Accelerated BSN/MSN Grads - Jobs?

Published

I'm curious about the jobs that grads coming out of accelerated BSN/MSN programs are finding.

Do the positions meet your expectation of what you imagined you'd do when you started the program? Are you able to make loan payments based on the salaries you're being offered? Are you forced to relocate? And, is it easy to get hired with an MSN without years of experience as an RN?

Many thanks!

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Family Nurse Practitioner.

I have worked in psych with several new grads with their MSN. I know one recruiter that said she won't hire them because they won't stay long and she isn't interested in training them for free. I have worked with one that I thought was sharp but sadly the others were woefully unprepared skills wise and over zealous with the delegation part. From what I have heard they were making the same as other new grads in the mid 20s per hour. Personally I have felt the BSN new grads were comparable and we didn't expect as much from them because they weren't supposed to be Masters at anything yet. Much of the resistance imo comes from the concern that the advanced degree is a not so subtle way of climbing the corporate ladder past actual patient care without putting in any time learning what nursing is really about.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in burn ICU, SICU, ER, Trauma Rapid Response.

When the direct entry masters was new there was a lot of excitment at my hospital to hire them. It was thought that they would not run away to CRNA school like the accelerated BSN students so often did.

After hiring about 7 direct entry MSN grads I can tell you that the excitment has cooled considerably. Our experience was they were much less well prepared clinicaly than the ADN/BSN grads we usually hire. They also seemed to have entitlement attitudes. A couple even complained that the very experienced and CCRN certified ICU nurses assinged to be their preceptors were "only" ADNs and thus not really appropiate to be precepting brand new MSN grads.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Family Nurse Practitioner.
They also seemed to have entitlement attitudes. A couple even complained that the very experienced and CCRN certified ICU nurses assinged to be their preceptors were "only" ADNs and thus not really appropiate to be precepting brand new MSN grads.

I have felt this way also and I guess it must be something the schools are promoting, perhaps to justify a large portion of those programs that are actually BSN level courses being billed at MSN prices. :rolleyes:

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Critical Care, Education.

I am hearing the same thing from our hiring managers. They are gun-shy about 'accelerated' programs in general because of the lack of clinical preparation and professional 'socialization' Let's face it, it takes a certain amount of exposure to actually become enculturated into nursing - to establish a sense of belonging and an identify with our 'tribe'. The fact that they don't respect the prestige associated with specialty certification (e.g., CCRN) seems to indicate a lack of understanding of nursing culture. Grads from accelerated programs are coming across as "too high maintenance" by managers that are dumbfounded by their sense of entitlement despite a woeful lack of basic skills.

Up Vote Up Vote ×

Hi, thanks so much for this interesting feedback.

I'd be really curious for accelerated BSN and/or MSN grad feedback, too, if anyone reads this and is inclined to share. I wonder about how these issues such as the cultural clash (for lack of a better term) and the level of training and sense of hands-on confidence are perceived by grads who are finding their bearings in initial jobs. All of this is certainly something that I think is hard to have a sense of before entry to the field as a prospective accelerated student, but seems very significant and integral to what it means professionally (i.e., not just academically) to be a nurse.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Family Nurse Practitioner.

If you can get the moderators to move this to the general section of the forum you would get more answers. :)

Up Vote Up Vote ×

Good idea, thanks! Can this be moved, moderators? Thank you again.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in CVICU, CCU, SICU, MICU.

Kinda old thread, but figured I'd weight in. I'm a newly graduated ADN, taking NCLEX in 3 weeks. My preceptor told me that the MSN students she sees are clueless clinically- drawing up insulin with a heparin syringe, no clue how to prime IV tubing, hang piggybacks, do a dressing change, mix Solumedrol or anitbx that have to be mixed, etc.

As far as the entitlement, I've known a few people who went into these programs simply because it was a faster route with the end result of a higher degree, not because they wanted to "bypass" bedside nursing or fast-track into administration. However, I do think that this changes during the MSN program and that sense of entitlement develops there.

I'm sure there are some wonderful people who come out of these programs (like anywhere) but the overall impression of these grads isn't the greatest, from what I've been told.

Up Vote Up Vote ×

All of the input has given me so much to think about.

Thank you so much for the reply, and all best wishes for the NCLEX, jelly221.

Up Vote Up Vote ×

Hi, I stumbled upon this thread as I had the same curiosity as well, and I want to give out my experience in school with them as a traditional pre-licensure BSN student.

I just began my BSN (traditional "normal" track and will be my very first Bachelor's degree) at my univeristy this week, and so far I love it, enjoying my classes and friends :) all the hard work to get in nursing school has extremely paid off and more rewarding is that I have my friends with me to support each other too! There are only 21 of us BSN folks but the class is a total of 70... and guess who the rest are: you got it, generic MSN folks. We're sharing classes with them as BSNers because they go through the same route we go through, but they don't stop with a BSN, they must also pass the NCLEX and go back to finish with a masters, I don't think they are allowed to work as an RN after licensure as well since the terminal degree is an MSN, and these guys are supposed to be more academically prepared I should say? With GRE scores, letters of recs, goal statements, etc... They all have their BSNs in other diverse fields which is great because I got to talk to some of them and about their course of studies. However, I've experienced some high maintainence attitudes among some of my classes with them, which pushes me back with the other BSN students, and as what my instructor says, "fake it till ya make it" so I just pretended to agree and nod my head. I guess the only experience that I can offer at the table is my LVN/LPN schooling prior to my BSN program now, compared to the MSN students I'm with who are coming from diverse backgrounds and more experienced maybe?

The reason that I want to tag myself with this thread is that I am interested with the job opportunities out there once I'm done and that I would be competing with these MSN grads as a BSN grad, how would my job prospect look like, especially being here in the San Francisco Bay Area. I already face the horrors of new grads being hired and now with accelerated BSN/MSN grads? Wow.

Up Vote Up Vote ×

Also, I agree with Jules A

If this thread can be moved to its proper area, then I think you'll get more replies. I found this thread by doing my searching on this topic.

Any admins please move this. And if it has already been moved, thank you very much :)

Up Vote Up Vote ×
+ Join the Discussion