wouldn't it be easier

Nurses General Nursing

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Wouldn't it be eaiser for nurses if there were not different degrees in the nursing feild. With all this LPN not able to find hospital jobs, and employers wanting BSNs, and RN thinking that working in nursing homes is beneith them. Anyways everyone basically seems to get their BSNs to be competitive anyways. LPNs are told to get their RN and RN getting their BSNs I feel wouldn't it make sence to just have all nurses get the same education and be on the same playing feild. If everyone just had to get the education of a BSN to be a nurse it would make things so much easier.

Specializes in Critical Care.

I meant to add to that last post that this is great pitfall of the argument that we should just shut down all the ADN programs. Our clinical opportunities are already too geographically concentrated, which unfortunately means Nurses in BSN programs are more likely to have to get doubled/tripled up with their RN's, which means a less interactive experience, a more passive experience.

If you consider how folks like Benner think we should be transforming Nursing education, we need more clinical flexibility, not less, and wedging even more students into already over-saturated clinical 'markets' could harm Nursing education, not improve it.

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Specializes in Family Nurse Practitioner.

I understand the argument that furthering your education can be expensive. Anything worth doing in life though will not come easy. As I stated previously I graduated from an ADN program then completed a RN to BSN program. If it could be done over I would have completed the BSN only. Most students are completing more than 2 years of work for that ADN degree. Why waste all of that time to finish with a 2 year degree? No matter how many times you tell people how long it really took.....you still have a 2 year degree. The money argument could be posed another way. Going straight to the BSN saves time and money rather than initially paying for 2+ years and then returning to school. Just knock out the 4 years and be finished;)

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Not everyone who gets a BSN is drowning in student loan debt. I saved money in preparation for nursing school. I worked while going to nursing school. I attended a public university vs. an expensive private. I graduated with zero debt.

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So take out student loans, if in fact you have the sterling credit needed to obtain them. Be in tremendous amounts of debt, or go the state college route and be put on a sometimes years long waiting list for clinicals, and in the end of it all, take the exact same boards as ADN's or even hospital diploma nurses, as there are still hospital diploma programs.

At the end of it all, you essentially have 6 months to find a job, as then the payments start becoming due. And lets just say that you have $25K per year in student loan debt. That is $100k or $1000 a month for a really, really long time. I am not sure how one is to live on what is left of a paycheck. Oh, and lets hope if you go the state university route the waiting list for clinicals is not longer than 6 months or what you have is student loan debt that becomes due, and just your core classes completed.

If facilities want BSN's then they should put the time and money into making that even a remote reality for most people in this day and age. Because at the end of the day, you all take the exact same boards. You all have the exact same clinical education coming out. And if you are obtaining a BSN to go straight into managment, it is difficult to manage when you have little to no experience as to what your employees are practicing. And theory is good in theory and evidence based practice is what it is--per facility and policy--but who is going to be left to do bedside care?

Even my LPN course involved a study in leadership, and clinicals designed to teach LPN's leadership. Along with months and months of general clinicals. In numerous settings. Every patient assigned to you in clinicals had to have a hand written care plan, and a study in relevent nursing theory and evidence based practice. So even though LPN's may not be able to practice it, we all learned it and if you did not, then you were in fact, asked to leave. So LPN's have a place in many areas of nursing.

But this is a thread pertaining to ADN's and BSN's education and roles. I agree with the pp's who said that until there's an entirely different NCLEX for BSN's, it is all the same when an RN is based on an exam.

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Not everyone who gets a BSN is drowning in student loan debt. I saved money in preparation for nursing school. I worked while going to nursing school. I attended a public university vs. an expensive private. I graduated with zero debt.

In my area at this time, the average wait time in a non-private university to begin a nursing program is 3-4 years. And that is if you do extremely well on your general ed requirement classes. So perhaps it is conceivable to save money in that waiting time to graduate debt free. But what is it that one is to do in the time that it takes to get into the program?

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Specializes in Med-Surg, NICU.

And believe it or not, but the waiting list for the ADN programs in my areas have the three year waiting list because they are cheaper. Most BSN programs here have no wait list here. Either you get in or you don't.

