BSN is a joke

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I am a nurse at a major hospital where I have worked over a year after gaining my ASN. I have returned to get my BSN. What I'm not understanding is why there is such an ENORMOUS disconnect between what I do at work and the class work I need to do. It doesn'y apply at all. I have to take family care classes and informatics with very little practical application. I have to memorize all the rules of APA. My patients don't care if I can wrote a wonderful APA formatted paper. They just don't. It's like there is no appreciation in BSN education for what nursing is really about. At no time will I EVER do a CFIM on my patient or a PEEK readiness assessment. Get real. Where is the disconnect? Everyone I talk to say's the same thing about their BSN program, that it is completely useless. Who decided that nurses needed extensive training in social work and paper formatting?!?! I don't deal with social work. I have a team of social workers for that. At no time will I ever be in a patients home trying to improve the communication between family members ect. There are family counselors ect for that. It isn't my job! Yet here I am getting trained in areas I have no interest in, and will never ever use in my career. And for what? So I can say I have 3 letters behind my name and the school and hospital can make more money? Its a joke. I'm learning nothing of value. I would drop out and find a new school, but everyone I talk to has the same opinion about where ever they went. Basically healthcare has become obsessed with accolades, but forgot that those accolades were supposed to represent a level of expertise.

Why is there such an enormous disconnect between real life nursing and nursing education??!?!?

EKG's are done on my floor all the time. Would be nice to be able to read them a bit better than my limited knowledge. Obviously I can read overt rhythms in lead 2. But why not teach the other leads and rhythms or how to measure intervals? I see it everyday and have to wait for someone more qualified to look at them for me. It would be great to get that with my BSN. I need it. It's important.

But my point is that the "knowledge resource" part is no good if they aren't giving me the knowledge I need on a daily basis.

My bold/italics above.

bureau of labor statistics

Registered nurses held about 2.8 million jobs in 2014. The largest employers of registered nurses were as follows:

Hospitals; state, local, and private 61%

Nursing and residential care facilities 7

Offices of physicians 7

Home healthcare services 6

Government 6

And even so the knowledge in the BSN program is not applicable to daily work flow. Are you gonna walk into a pt's room and do a peek assessment? Are you going to sit down with them and explore their family's ability to communicate effectively? No, that is not your job, nor is it what the patient is there for. They are relying on you to be competent in medications, VS, symptoms, interventions, and cares. They want their loved one to get home safely. they are not there for you to break down their family dynamics like they teach in a BSN program. That being said you DO need to be aware of the social dynamics especially to identify abuse neglect ect. But we aren't going to be doing CFIM assessments for an 2 hours and exploring each family members home life. Its silly how we try so hard to make these things relevant and they just aren't. They have a niche. A time and place. They belong in a masters of public health program.

pls excuse my bad grammar. Im not really proof reading here.

Getting back to the original post about the value of a BSN, it's simply not fair to lump all BSN programs together. As others have pointed out, there is the entry level BSN degree and there is the RN to BSN degree solely for people already licensed as an RN. The original post is about the latter.

While there are exceptions, generally speaking, nursing school takes 4 semesters to complete for people seeking initial licensure. If you get an associate's degree in nursing to qualify for becoming an RN, you will have taken 4 semesters of nursing courses. If you get an bachelor's degree in nursing to qualify for becoming an RN, you will have taken 4 semesters of nursing courses. I was accepted into both associate degree and bachelor's degree programs. I was going to be in school the same amount of time either way. If you are entering the field of nursing, it just doesn't make sense to spend the same amount of time getting a lesser degree. Granted, there is the issue of needing more prerequisites to enter a bachelor's program instead of an associate's degree program.

For initial licensure, there is another consideration about BSN vs. ADN that is extremely important. If you live where there are magnet hospitals and both types of nursing degrees available, you are likely to find that the magnet hospitals do not accept ADN students for clinical rotations. So, if you want the best clinical experiences, being a student in a BSN program is likely to prepare you better. Better clinical experiences make for better nurses.

For those who have a diploma or ADN education, RN to BSN programs typically do not improve bedside clinical skills. That is a completely different discussion. If RN to BSN programs aren't of value, entry level BSN programs should not be lumped in with them. If we are going to discuss the value of the RN to BSN degree, we should also have a discussion about online nursing education. The overwhelming majority of RN to BSN programs are completely online. Are all of those discussion posts in online degrees promoting learning or are they being doneto make it appear that learning is taking place when it isn't? Does the online program contain a pathophysiology course? Most don't. I know of an RN to BSN program that had a really great pathophysiology course. They got rid of it to match the competition.

There's a similar discussion we could have. NP education is master's level. Generally speaking, DNP education doesn't provide hands-on direct patient care clinical education. One could have the same discussion about whether or not a DNP program makes an NP better.

For anyone starting nursing school for initial licensure, I recommend the BSN over the ADN as a better use of your time.

