Can a hospital legally force you to get your bsn if you are an adn

[lv2brn]

Can a hospital legally force or require an RN who only has their adn to become a bsn or be fired??? That is the rumor at our hospital.

[DoGoodThenGo]

I see this "Magnet" word being tossed around a lot in these forums... can someone explain to me what your refusing to?

Magnet status refers to a special accreditation awarded by a division of the ANA:

http://www.nursecredentialing.org/Magnet.aspx

Depending upon which side of the fence one sits, "magnet status" is either the best thing to happen to nursing since ditching starched whites and caps (for the most part ), or the worst.

Long story short, over fifty or so more years ago the ANA issued a white paper stating the BSN should be made mandatory for entry into the profession as a RN. Two year and diploma grads would be downgraded to "technical" or some such other named nurses. The idea was that the four year degree nurse would be at the head of the nursing team doing the assesements, planning care, etc and the "other" nurses and or unlicensed personnel would carry out the work.

Well you can imagine that idea landed with a huge thud, created huge amounts of controversy and sowed the seeds of a debate that has raged ever since within the profession.

While various hosptials/facilites tried in the past go to "all BSN" it never really took off in any major way, and aside from one state trying then quickly reversing themselves, there has been little movement in making the ANA's proposal stick nationwide.

Enter magnet status, which requires among other things a certain percentage of BSN or higher degree nurses on staff. Hospitals tout being awarded status usually along with the oft quoted study about patients cared for by four year degree nursing having "better outcomes", than ADN nurses in their marketing advertising. For the average patient the message is clear, hospital "X" is better than "Y" because it has better prepared nurses and has an award to back it up. For instance in Manhattan, NYC, Mount Sinai is the only magnet status hospital, and they make sure anyone in ear shot knows it.

Some say the ANA is getting what it originally wished but failed to achieve via laws with the magnet status program.

[sistasoul]

Where I work the BSN is really being pushed. If an ADN nurse works the night shift and wants to go to first shift they can't because they do not have a BSN. 11 out of the 12 new grad positions went to BSNs. So, in effect, ADNS are being phased out at my hospital slowly but surely.