"Just" a 2-year degree

Nurses General Nursing

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Stopped at local pharmacy to pick up prescription. Asked pharm tech how her daughter was (she's a traveling nurse); she said great, we briefly discussed how she's deciding between staying and moving on, compensations etc. I said that I heard that travelers out her way made some really good money.....and the pharm tech said "well, you guys here make really good money with just a two year degree." JUST. Said in such a way as to make me think she equated my educational experience with a humanities major. Hey: poetry, history, nursing, all the same stuff, right?

I said you'd be hard-pressed to find someone who finishes an RN program in only 2 years nowadays. She shrugged, said her daughter "blew through" it (ten years ago or so). She didn't want to hear that things have changed a TAD since then.

Sigh. I think I'll take up basket-weaving. Appears I'm qualified.

Specializes in Critical Care, Pediatrics, Geriatrics.

I will be very proud of "JUST" having a two year degree in December. People can't bring you down if you don't let them!!!!

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Specializes in 5 yrs OR, ASU Pre-Op 2 yr. ER.
There is one. A BSN. But besides that, if you think about it, ASN programs could be considered three year programs if you count the pre-reqs...you can not get into nursing without them....and they are college courses that count to-wards a degree...

My point is that you can keep adding a year onto a degree and it still wouldn't be enough to some people.

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Specializes in Ante-Intra-Postpartum, Post Gyne.
My point is that you can keep adding a year onto a degree and it still wouldn't be enough to some people.

This reminds me of the whole issue going around that mid-level practitioners will have to get their Phd....:madface:

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And then that'll "just" be a three-year degree to some people. And so on.

Oh, agreed. But at least it wouldn't be confused with the Associates "I didn't know what I wanted to do when I finished college so I took Sonnets and Creative Writing for two years" degree. At least a NURSING Associates degree would have a bit of a distinction from the liberal arts ones. I can dream, lol.

My first A.S. I could have slept through and still gotten the degree. Actually, I think I DID that for some of the courses.

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Specializes in Med-Surg.
It's one of the hardest two year degrees you can get. I'm up to my eyeballs!!!

My prerequisites were easier.

Actually nursing is considered to be the most difficult undergraduate degree to obtain in this country.

It took me 2 years full time and 5 years part time to complete my ASN. I had a 4.00 the entire time, I did not repeat any classes and I took no semesters off during that time.

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Specializes in ORTHOPAEDICS-CERTIFIED SINCE 89.

https://allnurses.com/forums/f8/have-questions-about-adn-bsn-read-180528.html

let me direct you to this sticky here. the degree discussion occurs here with a new thread nearly every week. read back over some of them. believe me you are not "just" a 2 year nurse. you are a nurse!! period.

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Just ignore it. Does not matter anyway. This is something that it has taken me many many years to learn (and I am still learning). Who cares what she thinks as long as you are happy!

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Specializes in ORTHOPAEDICS-CERTIFIED SINCE 89.

BTW I have a bachelors obtained after I started Nursing and before I finished Nursing (not in Nursing), but it took me a total of 11 years to get my ADN. A LOT harder than the BA.

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Specializes in Ante-Intra-Postpartum, Post Gyne.
Actually nursing is considered to be the most difficult undergraduate degree to obtain in this country.

.

One of my instructors who has her PhD said that getting her BSN was the hardest thing she ever did. Harder than her masters, and harder than her doctorate...she said during both, because getting her BSN was so hard, she kept asking "so when does this get hard?"

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Thanks, P_RN :) I wasn't trying to raise an ADN vs BSN debate (how many of THOSE are here???); that's a useless discourse. I was just remarking how the impression of the general public differed from the reality of the requirements (and hey, she's a pharmacy staffer, not EXACTLY gp, I thought).

I'd never wage war on "which is better" or anything remotely like that. I guess I was just wishing out loud that a degree as hard-earned as one that leads to an RN should be respected for the education it requires. That it NOT be lumped together with some of the EASY to get, frivolous degrees. There ARE frivolous degrees, for anyone who wants to argue that any Associates equals an education, etc etc. Like I said earlier, I can't even REMEMBER some of the classes I not only took, but passed with B's for merely appearing Live, In Person for my first A.S..

And yes, I sure as h*ll KNOW I'm a nurse :)

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Specializes in Medical/Surgical/Maternal and Child.

JUST A 2 YEAR DEGREE??? Gadzooks those were two of the hardest years of my life and NCLEX wasn't a piece of cake either and I passed on the first try. Nurses regardless of their degrees earn that "RN" with blood sweat and lots of tears...:nurse:

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I was complaining about my MSN class the other day to my husband. It is a lot of "busy work". He said "I bet the classes for your BS degree were harder." I told him actually the courses for my ADN were the hardest. It is so difficult to get into that nursing mindset. It makes or breaks you. My daughter is actually attending a 2 year nursing program now. It really is two years. She is taking A/P, English, Psych, and Nursing 101 all at the same time. She is extremely busy. I tried to get her to take the prereq's first, but this is what she wanted to do. So far, so good. She's doing well. I would never call any nursing program easy Rn, LPN, 2 yr, 3 yr, 4 yr. They are all tough. We do earn pretty good money, but remember most people couldn't and wouldn't do our job for 2 or more times what we make.

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