education question

[sbostonRN]

I am an RN with an ADN and about 8 months of experience working as a nurse. I live in the Boston area and it's a very competetive market for nurses. I want to make myself as marketable as possible but I also dont' want to waste time and money.

I have a previous bachelor's degree (in Biology) so I always thought that I'd go straight for my MSN rather than get a second bachelor's in nursing. But all the MSN programs require me to specialize and I really don't want to specialize so soon as a new nurse. I like being a staff nurse! So for purposes of mobility should I go for the BSN? It would only require about 30 credits and cost ~$10,000. My salary probably wouldn't change but it would allow me to go work in a hospital (I currently work in a subacute SNF).

Any thoughts/advice? Am I wasting my time and money going for the BSN?

[llg, PhD, RN]

For $10,000, I'd do it. It will open up new possibilities for you -- and help you avoid spending a lot of money on a specialty that you might hate.

Can you find a program that is RN-MSN that awards the BSN along the way? That would be the best option. You could get to the point at which they offer the BSN, take the BSN, and then take a break and work for a while. Once you decide on a specialty, you could then finish the MSN portion -- which would be a little less expensive as you would have been well-set up for it in the first (pre-BSN) part of the program.