like to become a child nurse, did not know at that time yet that this specialization is to disappear perhaps times in another designation.
Now we ask you briefly to note that we are not allowed to give legal advice and do not do so.
According to our understanding – and last status (this is already some months ago and there may have been new laws, regulations or adjustments since then), people with old professional degrees are free to choose to be called nurse specialist. On the other hand, however, it is at least problematic to force people to give up the privilege of carrying the old professional degree. After all, this right was granted at the time to be able to call oneself a nurse or a pediatric nurse.
If you were to take up the discrimination argument, you could just as easily use it in the other direction: What can people do about it if they previously took a degree that was changed at some point by an amendment? The occupation designation transports evenly also in this case a time component, which states: I made a conclusion under such and such conditions.
There are certainly in the organizational reasons that make a standardization of job titles seem advantageous, at least from the point of view of one or the other, but in the end it should be about what the job title stands for. And in everyday life, it is meant to let the other person know who they are dealing with. So it's all about communication, understanding, classification and expectations.
Whether the employer is actually allowed to force people to wear the new designation of nursing specialist would, if applicable, possibly even have to result from several laws, which might make the matter complicated. Unfortunately, this is where our expertise ends, also because we cannot do constant monitoring in all the affected specialties.
In case of doubt, you should definitely contact the representatives of the employees' interests, works council, etc., if you do not want to go along with this decision.
It could be more problematic if you are in the right, but you are alone in this. Then you are sometimes seen as rebellious, renitent, arrogant or "not team-oriented". Therefore it would always be wise to look for allies in spirit. Also always argue on the basis of facts.