The education requirement for nursing is changing

Nurses General Nursing

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It used to be that nurses did not have to go to college; we were instead trained by hospitals. Then the education requirement changed and community college replaced hospitals. And now, it is changing to that some hospitals will only hire nurses with college degrees. Undoubtedly, the education requirement will continue to increase in the future.

The downside to this is that it will make this profession harder to get into. And those who are in the profession will constantly need to adapt by going back to school. The upside to this is that it will provide us with more skills to do a better job.

What is your opinion on this?

The educational changes are related to the idea of professionalizing nursing.

This is a good thing.

My opinion is that it isn't accurate. To say that nurses didn't used to have to go to college because they were "trained" by hospitals is more-or-less technically correct, but it doesn't really capture the essence of earlier nursing education. The education provided by a reputable hospital school of nursing WAS a college education. Nurses have also been receiving bachelor's degrees for a good long time--long before community colleges started granting associate's degrees in nursing.

This is the trend in many professions.

Colleges are the gatekeepers for more professions. Once a college degree was an unusually hight level of achievment, now it is more standard. The downside is that college is getting more expensive and doesn't give you the career boost that it once did.

The degree has little to do with actual skills; it is a credential.

BSN degrees predate Associate Degrees, don't they?

Specializes in OB-Gyn/Primary Care/Ambulatory Leadership.

I think anything that raises the bar for nurses, builds us up as a more professional career (rather than a "pink collar" trade), gains us more respect and gives us more bargaining power for higher salaries, while also forcing more selectivity in who joins the profession, can only be a GOOD thing in the long run.

Specializes in Critical Care; Cardiac; Professional Development.

I am all for it.

Specializes in Emergency.

Homework?

No, it's not homework. I made this thread after reading the following article from the New York Times:http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/24/education/changing-requirements-send-nurses-back-to-school.html?_r=1&adxnnl=1&ref=nursingandnurses&adxnnlx=1346076794-lQ7TncFgAmWwWJyq74Jipw

I'm all for making nursing hard to get into, because it lessens the competition for existing nurses and keeps salaries from going on. The glut of new grads and pop-up nursing schools is something that needs to be stopped.

Specializes in Surgical.

I read the article you linked but I think the education requirement many hospitals are imposing and the new rules for degree attainment (ex: you will need a doctorate to get NP after , um 2014?, I think) down play the importance of experience on the job, the individual RN and the facilities that he/she have worked at.

There are several RN's on the floor where I work that have ADN degrees and are smarter than many of our residents and truly know how to care for our patients. Then there are some BSN 's who do not have the same experience and practical knowledge needed for floor work and it takes them years to catch up and gain that experience.

I think that the distinction is weird and the seperation is crazy as whether you are ADN, diploma or BSN, we ALL take the same NCLEX if you are a registered nurse and a new grad is a new grad-its what you do with your time working is what makes you the nurse you are-not your education background that allowed you to take NCLEX.

Yes they do; the BSN was first established in the early 1900s at Minnesota. I'm always confused when people seem to think the BSN is a new concept... the ADN didn't come into existence until the 1950s.

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