Career Path for Bedside Nurses??

[gwenith, BSN, RN]

Reading the thread on ADN vs BSN I have to ask a question.

Do you have a career path for the bedside nurse???

Many years ago here in Australia we restructured nursing to include a career structure for bedside nurses. It is slightly different in the different states but here we have level 1 nurses and the pay scale raises for each year of service up to year 8. Then we have "Clinical Nurses" which start at a pay scale slighlty higher than level 1 year 8 and progress up to year 5. Above the clinical nurses in the clinical nurse consultant or charge nurse.

Anyone from a Masters qualified RN to an old hospital certified trained RN (Equivalent of ADN) can apply for one of the clinical nurse positions. Obtaining a CN position depends on education + experience + how well you do at interview.

A masters qualified RN is not guaranteed to get the job over an ADN IF that ADN has the experience and demonstrated ability to cope with the job.

SO my questions are:-

Do you have a career path structured for bedside nurses??

Do you think that this would contribute toward staff retention or not?

[traumaRUs, MSN, APRN]

No - in the US we don't have this. We have clinical ladders though. However, that isn't in all hospitals nor is it a standardized concept. It may be one way in one hospital and completely different in another. I work in a 650 bed hospital and we do have clinical ladders:

clinical ladder level 1 - novice

clinical ladder level 2 - up to two years of experience

clinical ladder level 3 - taking on more responsibility

clinical ladder level 4 - expert

Currently, clinical ladders in my facilty aren't based on education.

[gwenith, BSN, RN]

Sounds like your "clinical ladders" are based on Benner's theory "From Novice to Expert".

It still leaves me wondering if this sort of incentive would improve staff retention.