BSN Only? Give me a break!!

[michaelvgrigsby]

I have been a RN since 1989, graduated with a ASN. Since that time I worked in ICU, Open heart surgery, PICU, Med/Surg and Behavioral Health. I have had the pleasure to have worked as a Nurse Executive only to be told after 25 years to get a BSN. I have a BS in Public Policy and Organizational Leadership and Master of Arts in Theology/Counseling. I asked my employee why after working 13 years a their Executive Nurse on Med/Surg/Peds that they thought I needed a BSN. No answer just demands or lose my job. I told them to stuff it! At 57 I was not going back to school for a BSN when it would only achieve increasing my debt ratio.

Since then I haven't been able to hire on anywhere but a Nursing Home. Let me tell you it is a blessing to work in geriatrics, yet the BSN's that work there are clueless, needing alot of training and retraining which I don't mind doing. It just saddens me that at the end of my career Nursing still has its quirks like they did in the 80's. Remember the period when medical assistants where hired to work in ICUs? That fiasco lasted less then a year.

God bless all of you who have had to face this new fiasco of BSN only apply. I am wondering who agrees with BSN only need to apply?

[rnforforty]

I was under the impression that to get nurses away from patient contact admin would fire them

Fire them? Are you crazy? And lose a warm body? Most of the time they don't care if there is anything in the head!

[proud nurse, BSN, RN]

I have seen it over and over again, nurses who cannot handle taking care of patients suddenly get put into management positions. We have lots of people who were terrible nurses, or who made nursing mistakes, or who lack actual hands-on experience, who have been placed in management. The talk at my facility is that they leave the smarter nurses at the bedside and place the inferior ones as supervisors, unit managers, etc.

That is very interesting, and definitely makes me wonder about some of the people that are in management at my job.

[LAM2010, BSN]

It's ridiculous that they're requiring a BSN out of you when you're an RN and already have a BS in something else. And the only difference I see in a BSN versus an ADN or anything else is all the extra papers we had to write!! I know there is a slight difference between and ADN and a BSN -- I forget what it was... Pathophysiology or something...? I got a BSN because I only started nursing school when I was 33 and had wanted a bachelor's degree since I was 8. It's turned out to be very advantageous for me. However, all of us felt like we were getting screwed (pardon me) in nursing school because we weren't getting all the hands-on experience we felt we needed before graduating, and they expected us to get all that by getting externships or working part time as CNAs or whatever....

What we were "taught" was that research says, BSNs do have less hands-on experience when they come out of school, but that they quickly catch up within 6 months. I'm just saying, that's what nursing associations are pushing.

Anyway... I've gotten a few jobs (I work in an OR as a circulator) where they'll ask, "You're a BSN, huh... Why are you working in an OR?" and I'm thinking of all the hospitals out there that are requiring their RNs to get BSNs.

But also I am ready to start working toward advanced degrees... And I really don't agree with hospitals requiring BSNs for already-established RNs. Especially ones who already have a Bachelor's in something else --

p.s. I "love" Vanderbilt University's fast-track to NP program.... lol.... If you have a BS in something, you go there and fast track from RN through FNP, it takes like 2 years. It's crazy but would I jump on that if I had the funds? Absolutely!

[OBigdog26, MSN, RN, NP]

I went to a BSN program and I didn't get short changed on the amount of hands on. Actually, we exceeded the amount of preceptorship hours required to graduate.

However, the ADN students had "first dibs" on clinicals with the hospital that we were affiliated with. They just had to walk across the street from the school to the hospital. The BSN students had to travel distances up to an hour from the school to various clinical sites.

Sent from my iPhone using allnurses. Pardon for any misspelled words, I blame it on auto-correct.

[WCSU1987]

In my state nurse's have 5 year's achieve your BSN or risk losing your job at a few area hospital's. Another hospital gave LPNs the ultimatum sign up to a register nurse program or loose your job, 40 worker's lost their job.

We have only three state school nursing program's and 3-4 private nursing school's. 5 CC nursing program's and 2 private associate program's. The CC program's are filled to brisk where this a 100 person waiting list at the school's to get in. I don't know how these students expect to find work at the CC level way the state is going. State is producing more ADN nurse's and state is requiring more BSN nurse's. The scale 's very unbalanced right now.

[WCSU1987]

Oh, but wait, Guys! That's not the end of it! You now need to make sure that your degree is a BSN and not a BSn. Yep, that's right! Since BSN is the going thing these days and some of us did or are going back, the infamous 'they' have decided to complicate things even further. It seems that there is a difference between a Bachelor of Science in Nursing and a Bachelor of Science with a major in Nursing. Someone started a thread here on this a few weeks back and I decided to just lurk on that thread because I figured "really"? But then a couple of days ago, I got a call from a potential employer who wanted to clarify that I indeed had a BSN and not a BSn.

