[SmilingBluEyes]

It's generally considered that a person is a true professional who has a university degree or higher-----I don't support that notion myself, but this is widely held. And you will find your university professors telling you this---literally drilling it into your head. I think professionalism encompasses a lot more than what degree is held by an individual.

But this has all been done here before. If you really want serious discussion and help, do a search of the site under:

ADN versus BSN

or something on that order-----you will find plenty of things to read; likely you don't have to the time it will take to get through it all.

[weirdRN]

Wow gwenith,
That is amazing. So you say that even though the profession has gone to a single entry point, At the Bachelor's Degree level, Nurse still are daily disrespected in general by the larger healthcare community?

[Tweety]

Originally Posted by clee1

WTG, stepping right into the koolaid with your first post.

A batchelor's degree does NOT make a person a professional. Professionalism does. You would do well to keep that little fact in mind.

There is no universally accepted definition of a "profession". You're describing professional nursing in terms of their behavior, i.e. professional behavior and practice.

Others define is as a self-governing and regulating, automomous practice, requires training and practice, blah blah blah with a BSN.

Rather than tout your definition as fact, you should consider that other's don't hold to that view.

You're right Marla, this thread is doomed. LOL

[weirdRN]

And while we are at it...

What is the image of nursing today? Who are we? What do we look like? Where are we found? How can I discern another of my sisters or brothers?

[gwenith]

Originally Posted by Krismperez

Wow gwenith,
That is amazing. So you say that even though the profession has gone to a single entry point, At the Bachelor's Degree level, Nurse still are daily disrespected in general by the larger healthcare community?

No merely disempowered

[caroladybelle]

Places that require a BSN, correct me if I am wrong, include Canada, Australia and the Phillipines.

And exactly how much better are they treated because they are all "professionals"?

[PANurseRN1]

Look at how much having a BSN has helped nurses in the Phillipines; they're stampeding to get into the US, leaving the Phillipines with a serious nursing shortage of their own.

I don't think that anyone disputes that having a BSN is a good thing, but to say that diploma/ADNs are dragging down the profession...sorry, that's a very naive sort of statement that sounds suspiciously like something parroted by a student who believes everything her professors say. The real world is quite different.

[clee1]

Originally Posted by Tweety

There is no universally accepted definition of a "profession". You're describing professional nursing in terms of their behavior, i.e. professional behavior and practice.

Others define is as a self-governing and regulating, automomous practice, requires training and practice, blah blah blah with a BSN.

Rather than tout your definition as fact, you should consider that other's don't hold to that view.

You're right Marla, this thread is doomed. LOL

Points taken and stipulated, Tweety. It's just the "the whole problem with nursing is that not everyone is a BSN" point-of-view that grates on my nerves. The BSN is relatively "new" in the world of nursing; what in the world did we all do for nurses BEFORE the education industry took over the training of health "professionals"????

I view it simply as this: nursing is an art as well as a science. Not all the college coursework in art history, style, etc. in the world will make an "artist" of someone - neither will all the nursing "education" in the world make someone a competent nurse.

[wildcat81]

I have my Bachelor's degree. I spent four years out of my life in college achieving it. It's not saying that one is more professional than another but it's preparing you for going to get a Master's or nurse practioner. It is more school and cultural based. I actually feel the Adn programs get more hands on experience in their training--whereas the BSN programs work on research, community nursing, and teaching. I've been a nurse for 25 years and the only job that I actually got paid more for having my bsn was in home care, but that since has changed.
Would I get my bsn all over again? That depends on what I want as my final career position. I am not one to want to climb the ladder but they want master's in nurse managers at my hospital so that is something to think about. If I was single and had the money and time, I'd say go for it. There really is no regret.

[grannynurse FNP student]

Actually the push to make the BSN the only entry level, for RN's, started back in the middle 60s when I first started in my diploma program. It was defined by the ANA and has been pushed ever since. Associate degree programs came into the picture in the late 50s, as an answer to a preceived coming shortage and a belief that nurses could be 'trained' in two years. Is having to take the History of Nursing and living in the time period just grand And I use the word trained because that is what most of us two and three year programs, we were not educated. BSN graduates were educated because of the requirements of their program. Also, the ANA recommended that all two year graduates be grandfathered in as professional nurses. The term technical was to be reserved for all future nurses after a given date. And they would be encouraged to go for their BSN.

With PT, OT and others requiring a MS, a push is presently on to make the only entry level the MSN. It would require a five year course of study. And it is not as impossible as some would think. I worked with students obtaining only their MSN, back in the early 70's.

Grannynurse