Beginning Nursing Question

To be succinct: You will be doing the same jobs as an RN with a bachelor of science degree as you would as an RN with an associate of science degree or a hospital-based diploma. The key is the RN.

Going the vocational route leads to an LVN which has some additional limits, depending on the locale.

An RN has a college degree, whether it's a 2 year associates degree from a community college or a 4 year bachelor's degree from a university.

As far as the different between a 2 year and a 4 year degree, if you do a search on this site on ADN vs BSN, you will find TONS of threads discussing and debating this topic. There is even a subforum dedicated to it: http://allnurses.com/registered-nurses-diploma/

Long story short, it all depends on your personal career goals, your financial and social situations, your areas job market, etc. The pay between the two is usually the same, maybe a $1 per hour or so different. Some nurses have 2 year associates degrees and never had problems finding a job, make the same money as a BSN, and don't have as many student loans to pay off. However, some areas (like mine) will not hire a new grad without a BSN, and prefer experienced nurses with BSNs. With a BSN, you have more educational opportunities open to you, such as going to to get your master's degree to be a nurse practioner for example.

Someone with a BSN can go on directly for their MSN and so on to nurse practitioner if they wanted. Someone with an RN would need to take more classes to first get their BSN then MSN. Although, they play the same role in patient care and medication administeration and paperwork in the hospital setting. Also a BSN can have managerial positions in the hospital. I believe there can also be pay differences, with the BSN making more.
This website had a lot of info: http://www.medicalandnursing-trainin...and-a-bsn.html

Not necessarily... there are still plenty of diploma grads around and a few diploma programs still running.

Yes, but it's highly unlikely that he or his friends are involved with a diploma program from the sounds of his post, and he asked about a 2 yearr vs 4 year, so I didn't mention it. I had originally wrote that statement about having to have a college degree because when he said his friends were graduating from a vocational school, I thought he meant a vocational high school that has a healthcare concentration.

Also, keep in mind that your first 2 years in college will be all the core stuff...history, english, religion (in some schools), art, etc. Your last 2 years will be nursing courses and such.

An ADN and BSN will both earn you an RN...

Associate degree or bachelor degree ...both take the same nursing boards and both result in RN after your name.

Here in Minnesota BSN nurses can obtain certification as a Public Health Nurse and Public School Nurse, ADN's cannot. I don't know about other states. This does open other doors of opportunity for a BSN nurse and also many of the job ads I see either prefer or require BSN.