Do you feel more people are entering nursing only to become APRN's?

Nurses General Nursing

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I am not a nurse yet, but I'm an EMT, have worked in and around the hospital, and I am currently finishing my last two prerequisite courses before applying for ABSN programs. It seems like 90% of my current classmates in nursing prerequisite courses, along with other prospective nurses I've worked with, are entering the nursing profession with the goal of become a Nurse Practitioner or CRNA.

Do you, especially those already working as nurses, feel a lot of new graduate nurses are entering nursing for the sole purpose of becoming an APRN? I feel like since APRN's are gaining more popularity, people are entering the nursing field to become an APRN and not a "nurse", in lieu of becoming an MD/DO or PA. I'm not saying more education is bad, but it seems like people want to be an NP, not a nurse, if that makes sense. Which leads me to believe (and I know it's been discussed before) a huge over saturation of APRN's is in the near future.

Thoughts? Again, I'm not a nurse yet, so I could be completely off base.

Specializes in Med Surg/ICU/Psych/Emergency/CEN/retired.
I'm not as far in as you -- just a little over 20 years for me. But I can attest with certainty that in my city you will not work (as a new nurse) in any one of the major hospital systems without your BSN by 2018. I know it's not like that everywhere, but as one who thinks highly of the nursing profession and encourages kids who are healthcare minded to consider it as a career, I always advise looking at the BSN as the minimal, entry-level requirement. I work with (cream of the crop) nurses who have been nurses forever who are finishing up their BSNs just for this reason.

My advocating for nurses to have their BSNs isn't out of some elitist mindset. It's simply a reflection of the changes I'm seeing in healthcare. My hope is that it will help us, as a profession, to tackle some of the issues we're talking about in this thread as well.

Quote from WestCoastSun: My hope is that it will help us, as a profession, to tackle some of the issues we're talking about in this thread as well.

I have said this before here, but why does every other profession except nursing require an advanced degree such as a master's or a doctorate? This is not to trash ADN or Diploma nurses at all. I'm talking about the here and now for entry level. I know one answer in CA is because the ADN programs get state money, which they would lose if their programs were fazed out. Still in theory, why isn't a BSN the entry level now?

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Specializes in Adult Internal Medicine.

From strictly a financial position: if nursing changed to a BSN or MSN entry right now it would create a shortage which would increase demand and give nurses some leverage to have some of these demands met.

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I'm not as far in as you -- just a little over 20 years for me. But I can attest with certainty that in my city you will not work (as a new nurse) in any one of the major hospital systems without your BSN by 2018. I know it's not like that everywhere, but as one who thinks highly of the nursing profession and encourages kids who are healthcare minded to consider it as a career, I always advise looking at the BSN as the minimal, entry-level requirement. I work with (cream of the crop) nurses who have been nurses forever who are finishing up their BSNs just for this reason.

My advocating for nurses to have their BSNs isn't out of some elitist mindset. It's simply a reflection of the changes I'm seeing in healthcare. My hope is that it will help us, as a profession, to tackle some of the issues we're talking about in this thread as well.

Every position in my area lists "BSN preferred" right in the posting, and the hospitals system where I am employed now requires ADN and diploma nurses to finish their BSN within 4 years. It's happening. Slowly, yes, but surely. Many of the nurses I work with (in their 40s and 50s) are doing their BSN completion programs to keep their jobs.

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Every position in my area lists "BSN preferred" right in the posting, and the hospitals system where I am employed now requires ADN and diploma nurses to finish their BSN within 4 years. It's happening. Slowly, yes, but surely. Many of the nurses I work with (in their 40s and 50s) are doing their BSN completion programs to keep their jobs.

which is a shame....there need's to be a stop to ridiculousness. Do they believe a new grad bsn overrides there years of experience? Leave them nurses alone. That is a time in life you should be relaxing or doing things you want to do or helping your own kids pay for school. They should offer classes/continued education in their hospital if they really believe it's about safety.

I'm so disgusted with this profession at times.

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Specializes in Adult Internal Medicine.
which is a shame....there need's to be a stop to ridiculousness. Do they believe a new grad bsn overrides there years of experience? Leave them nurses alone. That is a time in life you should be relaxing or doing things you want to do or helping your own kids pay for school. They should offer classes/continued education in their hospital if they really believe it's about safety.

I'm so disgusted with this profession at times.

They did (at least superficially) base their requirements on outcomes data. I am sure it was also convenient to the bottom line to get some of the higher paid nurses a help out the door. I do believe if they require it they should contribute to the cost of it.

