BSN vs ADN curriculum What's going on?

Nurses New Nurse

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I am very curious as to how different the BSN program is from an ADN program. In my state (Illinois) we have to take this exam called the HESI test and get a certain probability in order to sit for state boards. I was in a room with around 30 BSN students from various universites around the city, at least 8 of the BSN students failed the exam (how can that be?) I felt so sorry for them they went to school 3 years longer than I did and had to retake the exam. by the way I did the LPN Bridge to RN program but nearly all of my classmates who were not LPNs passed the same test. Can anyone help me make sense of this? :confused:

Specializes in CIC, CVICU, MSICU, NeuroICU.

I think that BSN has other courses beside nursing

I'm not sure though

The only differences I can find are:

1. About 60 credits of general education classes for BSN not required for ADN.

2. A management class for BSN not required for ADN.

Therefore, I think both programs have the same chance of turning out good nurses. If anything, the ADNs have more focus on developing clinical skills, but I'm in a second degree program, so who knows.

Originally posted by NurseByChoice

The only differences I can find are:

1. About 60 credits of general education classes for BSN not required for ADN.

2. A management class for BSN not required for ADN.

Therefore, I think both programs have the same chance of turning out good nurses. If anything, the ADNs have more focus on developing clinical skills, but I'm in a second degree program, so who knows.

You have it right. There have already been way too many ADN vs BSN arguments. Both have their strengths. But I have compared my ADN program to a well known local BSN program. I had more hours of nursing clinical and my courses covered the same material as the BSN classes did. The BSN program had 2 more credit hours in nursing management and 55 more credit hours in foreign languages, social sciences, and phys ed.

Personally, I think the track that has the most nursing ed is the ADN to BSN track. I've looked at those programs and when you combine the ADN and the bridge programs, you get a lot more nursing education than a BSN alone.

Most states publish NCLEX pass rates by accredited schools. CHeck your BON website- could be interesting to see which programs have higher pass rates.

Specializes in ER, PACU.

Around these parts, the BSN programs have added clinical hours that equal or exceed the nearby ADN programs, so the theory that the ADN is better prepared clinically (at least around here) just isnt true anymore. The local community college has a great program that has a high pass rate, then there is my school that had the highest pass rate last year and the year before, and then there is another BSN program that has a pretty low pass rate. Many of them failed the boards. As far as why 8 people failed the exam? Who knows! They could be bad test takers, could have not studied, ect. I doubt it has anything to do with the LPN's passing, because many times LPN's fail the RN boards. I have taken both and they are not the same. Passing level questions on the LPN boards are not passing on the RN boards, as well as both tests having a different focus. Its also difficult for an LPN to pass the RN boards because they have been out in the field and have real life experience, which is actually a minus when trying to think like the the NCLEX. I had a real difficult time answering questions about delegating to the LPN because I was a lot more independant in real life than the NCLEX says an LPN is. There were 3 LPN's in my RN class, and one of them failed.

Specializes in Oncology/Haemetology/HIV.

Actually there were only 33 credit hours between ADN and BSN in my course.

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