So take out student loans, if in fact you have the sterling credit needed to obtain them. Be in tremendous amounts of debt, or go the state college route and be put on a sometimes years long waiting list for clinicals, and in the end of it all, take the exact same boards as ADN's or even hospital diploma nurses, as there are still hospital diploma programs.

At the end of it all, you essentially have 6 months to find a job, as then the payments start becoming due. And lets just say that you have $25K per year in student loan debt. That is $100k or $1000 a month for a really, really long time. I am not sure how one is to live on what is left of a paycheck. Oh, and lets hope if you go the state university route the waiting list for clinicals is not longer than 6 months or what you have is student loan debt that becomes due, and just your core classes completed.

If facilities want BSN's then they should put the time and money into making that even a remote reality for most people in this day and age. Because at the end of the day, you all take the exact same boards. You all have the exact same clinical education coming out. And if you are obtaining a BSN to go straight into managment, it is difficult to manage when you have little to no experience as to what your employees are practicing. And theory is good in theory and evidence based practice is what it is--per facility and policy--but who is going to be left to do bedside care?

Even my LPN course involved a study in leadership, and clinicals designed to teach LPN's leadership. Along with months and months of general clinicals. In numerous settings. Every patient assigned to you in clinicals had to have a hand written care plan, and a study in relevent nursing theory and evidence based practice. So even though LPN's may not be able to practice it, we all learned it and if you did not, then you were in fact, asked to leave. So LPN's have a place in many areas of nursing.

But this is a thread pertaining to ADN's and BSN's education and roles. I agree with the pp's who said that until there's an entirely different NCLEX for BSN's, it is all the same when an RN is based on an exam.

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Specializes in Med-Surg, NICU.

And I only know of one person who will be even close to six figure debt, but 50k of that is from a previous degree!

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Specializes in LTC, Psych, M/S.

Employers can "prefer" the BSN right now simply because of the volume of applicants they are getting. When the economy improves nurses will start leaving and the BSN preferential will fade away.

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In my area at this time, the average wait time in a non-private university to begin a nursing program is 3-4 years. And that is if you do extremely well on your general ed requirement classes. So perhaps it is conceivable to save money in that waiting time to graduate debt free. But what is it that one is to do in the time that it takes to get into the program?

There was no waiting list to get in my BSN program. You either were accepted or not. It was competitive; minimum GPA to get accepted was a 3.8 GPA. There was absolutely no waiting list for clinicals.

I worked full time in another career while saving for nursing school.

I think 25K per year is excessive student loan debt at a state university. If you've saved and you are working while you attend school, you should be able to whittle down the amount borrowed. There also are options for financial aid and scholarships. Depending on the school, there is a lot of merit aid for students who are coming straight from high school who did well in school and on the ACT or SAT. If it's not a second degree, there is financial aid out there. A friend got a grant from her church system. There are other scholarships and grants that one can utilize that most people don't know about and don't apply for. You just have to do your homework, research it, and do a lot of due diligence.

Given the salary of a nurse, I don't think I would go to school for that if borrowing $100K was the only way to get there.

As far as hospitals backing off their BSN only requirements, that remains to be seen. I wouldn't count on it.

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Specializes in Medical Surgical.

I am glad that I was able to get my ASN with no loans at all. I would rather be a ASN nurse with zero debt then a BSN nurse with triple digit debt. I'll go get a BSN if my employers decide to pay for it, otherwise, no.

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Specializes in Geriatrics, Dialysis.
And I only know of one person who will be even close to six figure debt, but 50k of that is from a previous degree!

There is one 4 year school in my area with a nursing program, average bachelor degree cost is $85 - 90 thousand. Too darn close to 6 figures in student loan debt for me!

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Specializes in Geriatrics, Dialysis.

As far as hospitals backing off their BSN only requirements, that remains to be seen. I wouldn't count on it.

It already happened at the hospital system where I live. Of the 2 health care systems in my area one never did require BSN for all positions, the other did for a while but no longer does. I believe the reason is there is only one extremely expensive BSN program in my area [see my above post] and four reasonably priced ADN programs so there is a high ratio of ADN to BSN nurses around here.

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