Whoever is attacking the nursing profession like this really should be removed from position. Are they doing the same thing to those with other Bachelor of Science degrees? With the three or four doorways into nursing, are they now trying to split one of those doorways as a means to force even those with a BSn to go back and take a few more courses? If it's money that 'they' seek, why not just cut to the chase and say, "unless your BSn cost $$$$$ dollars, we're not going to accept it as the BSN.

FWIW, mine is a BSN and if it's the other one that you seek, I'm happy to report that I'm not interested in working for you as I choose not to work for anyone who insists on continuing to divide this profession. What difference does it make! I took the same NCLEX a as every single RN in this country. Is the NCSBN being questioned as to why an ASN, BSn, and BSN are all delivered the exact same exam? I don't think so!

BTW, I still don't know what the difference is. Is one prelicensure and the other is not? I think I will google this...

My school where I achieved my bachelor's degree has two nursing degrees one without clinical and one with. Only one can become an RN the other one kind of seems moot.

[applesxoranges, BSN, RN]

My feeling is we need a BSN like Europe where we take the fluff out of the education. There isn't that much difference between a good ADN program and a BSN program. I'm for a hybrid degree that limits the fluff classes and focuses on science and a standardized set of nursing classes.

I want the curriculum to become more standardized if possible. There is a lot of wiggle room. If one has to transfer nursing programs, rarely one can make

the transition smoothly.

[elkpark]

My school where I achieved my bachelor's degree has two nursing degrees one without clinical and one with. Only one can become an RN the other one kind of seems moot.

I'm guessing that the "one without clinical" must be a BSN completion program for those who are already RNs. A pre-licensure nursing degree without clinicals would not meet the requirements for licensure, and would not be approved by the BON to accept students. BSN completion programs (for licensed RNs) often do not have any traditional "clinical" component.

[subee, MSN, CRNA]

I'm typing my answer again because of glitch in trying to send it. Forgive me if it comes up twice. That is a real problem - that BSN completion programs do not have any clinical component. I don't know why the standards should be lower for them than traditional entry to practice students. There is nothing like a full semester of public health clinicals for students to appreciate the quantity and quality of barriers patients have to face outside of the hospital admission. Having pharmacology integrated into clinical rotations isn't the same as a stand-alone course in pharmacology. If the BSN attainment isn't supposed to make you a better clinician, then what it is for? The mess we're in is a failure of our standard makers to actually do their jobs. Instead, we have a degree that has become not much more than a business arrangement. It's all about graduation now, not education. Just look at the amount of advertising that has taken over the look of Allnurses. Perfect illustration of what we have become.

[elkpark]

I'm typing my answer again because of glitch in trying to send it. Forgive me if it comes up twice. That is a real problem - that BSN completion programs do not have any clinical component. I don't know why the standards should be lower for them than traditional entry to practice students.

The standards are "lower" (as you put it) because these students have already met the standards required of the traditional entry to practice students. They are licensed RNs. While I agree that public health clinicals may be valuable, ADN and diploma students graduate without them, get licensed, and do just fine as RNs. Frankly, my BSN completion program did include a full semester of honest-to-God, traditional clinical at the local public health department and in various community settings (we each even were assigned to a prenatal family and did community visits to that family over the semester -- the DON of the public health department said that they were one of the last public health departments in the US that still did that), and I enjoyed that experience and learned some interesting things from it -- but I wouldn't say that it made me a "better clinician."

[WCSU1987]

I'm guessing that the "one without clinical" must be a BSN completion program for those who are already RNs. A pre-licensure nursing degree without clinicals would not meet the requirements for licensure, and would not be approved by the BON to accept students. BSN completion programs (for licensed RNs) often do not have any traditional "clinical" component.

This was 8 year's ago. They changed it they use to have RN license via a BSN program, a RN to BSN program, a school nurse trac, a community health trac, just nursing without clinical work no license.

Love to go for my BSN but too much money. From my year's training some RN student's in facilitating group's/vitals/blood most don't report any differences in terms of the ADN/BSN program. Only huge difference is extra pathology class, nursing management class, research/review of cases class, and a thesis class.

[applesxoranges, BSN, RN]

I'm typing my answer again because of glitch in trying to send it. Forgive me if it comes up twice. That is a real problem - that BSN completion programs do not have any clinical component. I don't know why the standards should be lower for them than traditional entry to practice students. There is nothing like a full semester of public health clinicals for students to appreciate the quantity and quality of barriers patients have to face outside of the hospital admission. Having pharmacology integrated into clinical rotations isn't the same as a stand-alone course in pharmacology. If the BSN attainment isn't supposed to make you a better clinician, then what it is for? The mess we're in is a failure of our standard makers to actually do their jobs. Instead, we have a degree that has become not much more than a business arrangement. It's all about graduation now, not education. Just look at the amount of advertising that has taken over the look of Allnurses. Perfect illustration of what we have become.

This is why I push for standardization. Not all inital entry BSN programs have a full semester of community health clinicals. My ADN did. I thought all ADN schools have a stand-alone course in pharmacology that is a minimum of 3 semester credit hours. Although, I do know that they are changing the format with it being intergrated, but a BSN school changed the format to that first.