Diploma and Associate Degree in Nursing

Nurses General Nursing

Updated:   Published

remove-diplomas-from-nursing-programs.jpg.27484411b6d2811f71b676c9cf21231b.jpg

The new nursing standard favors ADN over diploma for recruitment by hospitals for their professionalism skill/knowledge to reach higher patient care quality.

The questions will be about the difference between these degrees in term 

  1. The requirement to get admission for such a program 
  2. Credits hours to finish / Time 
  3. Competency 

or Additional info would be appreciated.

From gathered data from multiple articles and summarized briefly 

The requirement for the Diploma admission is the completion of secondary education 

It takes three years to attend hospital classes 

Competency would be nursing assistance  

The other discussion would be about the difference and opinions about both degrees.

Should we remove diplomas from nursing programs? Why? 

My opinion would be ( Personally ) to remove diploma degree and encourage students to aim for ADN instead of diploma to be more competent and educated. The rationale to get better patient care as the average intelligence of nurses would be higher. 

Thanks in advance for your time. 

1
Up Vote Up Vote ×
1 hour ago, LasercopyNurse said:

My opinion would be ( Personally ) to remove diploma degree and encourage students to aim for ADN instead of diploma to be more competent and educated. The rationale to get better patient care as the average intelligence of nurses would be higher. 

I’m a nurse in a country where BSN is entry level for nurses so I don’t have a dog in this fight. However I very much doubt that it’s accurate to say that nurses with an Associate’s degree are inherently more intelligent than Diploma nurses. Also, I’m not sure why you say that a Diploma nurse’s competency is ”nursing assistance”? They’re nurses aren’t they, same as ADNs, BSNs and MSNs? 

15
Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in OR, Nursing Professional Development.

The preference in recent time has been for BSN nurses over ADN nurses, and there are only a small number of diploma programs left in comparison to how many there used to be and when considering the total number of nursing programs.

As for intelligence, that doesn't come from a degree. All RNs take the same exam in the US (assuming that is where you are from as many other countries have made a BSN the entry level degree requirement) regardless of program completed. They are all on equal footing licensure-wise.

15
Up Vote Up Vote ×

     I am a three year diploma grad and also have a BSN.  The didactic component of my school of nursing was essentially the same as the local community college's ADN, however there was much more clinical.  Because of this, the hospitals in my area favored diploma grads, who typically were clinically stronger and required shorter orientation times.

15
Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in New Critical care NP, Critical care, Med-surg, LTC.

I do not even know of any diploma programs in my area anymore. Those nurses that I know that graduated from diploma programs could clinically run rings around the associates degree nurses who could run rings around the BSN nurses- at the time of graduation. The diploma and ADN programs I know of had a strong focus on clinical competence and I know that in my ADN program I was familiar with handling a 4-5 patient assignment upon graduation. The local BSN program that shared a clinical site with us did not have students take more than 2 patients by the time they graduated. So ADN/BSN nurses may be more educated but if anything, they are initially LESS clinically competent than many of these diploma nurses that have more clinical time throughout their program. 

I understand that studies show that BSN nurses have better patient outcomes than ADN nurses. I'm not a big believer in such "studies" because I truly believe when authors have an agenda they can find a data set that will fit their hypothesis. Not everyone can afford to advance their education. When I was a nurse in long term care making $26 an hour, going back for a degree that would not lead to an increase in pay would not have made financial sense to me if that's where I intended to stay. I do think that in this day and age there must be some diploma programs with a reputation for excellent nurses that still survive, but the job prospects are likely limited for those attempting to enter practice without at least a ADN. 

9
Up Vote Up Vote ×
6 hours ago, LasercopyNurse said:

The new nursing standard favors ADN over diploma for recruitment by hospitals for their professionalism skill/knowledge to reach higher patient care quality.

[...]

Which nursing standard are you referring to?

6 hours ago, LasercopyNurse said:

[...]

from gathered data from multiple articles and summarized briefly 

[...]

Perhaps you would provide citations for some of these sources?

7
Up Vote Up Vote ×

Are we seriously going to entertain this? The topic is divisive, without any value and certain to devolve into a snarky free for all. 

8
Up Vote Up Vote ×

Is this topic for an assignment?

If so, I would like to register my opinion that this topic isn't worth precious educational time when people should be learning all that is needed to provide nursing care to patients.

I think schools of nursing should focus on their own immediate backyard, meaning if they have concerns about quality of patient care they can up their own game instead of taking people's money and providing as little as possible in return. If this does happen to be a topic for an assignment, you are getting robbed.

8
Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Hospice, LPN.

It's late for me and my brain is in snooze mode, or it could be the original post just isn't making a lot of sense, but is the poster asking the internet to do their homework assignment?

5
Up Vote Up Vote ×
13 hours ago, macawake said:

I’m a nurse in a country where BSN is entry level for nurses so I don’t have a dog in this fight. However I very much doubt that it’s accurate to say that nurses with an Associate’s degree are inherently more intelligent than Diploma nurses. Also, I’m not sure why you say that a Diploma nurse’s competency is ”nursing assistance”? They’re nurses aren’t they, same as ADNs, BSNs and MSNs? 

In my county, we do not have diploma degrees. Only we have ADN/BSN offered by one college, which means nursing education comes from a single source. those who graduated with a Diploma degree indeed are nurses, but the not the same level of hierarchy as ADN and above the higher level of degree comes with higher compentancy 

check the attached picture for a hierarchy of degrees in nursing 

Nursing-Degree-Pathways_1-715x1024.png
2
Up Vote Up Vote ×
13 hours ago, Rose_Queen said:

The preference in recent time has been for BSN nurses over ADN nurses, and there are only a small number of diploma programs left in comparison to how many there used to be and when considering the total number of nursing programs.

As for intelligence, that doesn't come from a degree. All RNs take the same exam in the US (assuming that is where you are from as many other countries have made a BSN the entry level degree requirement) regardless of program completed. They are all on equal footing licensure-wise.

Indeed the preference favor BSN over ADN as entry level for better patient care. The question was between Diploma and ADN. I read a few articles saying the favor goes to the ADN as the new standard. 

In the domain of intelligence, due to the equipment to be entitled to such degree, the ADN has a higher requirement that filters the student for higher educational background than a diploma only requiring completion of secondary education, which results in higher intelligence from equipment filtration of such program. 

 

1
Up Vote Up Vote ×
On 12/18/2021 at 9:10 PM, chare said:

Which nursing standard are you referring to?

Perhaps you would provide citations for some of these sources?

https://cnicollege.edu/page/info/nursing-diploma/

http://sksmcnursing.in/nursing-diploma-courses-to-be-phased-out-by-2022/

Mahaffey, E. (May 31, 2002). "The Relevance of Associate Degree Nursing Education: Past, Present, Future." Online Journal of Issues in Nursing. Vol. 7 No. 2, Morificecript 2.

In the book titled ( Professional Issues in Nursing ) written by carol j. Huston 

published by Lippincott Williams & Wilkins 

in section Orginins of Differentiated Nursing Practice  

The growth in chronic diseases and increased understanding of hospitalized patients demanded a higher level of nursing care. an intermediate level  nurse was needed to relieve professional nurses of the less demanding services in hospital settings and provide a higher level of care than practical

( vocational ) quoting Montag 

1
Up Vote Up Vote ×
+ Add a Comment