ADN or BSN??

guiltysins · Dec 5, 2009

*** I only know of three intensive care units that are currently refusing to hire new grads with BSNs. Two at the hospital where I work and one in a near by town.
The idea (and I don't really think it's a good one) is a result of so many of the new grad BSNs who go through the 7 month Nurse Residency program for new grads to go directly into the ICU not finishing their contracts in order to go to CRNA school.

It depends on where you live. In NYC, the only place you can work with a diploma is a nursing home, you can't even get into a hospital. They're considered lower than CNA's. So it depends on where you live. Everyone in New York is starting to prefer that you have a BSN and during the recession, a few of them said they were only hiring nurses with BSN's. Also, if the school's in your area work like the ones up here, where a 2 year degree actually takes you 2 1/2 or 3 then there's no reason not to go for the BSN.

I'm doing BSN because I figured that if I worked as an RN with an ADN for one or two years, I wouldn't want to go back, especially if I didn't HAVE to, I'd rather get it over with in one shot. Not to mention that it doesn't benefit me to graduate two years earlier because I probably still wouldn't be able to find a job. By the time I graduate, hopefully the economy will be better so it'll be easier to find a job. The pay is almost the same, with BSN's earning about $1500 more for some of the larger hospitals.

PMFB-RN, RN · Dec 5, 2009

It depends on where you live. In NYC, the only place you can work with a diploma is a nursing home, you can't even get into a hospital. They're considered lower than CNA's.

*** That's interesting considering I often see travel nurse opening in NYC and they don't care one bit about what kind of degree the RN has. Are you only talking about new grads?

So it depends on where you live. Everyone in New York is starting to prefer that you have a BSN and during the recession, a few of them said they were only hiring nurses with BSN's. Also, if the school's in your area work like the ones up here, where a 2 year degree actually takes you 2 1/2 or 3 then there's no reason not to go for the BSN.

*** Oh I very much agree. A lot of nurses out there are doing nearly all the work of a BSN but only getting ADNs. They are being taken advantage of. In a situation like you describe then certainly a BSN program is the way to go. As I mentioned here in Wisconsin the ADN is set up to take two years and there are no prereqs, only coreqs. Some people take longer for personal reasons but lot's actually do it in two years.

I'm doing BSN because I figured that if I worked as an RN with an ADN for one or two years, I wouldn't want to go back, especially if I didn't HAVE to, I'd rather get it over with in one shot. Not to mention that it doesn't benefit me to graduate two years earlier because I probably still wouldn't be able to find a job. By the time I graduate, hopefully the economy will be better so it'll be easier to find a job. The pay is almost the same, with BSN's earning about $1500 more for some of the larger hospitals.

*** Sounds like you are on the right track for the right reasons. I do strongly suspect that as soon as the hospitals get short of nurses again they will go back to not really caring what degree a nurse has. This all happend in 1995. New grads could not get jobs and hospitals got very picky about the degree. By 1997 few cared anymore as they would hire any RN they could get.