BSN does not mean better... Sometimes education is overrated!

Nursing Students ADN/BSN

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okay so here's my point.

i have been reading several things on here about "i have my bsn so therefore i should make more money..blah, blah, blah" frankly i am sick of hearing it. let me give you a little background on me before i finish what i started.

i started out as an stna (cna) about 8 years ago. then i went and got my lpn. now i am getting my adn and i will graduate in may 2008. once i get my adn i am planning on going back and getting my bsn.

now let me say that i have met many bsn nurses who could not even figure out how to empty a foley drainage bag. they deemed that as "aide work". they also thought that they were better than us, and that we should bow down to them. also, i have met many bsn nurses who were so knowledgeable about everything and were excellent nurses. bedside manner was fantastic.

in general..i have met good nurses and bad nurses. that includes lpn's, bsn's and adn's. just because you have more education does not mean that you are better and should be paid more. honestly, bsn is a choice. it is a choice that i want to make. why would an employer pay a bsn all this money when they could pay an adn or a diploma rn less money for the same job? therefore...around the same pay for both. i just get sick and tired of people saying...i am better than you because i went to school for one year longer or two years or whatever. education is very important .....but its not everything when it comes to this debate. i met this master's degree nurse and she was sooooo stupid. i couldn't believe that she managed to get her degree. i knew this lpn who was smarter than any nurse i have ever met....rn's included. and vice versa.

my point: what makes a good nurse is personality, common sense and what you do with the knowledge that you possess.:balloons:

I just have a quick comment...

It seems as though alot of times we dicuss the ADN who has "been around the block" and therefore is more mature and has life experience. The issue that I wonder about and have experienced is the ADN that was 17 right out of HS and got thier ADN and now are working on the floor as a 19 yo RN. This SCARES me...at 19 there is NO WAY i was ready to take on the responsibility to be an RN. I think there may be a few exceptions to the rule but i dont know many 19 yo's that are ready for that. I would not trust my health or that of my child in the hands of a 19 yo whether they were educated or not.

I experienced a group of 19 and 20 yo New Grads that came to ME when I was still a student and were asking me questions about med calculations and other things. It made me really nervous.

What do you all thing of the BSN in this capacity?(just out of curiosity)

You know, I would respond to that, but Tweety would hurt me again...

...and I'm such a delicate thing.

Just look at my avatar...don't I LOOK innocent? (okay...forget the pitchfork...but LOOK at those EYES!)

And...I did the LPN to ADN to BSN to MSN to post-MSN certificate and boy do I wish that I had just gone straight to the BSN! Would have saved me a lot of time and effort.

Yeah, but look at all those cute letters you've got of a name now! :D

I too would have gone the BSN route - If I had been directly out of high school. I did go that route for a Social Work degree right out of high school.

I, for one, am pathetically happy that there ARE so many ways into the nursing profession. I spent many years straight out of high school working to support myself and my daughter (no mother in the picture). I spent many more years (part-time) attaining a degree in English Literature. Then more years working. NOW, I have the time to pursue a second career (so-to-speak) but DO NOT want to sit through four (or more) years of school to get my BSN. I'm happy that I can do an 11-month accelerated LPN program, then a one year RN bridge program. Do I want a BSN?

Nope.

I always enjoy reading the hierarchy of nursing forums. When I started my pre-reqs 6 years ago (one class at a time) when my youngest was 9 months old, I was so excited about going for my LPN. I know some of you are reading this saying "Well you do realize that your are at the bottom of the food chain". Well at the time I started LPN's were still in the hospitals and were tentatively going to be faded out. Well as time went on and money was short, I fulfilled my dream of becoming a nurse (LPN), we'll what used to be considered a nurse. Now from reading all of these forums I've come to the conclusion that alot of nurses tend to not be very nice and forget that not all of us had or have the opportunity to get our Bachelors or Masters, but are content with the fact that we went to school to help people. No I am not a RN, nor to I claim to be one, but I do have something to contribute to the healthcare field. I do believe in each tier there should be a pay difference, considering cost and knowledge, but to think that just because you have more letters behind your letter that you are better than me (LPN), you're not. Instead of having that mentality why don't RN's let LPN's assist and you mentor us instead of constantly belittling us. As for anyone who has a higher degree of education, I think it is wonderful and you deserve it for the sacrifices you made or didn't make, but for me the bottom of the food chain LPN, it just isn't presently in the cards and hasn't been in the past, so I will continue to be proud of my accomplishments and you be proud of yours (BSN, MSN).

