Alternative to BSN Bachelor degrees

[ekgoodwi]

Hi Folks, I am currently an ASN student and am sure that I will continue with my Bachelor's degree. I would like to know if there are there any alternatives to a BSN that will increase my hireability and medical knowledge base? I've been thinking about Nutrition, as I find it really interesting, but will it decrease my "value" not to have a BSN? What Bachelor's degrees have you seen RN's work with and make work for them? Thanks!

[guiltysins]

I think it would depend on what your long-term goals were. If you want to do management then health care management might help but there are classes in BSN programs for nurse management and leadership as well. If you want to be a staff nurse or a charge nurse than I don't think that a bachelor's in anything else but nursing would help you much. If you want to be a nutritionist than you can certainly choose nutrition but I think if it came down to hiring a floor nurse and they had a choice between the two they'd pick someone with the BSN.

I don't think it would hurt you but I think some people might look at it as being a little odd that you were able to go for a Bachelor's degree but didn't do it in nursing.

[Moogie]

With the trend moving toward employers wanting BSN graduates, if you want to stay in nursing you would be wise to consider a BSN over a non-nursing bachelor's degree. You would definitely have more nursing opportunities with a BSN, not just nursing management. There are a couple of threads about folks with non-nursing bachelor's degrees and freshly minted ADNs who are having difficulty finding jobs because, although a non-nursing bachelor's is great for broadening one's personal horizons, it is not the equivalent of a bachelor's in nursing.

Not saying this to scare you but to provide a glimpse of what is happening in terms of hiring trends.

If you decide you are interested in nursing education, administration, or informatics or an advanced practice role, there are increasingly more schools that offer ADN to MSN bridges, so such programs may be of interest to you when you're done with school, get some experience under your belt, and have an idea of what you might want to do with your career.

[DolceVita, ADN, BSN, RN]

Yep what Moogie said.

Apparently my existing BSc in Microb is considered worthless to the nursing profession. So unless I do a BSN I will be treated as someone with no more education than an ADN.

[elkpark]

If your intention is to stay in nursing, rather than using a baccalaureate degree to get out of nursing and into another field, there is no other baccalaureate degree that will help your career as much as a BSN.

[kvesely]

Just working as an RN in any given deparment, the ASN vs. BSN won't matter much, but as everyone else stated, if you're long terms goals are to have the flexibility of moving into a management position or going for an MS degree then the BSN is needed. It can't hurt to get it so you can keep your options open.

:-)