ADN vs BSN My daughter and I having a heated Discussion!

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My daughter has taken, with the exception of A&P I&2, her prereqs. She is taking both this summer. She will be eligible to enter the ADN program this fall. I am so excited about her getting her uniform, white shoes, stethescope, nursing care plan sheets, and clinically rotating this fall! She is contemplating going to a BSN program instead. The BSN program at the university is $455.00 per credit hr as opposed to $81.00 at the Jr college. Obviously money is an issue for us, and I do not want her to go into debt. I told her that it is best to take her NCLEX asap and not to put unnecessary time and info between that time. I also feel that she will get more nursing experience by doing it what I call the 2+1 way, which is the bridge program rather than the 3+0 way, not to mention that the hospital will probably pay for the bridged year. I do not like (4) yr colleges b/c I have never had as great an exp. at any of them as at the community colleges. I have gone to (4) diff (4) yr colleges, and (2) diff community colleges. I am currently enrolled in an ADN community college program and I love my instructors! She will be going to a different community college in a different state. I am very familiar with the community college that she will, God willin', go to this fall, b/c I graduated from there with an AS degree and she has taken all her prereqs except Micro there. We disagree every night about this decision b/c I do not feel that more general education classes will make her a better nurse, and it will cost her a year of work. She plans to meet with the (4) colleges and find out if she can enter with sophomore status. I have looked at some of the (4) yr curriculums and they are absurd. They require pathophysiology (4) cr, pharmacology (3) cr, foundations (5) cr, nutrition (3) cr, and sociology (3) cr this is a ttl of (18) cr which is inhumane, as opposed to (8) cr at the Jr college. I really feel that (18) cr is a recipe for failure. She tells me that she wants to be challenged, live on campus, she is convinced that she can have a social life while going to nursing school, and has long range plans to go to med school. I tell her lets make small successes, and then progress to bigger ones.

Edited by Nurse Ratched: exciting update to original poster's story on post #75! Congrats to daughter! :) Adding this because I don't want folks new to the thread to miss it.

https://allnurses.com/forums/showpost.php?p=1034637&postcount=75

I have to agree with you, taking extra classes doesn't necessarily make for a better nurse. Also, depending on the state, there may not be a difference in job availability, stability, and salary. I know that here in Kentucky, an ADN and BSN are both RNs, so there is no difference in the ability to perform procedures. Of course, this information is just what I have gathered through talking to various people, including my clinical instructor whom recieved her BSN online while working with her ADN. She informed me that the rest of the BSN is paperwork, although, as I said, that was her information, not mine.

Anyway, as far as more, or less, clinical, that would probably depend on the college she attends and how their curriculum is designed. I am currently in a 2 year ADN program, and we have 6 hours of clinical each week, that's roughly 114 hours in a semester and 4 semesters, so you do the math!

However, to me, what makes the best nurse is not how she can write a theory paper, or even write out a care plan, but how she can carry out her duties of caring for the patient and knowing of abnormailites to alert the doctor of, and that can come from an ADN-RN or a BSN-RN, and a lot of time an LPN, too!

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