BSN! Ya HOO!

:stone

Thanks for your post and welcome to allnurses. You sound very excited to be entering the nursing profession and that is great.

I also noticed that you are still a nursing student. Perhaps until you are out in the field and see the real world nursing role you can't truly understand Your real learning will begin there and since there are more ADN nurses out there, most likely you will have an ADN preceptor. They will be the ones teaching you how to save a life.

The BSN is a great asset however keep in mind that it does not define the nurse... it does not guarentee competence or the ability to critically think. There are great nurses and horrible nurses and the degree or diploma truly is not what makes or breaks them.

Originally posted by abbafrazz

http://www.aacn.nche.edu/Media/NewsReleases/2003AikenStudy.htm

Wow. Fascinating link. Especially this quote:

"Nurses' years of experience had no impact mortality or failure to rescue rates."

I can understand the possibility that more BSNs reduce mortality rates, but experience doesn't matter at all?

Strange finding. Never would have guessed that one.

with a link to a story that sort of refutes this one.

"At least 1,700 preventable deaths could have been realized in Pennsylvania hospitals alone if BSN prepared nurses had comprised 60 percent of the nursing staff and the nurse to patient ratios had been set at 1 to 4."

I see a few variables here and would like to know how the information was derived:

1) 60 % BSN nurses on staff

2) Ratios set at 1-4.

My vote is the 1-4 ration improved patient outcomes greatly!!!

Well, it took awhile, but I finally found the actual study link:

http://members.rogers.com/nbart/jama.pdf

Interesting quote on p. 1619:

Hospitals with higher proportions of baccalaureate and master's prepared nurses also had slightly less experienced nurses on average and significantly lower mean work loads

Significantly lower work loads might explain the claim that nurse experience doesn't matter. They also seem to be pointing out the need to control for nurse/patient ratios which, apparently, wasn't done in this study.

The strong association between the educational composition of hospitals and other hospital characteristics, including nurse work loads, makes clear the need to control for these latter characteristics in estimating the effects of nurse education on patient mortality

Still, they estimate that a 20 percent increase in BSNs would have the same effect as reducing average nurse/patient ratios by a factor of 2.

Nice propoganda ad. VERY Well done. I don't buy propaganda, however, so I will dismiss it. I have heard this all before. Having worked in the field, I know it's far from true. and very flawed.

signed:

So-called "technically-trained ADN" who gets paid as much or more than many BSN's do and who can think critically as well (fancy that!)

I'm willing to open my mind that it might be true. Although I think hospitals should work on safer ratios.

My big problem is that some BSNs, the OP perhaps included, generalize about ADNs being just technical masters and not having proper "nursing" skills. That when OP says "Go Nurses" he's not including myself or LPNs, but that only BSN are nurses.

That a study like this only perpetuates the notion that ADNs aren't real or safe nurses.

I hope that the original poster judges each individual coworker based on things other than the degree they have.

I encourage everyone to get a BSN. It's a great degree to have. I would even support that all RNs should be BSNs (provided they take a separate test than ADN nurses) and call us ADNs something else. That's fine with me. (Just don't touch my money. LOL)

Thanks

Tweety

ADN, RN, Certified Med-Surg

Wanted to say:

I value education GREATLY (I do not mean to take anything away from BSN-RN's here)----- and that is why I am working on an RN-BSN degree. BUT I do not believe decreased morbidity/mortality reported here are soley linked to the increase of BSN-prepared nurses at the bedside in the given situation. I am of the belief, like the others before me, that the decrease in these problems is more likely associated with lower patient-nurse ratios, instead. I just do not buy this information, at all.

"The American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN) is the national voice for university and four-year-college education programs in nursing. Representing more than 570 member schools of nursing at public and private institutions nationwide, AACN's educational, research, governmental advocacy, data collection, publications, and other programs work to establish quality standards for bachelor's- and graduate-degree nursing education, assist deans and directors to implement those standards, influence the nursing profession to improve health care, and promote public support of baccalaureate and graduate nursing education, research, and practice. "

hmmmmm----quoted at the bottom of said study.....really....

this says it all to me. talk about self-promotion!!! wonder what NOADN would come up with in THEIR own similar study (wish they would conduct one). I imagine it would be different somehow.

:zzzzz:p

I think BSNs are great. But, strangely enough, the BSN program in my area has, on average, a 10 percent lower NCLEX pass rate than the ADN program. I wonder if it's the same elsewhere, but I haven't been able to find anything.