[Tweety]

Originally Posted by suzy253

That is so not true. Four of my fellow grads work in ICU--straight from graduation in a diploma program; 2 work in the ER. Several work in trauma hospital; a well known woman and infant's hospital, etc. etc. And believe me, we are all very much prepared for equipment and procedures. In fact, I have students working with me know from 'degree programs' and it's very very sad and almost frightening how much they don't know this far along in their education.

One can always find persons from another degree that are "frightening". We hear it all the time "I work with BSN nurses who are horrible nurses, and know only how to push paper", "ADN nurses don't get enough clinical experiences compared to diploma nurses are far inferior nurses", "Diploma nurses are task oriented, they know how to add postassium to an IV but it takes a BSN to know why"...............doesn't mean much to me when I hear that argument.

Also, notice that llg clarified that she was talking about what is going on locally and perhaps the op might take it into consideration, she wasn't generalizing that all diploma teaching hospitals were like this.

[llg]

Originally Posted by shrinkyrn

Not sure where you got your information. My diploma education prepared me to function in ANY hospital. I've never been sorry that I attended a diploma program. In fact I did not work at the hospital I attended for nursing school after I graduated and neither did most of my class of 30 +++ We went to other facilities to get the experiences we needed to get a superior clinical education!!!!

As I said in my original posts, my information comes directly from faculty members and from the program director herself ! Those are pretty reliable sources of information.

Perhaps that wasn't true where you live. But it IS true where I live -- and students entering the program deserve to know that going in.

As Tweety said -- and I totally agree -- there are good programs and bad programs at every level. No one type of program (ADN, Diploma, or BSN) has a monopoly on producing good nurses, or bad ones. Every school and every circumstance must be evaluated individually.

In my earlier post, I went out of my way more than once to say that the quality of education provided by the 2 schools that I mentioned was excellent. It's just that they both had a bias that needs to be openly acknowledged so that prospective students can assess their local situation for themselves.

Anyone who can't imagine that there could possibly be a problem in any type of eduational program is being pretty closed-minded. My entry-level degree was a BSN. But that doesn't lead me to conclude that every BSN program is just like the one I graduated from. I readily acknowledge that SOME BSN programs are not very good ... just as some ADN programs are not very good ... and some Diploma programs are not very good. And even programs that are generally good ones can have a few problems like that one I brought into this discussion. We all need to open-minded about all types of programs.

[iluvmynavyman]

if cali had a diaploma program like they do on the east coast i would do it because you get more hands on experience

[abri]

I am a diploma grad from the late '60s when the 3 yr programs were changing over to AD programs. As one of the other posts mentioned, it depends on the school. (I'm biased as I too attended a religious supported nursing program.) I did stay at my hospital for 2 yrs before moving on and since then, have worked in other states and have not had any problems w/ adapting.
I returned to college seven years ago and all 35 credits from my first year of college which was part of the three year program back then were accepted as part of the BA program. I graduated w/ my BA in social science, and a formal minor in business administration through a distance degree program from a state college(WSU, Pullman, WA). I declined to take the BSN program that was introduced a year later, as I would have had to repeat microbiology due to a D my first semester in 1966, take a micro lab as I did not have that, take stats and then I could buy my junior year of credits because of my RN license (about $400 fee) and then take my senior year of required classes. I was enjoying taking the classes that I wanted as I was choosing classes that related to nursing, i.e child development, child abuse, domestic violence, family crisis, gerontology, and other women studies classes. I wrote many essays using nursing as my subjects. I have worked as a hospital supervisor for the past 20 years and as a result of my degree, I was hired as an assistant unit manager of our ED.
Congratulations for choosing a career that provides opportunities for a variety of areas to work in, allows you to travel and work, with a good income, too.