Will Non-BSN nurses ever be fired?

Nurses General Nursing

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I'm entering nursing at a time when diploma, ADN, and BSN are all entry level educations for nursing. I don't want to get a BSN. But will there ever come a time when the ADN nurse will be fired for not having a BSN? Or will the BSN become the only entry level education and ADNs will simply fade away through attrition? What do you think?

(By the way, a little background: I'm entering nursing a little older than most [36]. I was a writer/publisher before, so I already have a bachelor's in another area. I'm not trying to argue a bachelor's education, I'm just tired of formal school at this time in my life. I do intend to get a CCRN, be ACLS certified and do continuing education units.)

Acosmic

I don't see a time anyplace in the foreseeable future that nursing will ever be entry level BSN. It's not practical, it's not needed and over education will become a thing of the past soon enough.

Nursing is suffering from proffesionalitis. Nurses want to be proffesionals, not technical. There is space in nursing for the proffesional, they just aren't needed on the floor. This will be seen eventually and this nonsense will finally come to an end.

About seven years ago, my mother & all non-BSNs were told to either go back for BSNs or leave their positions. This was a major teaching hospital in NC. It was a crazy policy implemented b/c of a new nursing administration. I'm not sure if it is still the case, but I bet it's not.

VA hospitals also state that by year X (they keep pushing back the year) all RNs will have to have BSNs, and that they will eliminate LPNs. However, since it's not realistic (due to the nationwide nursing shortage), I doubt it will ever really go into effect. They "encourage" BSNs, like many hospitals now, but there is no additional compensation or status for receiving one in most places.

If the law would ever be passed, if you already have a license to practice as a Registered Nurse, you would be grandfathered in. Where it would make a difference is to the new graduates that would just be starting.

Hope that this helps..................... :balloons:

I am a former LPN, who went back to school and received my RN. At the time, there was talk about eliminating the LPN position. The route would provide a short course, and grandfathering all LPNs to RNs. Entry level nursing would then be only RN. It will NEVER happen. The corporate world is very powerful, and minimal labor costs affects the budgets. LPNs provide a route for minimal labor costs. In my opinion, and among my peers, it is a well respected position, and in short, LPNs do very little less than RNs. The differnce is the pay! (at least in LA), less than half as RNs. It is cheap labor. I know RNs have been through more schooling, and know more pathophysiology...but I also have to believe there is a sense of logic in nursing, and it is individual. Some people have logic, leadership skills, are patient advocates, ethics, whether LPNs, RNs, RN-BSN, or all the other degrees. The more education, the more opportunities, are available, which is well earned. But I trully think nursing is an individual effort, no matter what the degree. :)

I am a former LPN, who went back to school and received my RN. At the time, there was talk about eliminating the LPN position. The route would provide a short course, and grandfathering all LPNs to RNs. Entry level nursing would then be only RN. It will NEVER happen. The corporate world is very powerful, and minimal labor costs affects the budgets. LPNs provide a route for minimal labor costs. In my opinion, and among my peers, it is a well respected position, and in short, LPNs do very little less than RNs. The differnce is the pay! (at least in LA), less than half as RNs. It is cheap labor. I know RNs have been through more schooling, and know more pathophysiology...but I also have to believe there is a sense of logic in nursing, and it is individual. Some people have logic, leadership skills, are patient advocates, ethics, whether LPNs, RNs, RN-BSN, or all the other degrees. The more education, the more opportunities, are available, which is well earned. But I trully think nursing is an individual effort, no matter what the degree. :)

AMEN! Very well said!

Specializes in private duty/home health, med/surg.

I don't see this ever happening.

Specializes in Med/Surg, Ortho.

I would hope that if something like this ever comes to pass they would considering grandfathering all ADN nurses in before dismissing them. They did this in my state about 20 years ago with the CNA's. The ones who were facility trained were grandfathered in and didnt have to pass their certification as long as they stayed at the same facility, but anyone hired beyond a certain date had to pass the state certification test.

Specializes in OBGYN, Neonatal.

I'm with you on that being crazy. I also already have a BA degree, in Psychology and do not really want to pursue the Bachelor's degree again but...what I would like to do is once I become a practicing nurse - go in to get an MSN. I've been reading around and seeing some programs that allow for that - kind of crossing over and then going forward. I have all my classes for a MS in Psych as well but have not done the thesis yet. So I'm thinking about just finding a cross over program once I am a working nurse. Right now I am in the first year of a diploma program.

One of my professors is a grad from an ADN program, she then went back and got a BSN and MSN and is now a professor. Her motto is "we are all nurses". Her sister went in through it all and now has a PhD in nursing and believes that nurses must have a BSN.

I say phooey looey - if you do that is GREAT, if you don't that is fine too - do what works for you! As a nurse working with patients every day I think it is the combination of people skills and thorough knowledge and technique that counts.

I would like to eventually become a professor so I will probably go all the way with my education later. :nurse:

I doubt it. I do think that it will get more competitive if you're just starting -- say if the ADN and a BSN are going for the same job but then maybe not if you know how to work the situation and show you can do the job. Here in NY there are some differentials for education (1300 BSN or 1800 MSN) and a few of the private hospitals say BSN preferred but notice it doesn't say only or min so , , ,little by little it seem sto be moving in the BSN direction but EXPERIENCE is really what's golden, regardless of the degree.

Could I sraddle the fence any wider???????????

:rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:

Could I sraddle the fence any wider???????????

:rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:

LOL! You'd have to grow some mighty long legs :p j/k

Thanks for the input, everyone. It's just that I hated nursing school so much, and not just the instructors or the schedule or the assanine tests, but I hated the administration, the clerk in the student services building, and the way the buildings were designed, and the way you got a ticket if you parked facing out of a parking spot instead of in, and on and on and on. The bottom line is that I hate school. I hated the fact that people I didn't respect had power over whether I became a nurse or not. I hated the way we students had to always be polite even when the instructors were rude, demeaning, and childish. I hate them, and I hate school.

That doesn't mean I hate education. I read all the time. I bought all my nursing textbooks and still read them, and am looking forward to reading in them more deeply when I get the NCLEX behind me. I love cardiology and subscribed to AJN, RN and Nursing 2004. I'm all for education! But I hate school.

I hate the way they put it (formal education) in front of you and the whole world goes running after it as if they are just crap-people unless they have this or that degree. There's never an end to it. The word salad gets bigger and bigger after a person's name until there's no room to sign it anymore. And yet, there is always another hoop to jump through, always someone saying: "eventually you'll need this or that degree to be able to compete."

So help me God, if I can avoid it for the next 30 years, I will never step foot on a college campus again. I don't want advancement. I don't want fruit salad after my name. I just want to wear the scrubs the nurses get to wear, hang a stethescope over my neck and be able to care for patients for the next 30 years. I hate school. I hate it. I feel like a British school boy in the movie "The Wall."

Thanks for letting me vent; thanks for the opinions on this topic.

Acosmic

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