Any ADN-BSN programs without ridiculous papers?

Nursing Students Online Learning

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Taking my 1st ADN-BSN class. Thinking of dropping it with only 1 week left.

1st class and already a 6 to 8 page paper. A concept analysis of 1 of the following 4 words: Caring, Hope, Trust, or Fear.

This is absolutely ridiculous. I have absolutely no idea what to say.

The structure of these programs MUST change.

I don't want to write papers every 5 weeks. I want to read a book and take a test.

Absolutely true! You finish learning any new skills or knowledge. You just develop writing skills. At the end of the class you even could read the textbook because you spent all the time in empty knowledge assignments, even nothing to do with title or content of the course. If you test someone at the end of the course any of the content of the textbook you will realize they did not learn almost anything. This is very serious. Congrats for your post.

So true!

I didn't have to do anything like this for my B.S. or MBA.

I find no educational value in writing a 6-8 page paper on a word.

The number 1 reason ADN students say they resist ADN-BSN is the papers, so I'm not alone. My spouse is in room now and read assignment and just said it's the dumbest assignment she's ever seen.

Sorry. I am in no ways trying to sound mean. But you have your MBA? My husband is 3 classes away from finishing his MBA and all the classes were ONLY papers. Just wondering.

1 Votes
Specializes in Nurse Scientist-Research.

I know this is resuscitating an old, possibly irrelevant thread, but I had new insights. When I first responded to this in 2013, I was nearly finished with my BSN and had acquired a lot of knowledge, quite a bit of it through the study and research needed to write those "useless" papers.

When I went back yesterday and saw there had been a new comment, I decided to page through the original thread. I was surprised to learn that the paper the OP was complaining about was a concept analysis. I didn't know what that was back when I initially responded. Since then, I've been taking graduate level theory courses and am quite familiar with concept analyses.

For any that go through this thread I wanted to share that while a paper on Caring, Hope, Trust or Fear seems completely stupid on the surface, it is not "just a paper". A concept analysis is a systematic process designed to help the reader (or writer) understand what that concept is and is not.

This is can be extremely important especially when you get tired of hearing people carelessly throwing common or popular terms or catch phrases around. Want to have a healthy discussion with your upper management on their new standards of "caring" that don't seem to make much sense, you'd be surprised how they may pay better attention if you can speak intelligently on what caring IS and what caring IS NOT. Just one example.

I did a concept analysis on "family centered care". What became apparent to me was that this term is used extremely loosely to incorporate most anything healthcare workers want to push in the NICU (or other settings, but I'm NICU focused). Doing that concept analysis helped me develop a laser-focused view on what family-centered care really truly is, and how this should be our main focus, but don't try to term something family-centered care when it's really consumer-centered business, I will call you out on it and cite chapter/verse (author, year, whatever).

If you want a good explanation, and have some kind of library access there is this:

Cronin, E., Ryan, F., & Coughlan, M. (2010). Concept analysis in healthcare research. International Journal of Therapy and Rehabilitation, 12(2), 62-68. DOI:10.12968/ijtr.2010.17.2.46331

1 Votes

I am curious, did you actually complete your program or not? I too was in search of a BSN program that doesn't require a paper or project every week. I do better with book, teach, and test method. I dropped out of my program with 6 classes left. Part of my problem, was that I was thinking the BSN program was going to give me increased diagnostic and intervention skills, not theory. So, my expectation was a roadblock. I agree that the program structure should change including making the readings more interesting/captivating. I could not keep my eyes open when I got to the research portion.

I hope you are still check on this site from time to time, because if you found an ideal program, please let me know.

ADNRNStudent, did you ever find a school that doesn’t require all of the lengthy papers?

Specializes in Operating Room, PACU.

Thank God! I’m not alone. I thought I was the only one that felt this way....I’m also an ADN nurse for 5+ years and have been putting off my BSN. The reason is I’m NOT a good writer at all! I am great at math and technical things. I just wasn’t cut out that way....I am going to have to bite the bullet and somehow push through it but it’s painful to me. I understand the need for it, just wish I was a better writer.

Specializes in CRNA, Finally retired.
On 3/28/2016 at 11:59 AM, TiffyRN said:

I know this is resuscitating an old, possibly irrelevant thread, but I had new insights. When I first responded to this in 2013, I was nearly finished with my BSN and had acquired a lot of knowledge, quite a bit of it through the study and research needed to write those "useless" papers.

When I went back yesterday and saw there had been a new comment, I decided to page through the original thread. I was surprised to learn that the paper the OP was complaining about was a concept analysis. I didn't know what that was back when I initially responded. Since then, I've been taking graduate level theory courses and am quite familiar with concept analyses.

For any that go through this thread I wanted to share that while a paper on Caring, Hope, Trust or Fear seems completely stupid on the surface, it is not "just a paper". A concept analysis is a systematic process designed to help the reader (or writer) understand what that concept is and is not.

This is can be extremely important especially when you get tired of hearing people carelessly throwing common or popular terms or catch phrases around. Want to have a healthy discussion with your upper management on their new standards of "caring" that don't seem to make much sense, you'd be surprised how they may pay better attention if you can speak intelligently on what caring IS and what caring IS NOT. Just one example.

I did a concept analysis on "family centered care". What became apparent to me was that this term is used extremely loosely to incorporate most anything healthcare workers want to push in the NICU (or other settings, but I'm NICU focused). Doing that concept analysis helped me develop a laser-focused view on what family-centered care really truly is, and how this should be our main focus, but don't try to term something family-centered care when it's really consumer-centered business, I will call you out on it and cite chapter/verse (author, year, whatever).

If you want a good explanation, and have some kind of library access there is this:

Cronin, E., Ryan, F., & Coughlan, M. (2010). Concept analysis in healthcare research. International Journal of Therapy and Rehabilitation, 12(2), 62-68. DOI:10.12968/ijtr.2010.17.2.46331

Agreed:) A bad writing assignment is only a perception. Almost any subject can be interesting to research, but it sounds like some of the people on this thread are only interested buying a college degree without doing the work. You can't make get excited about an education if they don't want it.

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