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?

[FlyingScot, RN]

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.

Seriously? Because the 24 years of working as a nurse weren't enough clinicals? Sorry, I already met those requirements with my diploma. And my school also had a semester of public health AND a stand alone pharmacology course. You know what I was short on? A statistics course, a research course and a leadership course. And apparently 8 thousand papers written in APA format. You seem to be forgetting that the BSN completion program is not to provide an advanced degree but rather the same entry level education as pre-licensure students. It's intention is to fill in the gaps (small as they are). Trust me, for those of us with decades of experience, especially advanced nursing, the BSN program does nothing towards making us better clinicians by its very nature of being entry-level. My post-graduate education will be another story and I can't wait to tackle the more advanced courses.

[Susie2310]

My BSN completion program at a state university required a semester of community health clinicals, and also required a clinical preceptorship which I was able to do in a new specialty. I had already completed a clinical preceptorship and student work experience on a med-surg unit during my ADN program. The additional preceptorship in the BSN completion program was interesting and informative, but the foundation of my clinical training/education took place during my ADN program.