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That is one of my goals.

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Yes, improve working conditions for staff nurses. But also, get those people who have no intention of being a staff nurse for more than a year or two out of our expensive staff nurse orientation/residency programs. Allow those resources to be invested in the nurses who hope to be staff nurses for at least 2-3 years. The expenditure of resources on those nurses who have no interest in a hospital career is one of the reasons there are so few resources left to support the nurses who do want hospital careers.

Didn't want this to get lost.

I like the idea of the residencies being geared, in all their various aspects, toward those who see value/meaning in providing excellent professional bedside nursing care and who truly want that position. I agree with you that at this point the residency programs are not serving their purpose; possibly being misused.

I'm curious what it might look like to try to somehow filter out those who really don't have any kind of desire for bedside nursing. Maybe it's a problem we now collectively are just "realizing," - years ago when people went to the work and inconvenience of nursing school, it was a fair assumption that many of them desired to do some kind of direct patient care/bedside care. I guess that has changed.

What do we do with those who don't ever want to progress to "expert" bedside care nurse? Do we say they just don't require that experience (I know some feel that way, I wonder if it's a good/solid idea multiplied to the large scale), or do we say the nursing school externship should be extended/more intense? Or just not worry about it?

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Specializes in CVICU, MICU, Burn ICU.
Didn't want this to get lost.

I like the idea of the residencies being geared, in all their various aspects, toward those who see value/meaning in providing excellent professional bedside nursing care and who truly want that position. I agree with you that at this point the residency programs are not serving their purpose; possibly being misused.

I'm curious what it might look like to try to somehow filter out those who really don't have any kind of desire for bedside nursing. Maybe it's a problem we now collectively are just "realizing," - years ago when people went to the work and inconvenience of nursing school, it was a fair assumption that many of them desired to do some kind of direct patient care/bedside care. I guess that has changed.

What do we do with those who don't ever want to progress to "expert" bedside care nurse? Do we say they just don't require that experience (I know some feel that way, I wonder if it's a good/solid idea multiplied to the large scale), or do we say the nursing school externship should be extended/more intense? Or just not worry about it?

Such good thoughts in this thread. I've never been one for direct entry NP programs. And truely I can't see how they make any sense for acute care NP or CRNA aside from making such programs much more aligned with PA programs in terms of scope and clinical hours. And even with primary care.... these people are still nurses. I struggle with wanting them to really BE nurses.

But, we are bleeding out at the bedside in some areas. And how do we stop the bleeding? That's the point of this thread. I'm not sure what the answers are. Somehow vetting residency candidates? But I'm glad we're talking about it.

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It seemed like everyone was talking about this when i was in school. But i've only know a few that have actually gone on to pursue it. It becomes harder when student loans, bills and family obligations come into play after graduation. For those that do it, I think its wonderful when it doesn't come at the expense of losing the basic skills.

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Specializes in ICU, LTACH, Internal Medicine.

What do we do with those who don't ever want to progress to "expert" bedside care nurse? Do we say they just don't require that experience (I know some feel that way, I wonder if it's a good/solid idea multiplied to the large scale), or do we say the nursing school externship should be extended/more intense? Or just not worry about it?

How about this? You give these people option to take more science classes (first and foremost, normal physiology, patho, organic chem, biochem, anatomy (normal and regional), biostatis/epidemiology, pharma) while taking normal nursing school clinicals. After they pass all that, they might take an "extended externship" of a sort in a unit of their preference, say 1000 hours (which is about 8 to 10 months full time). And then they will happily be out of your way in grad school.

Those who decide to go to grad school after working X time bedside should be allowed to skip externship if they have relevant experience. But they will have to take all aforementioned classes, and if prereqs for these classses are, say, over 10 years old, they will have to test out of them or repeat them.

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Specializes in Pediatric Critical Care.
Susie was 100% behind her father's call to the manager and was INCENSED that it did not have the desired result.

Oh no! Ugh, I was hoping that wasn't the case :bluecry1:

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I want to say that many people do not approach this as a career. They become a nursd and then what? Go NP to make more money. And then what? Add on a business degree to become CNO or something like that to make more money. And then what?

I have only been a nurse for one year. Yes I want to be an APRN. But why? I have a very specific goal in mind thst aligns with my gifts and talents I am already using.

I want to teach nursing and also teach clinicals. I already do this in some ways. Whenever i have a nursing student assigned to me, i teach the student the patho behind the diagnisis, how any comorbidities can affect the diagnosis, anx what to specifically assess for.

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