APA could warrant its own discussion. It's about formatting, plagiarism, and attribution. Unfortunately those things get lumped together. We should all be able to agree that plagiarism is wrong and that credit and attribution should always be given to the original authors. If we could agree on those points and only discuss the details of formatting in precise APA format, I'd be the first to say that we're wasting time on the details of APA formatting. It is anachronistic and hasn't adapted to the digital age. In this digital age, we should be able to provide a hyperlink to the source document and be done with it. APA is a time consuming pain. Using a Word template helps. Buying a program that helps with the formatting can help more. Pulling an APA formatted citation from Google Scholar is what most people do. Sometimes the instructors count off for Google Scholar's interpretation of APA formatting. What an unproductive waste of people's time.

Most RN to BSN programs require a statistics course. That's not a bad thing. Evidence based research is based on statistics among other things. Every nurse needs to understand that causation does not mean causality.

Specializes in Nurse Leader specializing in Labor & Delivery.
Do you like apples?

Love your GWH allusions.

Specializes in IMC, school nursing.
A BSN is a Bachelor of Science in Nursing. You've already got the nursing stuff in your ASN. (Much of it, anyway.) Now you have to complete the requirements for a Bachelor of Science degree. If you don't want to complete the educational requirements for a Bachelor's degree, you're free to deem in useless and not complete them. If you want the Bachelor's degree, you must complete the requirements.

A little condescending in tone. The OP has valid points that most of what makes a BSN mostly BS is education that truly makes no real world application to the role. I will complete my BSN so I can be considered for the positions I desire, but truly, the WORST hospital nurses I ever worked with were BSN. They were more educated in non nursing than the true hands on skills necessary to complete their real careers. The BSN students that frequent my facility are there 2 hours, the ADN students 6 hours. Which do you want taking care of your loved one?

Specializes in Nurse Leader specializing in Labor & Delivery.
EKG's are done on my floor all the time. Would be nice to be able to read them a bit better than my limited knowledge. Obviously I can read overt rhythms in lead 2. But why not teach the other leads and rhythms or how to measure intervals? I see it everyday and have to wait for someone more qualified to look at them for me. It would be great to get that with my BSN. I need it. It's important.

Should they also teach you advanced fetal monitoring and care of a 24-week preemie in your BSN program?

The purpose of the BSN is to teach generalized theory that can be translated into any specialty. How to read an EKG strip is not that.

Specializes in Med-Tele; ED; ICU.
The purpose of the BSN is to teach generalized theory that can be translated into any specialty. How to read an EKG strip is not that.

I disagree. Basic cardiac electrophysiology is a core topic and the basics of 12-lead interpretation simply follows.

Just as every mechanical engineer should have a basic understanding of Ohm's law and Kirchoff's laws and the ability to manipulate an oscilloscope, despite the fact that they are unable to engage in complex circuit design, every nurse should have basic understanding of electrophysiology and why rhythms appear the way that they do in different leads and under different conditions.

Wow!! Please hear this....

It is a privilege to live in a time and place where you are able to obtain a higher level of education, whether it directly applies to what you are doing now, later or is a step to what you may Be doing in the future. By the way, ect is spelled etc. Do it or don't, your life and your choice.... but stop complaining. Nobody needs to hear more negativity in our profession, there is inherently enough already. You never ever know the twists and turns that life will throw in front of you and you may need those 3 "little letters" BSN! It says you are teachable, you can learn, you will adapt and you are able to follow through. It says you can complete a difficult task. It says you have been exposed to a broader spectrum of people, environments, issues and what others need. It says you are willing to do whatever it takes to help others. It says you are able to write intelligently and hopefully communicate in a higher manor that can relay your message without offending anybody and get your point heard. Many many people would feel very blessed and be so grateful for such an opportunity.... please reset your attitude. Thank you.

Peggy RN, BSN

ICU 18yrs, Hospice 8 yrs

Specializes in Neurosurgery, Neurology.
EKG's are done on my floor all the time. Would be nice to be able to read them a bit better than my limited knowledge. Obviously I can read overt rhythms in lead 2. But why not teach the other leads and rhythms or how to measure intervals? I see it everyday and have to wait for someone more qualified to look at them for me. It would be great to get that with my BSN. I need it. It's important.

So basically the BSN should cover everything everyone is exposed to in every setting.

To me, getting my BSN would have been just a stepping stone to getting a masters.....and at 63, I am no longer convinced that RN's with a masters degree and doing teaching or research has any connection to bedside nursing.

i would rather have an RN at my bedside with extra accreditations in their area of expertise.

A BSN at the bedside does the exact same things that an associate degree nurse does....

It is nothing more than a prestige perception to the consumer, with the goal of affecting the financial bottom line.

i know it is not professional to say this, but I think the "B" stands for bull feces.

Yes, but hospitals in this area will not hire any nurses unless they have a BSN. to be very honest, I find that a nurse who has gone through the ranks to be much more qualified, hands on and able to think than most of the BSN I have interviewed.

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