:yeah::yeah::yeah::yeah::yeah:

Specializes in OB, M/S, HH, Medical Imaging RN.

I would like to get my BSN (I'm 51 y/o) not to make more money but to fufilll a personal goal. Who knows I may continue onto NP after BSN!

After all as my favorite saying goes:

After all as my favorite saying goes:

My Dad taught me my favorite say; therefore it is not safe to print here. :D

Specializes in Onc/Hem, School/Community.
I think every nursing student should be required to work as an aid for a semester, or over the summer before nursing school starts. I've worked as an aid for 3 years and just graduated Friday with my ADN. Aids always say that you can tell the RNs who were aids from the ones who weren't because the ones who WEREN'T will take 5 minutes to find you to tell you your pt needs to get on the bedpan..the ones who WERE will just PUT THEM ON THE BEDPAN:) Seriously, I swear that I will never do that. I know that as an RN I will not always have the time to do stuff the aid can do, but I also see those tasks as giving me extra time to evaluate my pt. As far as education...in my area BSNs do not make any more $ than ADNs. My thinking is this; for someone just out of HS, they're young, probably not a lot of life experience...the BSN classes will make them a well-rounded nurse. For someone my age, who's been around the block a couple times...lol....I don't think it's as necessary. Not for a pt care position, anyway.

I agree with you. I have been a CNA for six years and am currently working on my BSN. So far, wherever I have done clinicals, the aides ask me if I was ever an aide. When I ask why, they tell me, "Because you're one of the few students that will help us move and change patients." I think that is sad.

Specializes in Onc/Hem, School/Community.
I'm just a lowly LPN and I know that.

I don't think one can ever be "too educated." One can, however, be too stuck up.

[bANANA]Well said![/bANANA]

llg.

You are so right. Debating doesn't make it better for our profession.

It is all in the personality and work ethic of the nurse.

If she truly cares about her patients she will do whatever it takes to help them, sometimes it means doing it yourself and at other times, you need the aid or the LPN because you are tied up with thingd the RN cannot delegate to someone else.

I love being a nurse and showing my patients how they are all important. I am not a youngster but I am young in the world of nursing,,,an RN nurse for almost 5 years and have decided to go fro my BSN>MSN now and then teach nursing while doing perhaps some hospice nursing and school nursing,

Let's move on and talk about getting more males and females interested in nursing!

What are doing to promote nursing? :idea:

;-))

nursememom;)

Specializes in OB, NP, Nurse Educator.

In my experience education is like seniority - it is only overated to those who do not have it. :D

Specializes in SRNA.

I'm in a BSN program, and the attitude of the faculty is that we're getting a more well rounded education with the research, community health, and leadership/management curriculum that's included. So, there definitely is an attitude of superiority of the BSN here where I live.

In the hospital, I have never heard a BSN say they were better than an ADN. Nor have I heard my classmates make comments like this.

Personally, I choose my program because both the ADN and BSN program here are 4 semesters long once you've completed nearly identical prerequisites (which take ~2 years to complete), so I figured I could take a few extra core classes and get a 4 year degree in 4 years. I know it's different in other areas, but here both an ADN and a BSN is 4 years of schooling minimum. I've worked with great RNs - ADN, BSN, and diploma graduates alike!

hi everyone..

this is well known debate that eveyone gets tired because there are so many nurses out there..dipolma, ADN, BSN grads that everyone takes this argument personally...anyways..my point is that if the health care profession wants to take nurses as seriously ...professionals..as opposed to "angels that care"..we need the education to back it up...the reason..why diploma nurses and ADN graduates cont to work as nurses..is because the demand is huge....so thats why non BSN graduates cont to get hired..even in big teaching hospitals..if youlook at other professions...Teachers...require masters degrees..physical therapists..are soon requiring doctorates...this has nothing to do with the competency of diploma or ADN nurses........I'm actually an ADN nurse....who went back to school as a second career...because the demand is high..I knew that I didnt need a BSN to get a RN job

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