ASN to BSN Blah blah blah

[Tommy5677]

I received my ASN in 1980 and to be honest, it's never been something I've loved and oftentimes hated. I recently read an article that said something like a goal of 80% BSN by 2020. So does that mean abolishing the ASN/ADN programs? If they don't abolish the ASN, does that mean there will be no BSN's at the bedside? Will you have to have a BSN to work a specialty unit? Instead of incorporating the ASN into the mix there seems to be a need to want to punish us. It's always been a sort of an us and them situation but I think it's even worse now. Will the ASN go the way of the dodo (diploma)?

I recently left a position as a disease management/health coach working with diabetes and heart disease. I loved that job (one of the very few) but left it to move to the East Coast with my partner who was transferred. I've been jobless for a year and here's the dilemma. Every ad I read on Indeed.com and other job sites, says BSN required and the ASN's have virtually been relegated to the bedside. This makes no sense when you consider another recent article I read reports that BSN's make fewer med errors (baaaaloney). I don't know where that research came from or who expects me to swallow it but I can assure you it ain't happening'. Anyway, I have submitted resumes for which I qualify and have 11 years experience (disease management/health coach), and I don't even get a "thanks for your interest".

I will be 60 this year and as far as I'm concerned, too old for the bedside gigs. There are back issues and I'm just not going to go there. I want to consider myself retired but then there's the money factor that keeps creeping in. I'm even thinking about taking a job where my license isn't required with a willingness to accept the accompanying pay cut. I don't want to do any of the jobs they say are good for a retiree, like home health because I've done HH before (7 years) and while I loved that (the only other gig I loved), it's stressful on it's own and I'm just not interested.

Going back to school for a BSN at this age doesn't feel like a good option to me and frankly, I'm not interested in doing that. The impression I get now is that BSN nurses feel they are above the bedside. Do they even teach the fundamentals of nursing in the BSN programs? What does that look like? I remember TPR's, bed making, IV's, labs, the nursing process and how to write a care plan, etc., etc. That class alone was 7 semester hours.

What are your thoughts and opinions on BSN as the only entry level into practice? Abolish the ASN/ADN programs? Rationale.

[elkpark]

Thanks for at least acknowledging my concern. As for better outcomes I would need to see the research from multiple entities independent of any school of nursing. If a nursing Dept at a university did the research it's biased and invalid.

Umm, nearly all nursing research, regardless of topic, gets done by researchers who are affiliated with a university nursing program. That's who does most nursing research, and that's who has the institutional support necessary, including funding and IRBs, to get big, meaningful research studies done. There is never going to be any research on this topic "from multiple entities independent of any school of nursing," because that's just not a practical notion (and how convenient for you that that then allows you to completely discount and disregard any research on the topic that does get done). Feel free to design and implement your own study, though -- maybe you can prove all the others wrong ...

[Tommy5677]

Idn't though? It's the same thing I apply to drug companies. You know, if a drug company does the research on it's own drug and it's all positive and roses, it's immediately invalid. So whatever you say. If you're a nursing dept doing research on this topic, you're automatically going into it with a bias in an effort to make those with the BSN look like the only nurses who are worth a sh*t. It's their attempt at justifying it as the only entry level into practice. Oh look, yup, it's gospel because we said so. You better believe I'm going to render it invalid. It isn't my problem that nobody besides university level schools of nursing are willing to take this on. Just because they're the only ones doing it doesn't make it so. So, in your BSN program is that what they teach in your research classes? If ADN and diploma nurses pale in comparison to the BSN in terms of patient outcomes, why do either of them still exist because essentially it's saying that ADNs and diploma nurses put patients at risk? Please.

[Tommy5677]

I get that but none of those extras are on the test and to me that is the bottom line. If BSNs want to be first in line then give them a separate test that includes all the extras they learned. Don't make me take the same test and then tell me I'm less than. And no, I do not think I'm better.