AAS vs Bachlors

Bicster · Sep 16, 2008

use the search button on the top right. there are 10,000 threads about this and a whole forum dedicated to it.

MB37 · Sep 16, 2008

Both degrees provide the education necessary to take the NCLEX-RN upon graduation and become a registered nurse. To the lay pubic, an associates (ADN, ASN, AS, AA) is typically thought of as a "two year degree" and is generally received from a community or technical college. It takes most people more than two years to earn one in nursing however, since the two year (in my area it's 4 semesters with summers off - this may vary) nursing curriculum is preceded by at least a year of full-time prerequisites. Admission to a community college in general, at least everywhere I've lived, only requires a high school diploma or GED. Admission to the nursing program may be competitive based on grades/scores/interview, or it may be by lottery or wait list once minimum standards are met.

A BSN is a bachelor's of science in nursing. This is your typical "four year degree" provided by a college or university. Assuming you knew you wanted to be a nurse before you graduated high school and got into all the right classes each semester, it is possible to finish in four years - however, this takes many people five due to the large number of prerequisites required by both the nursing programs and universities. There are other ways to earn a BSN as well. Nurses with an associates can return to school to earn one, often part-time while they work full-time at a hospital. I have a non-nursing bachelor's degree so I went to an "accelerated second degree" program that allowed me to complete only the nursing portion at an intense pace over fifteen months.

Both programs prepare graduates to take the NCLEX-RN. We all take (sometimes under different names) Fundamentals, Med-Surg (often multiple semesters), Pediatrics, Psychology, and Women's Health/OB. The differences between ADN and BSN programs in my area are that we (BSN) grads took a 4 credit pharmacology and 3 credit pathophysiology course - locally that material is "integrated" into the med-surg curriculum at the community colleges. We have a separate class devoted to physical exams/assessments. We take a couse on nursing ethical issues, a course on doing nursing research, and nursing electives - some students chose to take a class focusing on HIV/AIDS for example. We also have two additional clinical courses, one in leadership and management and another in community/public health. We even had the opportunity to take the community course as a summer abroad in a 3rd world country.

After graduation, new grad ADN and BSN RNs make about the same wage - some places pay BSNs $0.50 or $1 more an hour, others don't. We do essentially the same entry level jobs in the hospital. Some hospitals are becoming "BSN-preferred," but all the ones in my area still hire ADN nurses for all departments. If you eventually may want to move into management, research, public health, or teaching, it's often necessary to have at least a bachelor's. It's also a typical starting point if one wants to earn a master's degree or PhD, although there are "RN-MSN" programs now that take ADN nurses through the BSN and MSN curriculum more quickly than taking two separate steps.

There is a whole forum here entitled "Registered Nurses: Diploma, ADN, or BSN" that you should check out, as well as look up what is offered in your area and how the specific programs at those schools differ. Find out if the hospitals in your area are "BSN-preferred," and talk to a few graduates of all local programs to see how their job hunts were. Then figure out your finances - it's cheaper for most people to attend a community college than a university, but it might not be if you're eligible for financial aid. Anyways, good luck!

Editorial Team / Admin · Sep 16, 2008

Hello, stacygirl,

I moved your thread to the Registered Nurses: Diploma, ADN or BSN? forum for a better response.

Check out the threads in this forum.