BSN vs BSH

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Hello All,

I am a RN-ASN and I would like to go back to school but I am not sure if getting my BSN is the best chioce.

My interest include Case Management, School Nursing, and Health Education. I am currently working as a Triage Nurse and love to give advice.

The problem is most school want a BSN or at least a bachelor degree. I think the BS in Health Science focus in Health Education ( Excelsior College program) may open more doors in the direction I want to go.

What do you think? icon11.gif

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Here is my two cents- as someone who holds a BS in Health Education. The Health Ed business will always hire a BSN, the nursing business will not hire anyone who isn't a nurse. Basically, my experiance has been that you are wayyyyy better off doing the nursing degree, even if you think will most likely be doing public health education. They will hire you in a flash. However, as I have seen many health ed, outreach, gov't positions ask for or prefer an RN/BSN and without it, you are at a disadvantage.

Ofcourse, this will vary depending upon what you want to do, but I would seriously recomend looking at some of the position you would like to do eventually, your dream position along with what you miht have to do just to pay the bills in between those dream positions, and make your decision carefully. I am back in school, 15 years later for the BSN because my degree just wasn't allowing me the freedom or opening the doors I wanted it to.

Good luck!

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Thank you Chaundrah,

Or you are RN/ADN or did you go the BS Health Ed route alone?

Do you think it will make a difference, if you or not a RN/ADN, in my case.

Thanks again for your input.

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I agree that, unless you are looking to work your way out of nursing for good, you would be better off with a BSN. You will be closing a fair number of doors for yourself in nursing by getting a non-nursing baccalaureate degree,

However, if your long-term goal is to get out of nursing, that is a different matter.

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I do have a BS in HlEd and am working on the BSN. No RN yet. However, I don't think it would have made toomuch of a difference. For example, the positions in HlEd I wanted; Childbirth Ed for hospitals, planned parenthood outreach, Gov't agency Maternal/Child health education...all wanted a BSN prepared RN for those positions. It didn't matter how many years of experiance or what educational qualifications I otherwise could bring to the table, they wanted the BSN. In addition, locally our county school district requires BSN trained RN for their school nurses also.

I'm just one person and your situation may be quite different. What are the advantages to going the HlEd route, as you see them?

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Chaundrah,

The only benefit is having the degree. I have not found a BSN program that meets my needs, low cost and local clinical. The BSH program with Excelsior seem to fit the bill.

Thank you sooo much for the insight. I will continue to research schools for a BSN program.

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