is a BSN going to soon be required?

Nurses General Nursing

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Specializes in tele, CCU.

I have heard various people talking about BSN vs. ADN, saying that soon most hospitals and jobs will require you to have a BSN. Does anyone know of any validity to this?? What will happen with all the ADN's, seems there's a lot. Just curious. I plan on going back for my BSN, but maybe I should get on it sooner than later!

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Specializes in Pediatric Pulmonology and Allergy.

Most hospitals in NYC already require a BSN. I don't know about other states. Right now there is a huge oversupply of nurses so they can afford to be picky. However, an experienced ADN will get a job over an inexperienced BSN any day. So, if you're already in the nursing workforce, you may be okay with an ADN. If you're looking to get into the field though, IMO it's not worth it to go the ADN route. It's hard enough to break into nursing without being handicapped by the lack of a BSN.

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Not anytime soon. The talk about making the BSN the point of entry level professional nursing started in the 1950s. As you can see, the idea is not yet firmly in place or practice. Most likely will not happen in our lifetime.

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Specializes in Pediatric Pulmonology and Allergy.
Not anytime soon. The talk about making the BSN the point of entry level professional nursing started in the 1950s. As you can see, the idea is not yet firmly in place or practice. Most likely will not happen in our lifetime.

Maybe it hasn't happened yet de jure, and maybe it never will, but it already is happening de facto. Any aspiring nurse who only gets an ADN is limiting him/herself in career opportunities. Forget all the rhetoric about whether nurses are professionals with or without BSN, or whether or not BSN-required courses are fluff, the fact is that hospitals in many areas are increasingly demanding BSN only and have the luxury of doing so.

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If you Google the topic, you will see that it has been discussed for a long time, as the previous poster said. Check out this article:

The Relevance of Associate Degree Nursing Education: Past, Present, Future

In the article you will find:

"In 1960, the American Nurses Association (ANA) first introduced promotion of the baccalaureate program to become the basic educational foundation for professional nursing."

So, even though the ANA has been lobbying away for 50 years, the ADN is still going strong. I'm not worried.

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As you can see, the LPN/LVN level of nursing has gone nowhere in 60 years of professionalizing nursing. As long as ASN RNs and LPN/LVNs exist and flourish, the BSN will not be where it was envisioned 60 years ago. I'm not worried. Most nursing students are not worried, otherwise, they would forgo ADN programs for BSN programs. And employers would stop hiring LPNs and ADN prepared RNs. Not happening anytime soon.

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Specializes in Hospice / Psych / RNAC.

Many moons ago I was hired as a new grad with a BSN over the other RN's whom had ADN's and were experienced. So the comment that experienced ADN's will always be hired over a new BSN is untrue. Here in Hawaii if you don't have your BSN you are being encouraged to get it and all jobs are advertised as wanting BSN RN's. I think it's all about location.

I do think it's not right that the ANA does not stand behind the ADN nurse as a progessional. Never did like that.

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It was bound to happen, one way or another. When we were in our diploma program, thirty-some years ago, we were told to go back for a BSN as soon as possible.

I'm proud of my diploma, but newer nurses should be getting a BSN.

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Specializes in OB, L&D, NICU, Med-Surg, Ortho.

I have heard that MAGNET hospitals require BSNs for specialty areas. One hospital that is near me requires nurses with an ADN to sign a contract that they will obtain their BSN within ten years or they will be terminated at the end of the ten year period.

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Specializes in School Nursing.
Not anytime soon. The talk about making the BSN the point of entry level professional nursing started in the 1950s. As you can see, the idea is not yet firmly in place or practice. Most likely will not happen in our lifetime.

Have hospitals all over the country changed their requirements to "BSN" only in the past? There may have been 'talk' going back decades but was there ever the actual 'action' we are seeing now? It seems to me they are taking definitive steps to make it happen.

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Have hospitals all over the country changed their requirements to "BSN" only in the past? There may have been 'talk' going back decades but was there ever the actual 'action' we are seeing now? It seems to me they are taking definitive steps to make it happen.

The stated hiring policy where I work is "BSN required" but it is not enforced . . . 80% of the new grads hired have been ADN's. But, who knows, maybe no BSN's applied?

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Specializes in Case mgmt., rehab, (CRRN), LTC & psych.
Have hospitals all over the country changed their requirements to "BSN" only in the past? There may have been 'talk' going back decades but was there ever the actual 'action' we are seeing now? It seems to me they are taking definitive steps to make it happen.

The sluggish economy is the driving force behind the preference for BSN-educated nurses at many healthcare facilities across the country.

There's a surplus of nurses competing for a limited number of jobs in local job markets. Since employers can be more selective today when compered to a few years ago, many places are only hiring BSNs.

This is a weeding-out process, and those who lack the BSN degree might be weeded out in an employment market that is overly saturated with too many unemployed nurses who are looking for work.

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