Grand Canyon RN-BSN

pinkdonkey · Jun 7, 2015

The kitten in front is those of you you are relishing your boredom. The one serious one in the rear is the rest of us, with a long row to hoe!

tokmom, BSN, RN · Jun 8, 2015

Does anyone work where a BSN makes more money? My facility doesn't pay more, but I'm hoping to change that the next time we negotiate our contract. I'm on the team and three years ago, I brought it up to my co-workers who are on the team. They shot it down immediately, even though I had the ADN and all but another have a BSN. They said it would dissuade the facility from hiring BSN. :sarcastic:

rob4546, ADN, BSN, MSN · Jun 8, 2015

My facility had paid BSNs in the past an extra dollar an hour. Earlier this year they announced that they would no longer do this, but for those that received it up to this point will continue to enjoy it. All new BSNs from that point on will not get it. They said it was to cut costs to further promote their new "education" program.

My question was, "don't they promote further education by offering a pay incentive?" Now they will give 1000.00 dollars per year for education but you have to sign a 2 year work agreement for each disbursement. They don't understand that people wont take the 1000.00 because after they earn their BSN they leave for much more pay. At our facility there are very few BSNs.

So why do facilities not believe what we are told about improved patient safety and better outcomes when there is a higher proportion of BSNs? If this was true it would not dissuade the facility from hiring BSN. Seems like they would do everything to promote BSN. They want the BSN, just don't want to pay for them.

PrismRN · Jun 8, 2015

I don't know what my coworkers make; there are 11 of us and we are threatened within an inch of our lives if we talk. I don't know how I feel about the more $ for more education in my arena (insurance nursing/utilization management). Most of my coworkers are ADN, a few BSN, and one MSN. We all do the exact same cookie-cutter job, so in my line of work I think it would irk me if I learned the BSNs/MSN made more bank for turning in the same exact work as the ADNs. If I were bedside, I think I would feel different.

pinkdonkey · Jun 8, 2015

How discouraging.

tokmom, BSN, RN · Jun 9, 2015

Rob, that makes zero sense! Unless the person wants the degree for personal satisfaction, why bother?

I always wanted the degree, with or without a pay raise. I'm going to the monies to be added as just another way to add to the pot o' gold.

Prism, I agree in many ways that nurses do the same job, so why the pay difference. I have no idea what degree many of my co-workers have and I have never asked. But if I can help recoup the cost of my education, I'm all for it. I find it weird that I get a 1.00 more for my certification and nothing for my BSN.

PrismRN · Jun 9, 2015

Prism, I agree in many ways that nurses do the same job, so why the pay difference. I have no idea what degree many of my co-workers have and I have never asked. But if I can help recoup the cost of my education, I'm all for it. I find it weird that I get a 1.00 more for my certification and nothing for my BSN.

I agree, but I should clarify:

I'm one of those who actually believe that the BSN enhances knowledge and improves care. There are many that don't buy into that; there are threads on here that express the train of thought that Aiken had ulterior motive(s) for her research and that the timing of publication was suspect. I do not feel I am a gullible person, but also not a complete cynic.

When I said 'doing the same job', I was specifically referring to my cookie-cutter job where thinking outside the box is not necessarily encouraged. I can think it, and I DO now think differently about patients and care (since gradjeeation), but turning that into improved patient outcomes is limited by the restrictions of the job itself.

I will admit that on the occasions recently when both my mother and then later her husband were hospitalized, I had more confidence when I saw all the "BSN"s on the nursing nametags. I know what I learned, and I know now what I didn't know before I went through my program (which you could have never convinced me of beforehand), and if people want to call people like me a lemming then so be it. I, for one, would vote on higher pay and for the PowersThatBe to allow me to use my education for the greater good. I was a bedside nurse for a very long time, ICU nearly all of it, and yes I was a rockin' nurse if I do say so myself with that ADN. If I could do it all over though, I would have gotten this BSN back then and who knows how much more awesome I would have been? Ha!

I'm not a proponent of BSN-only entry, or mandatory education for those with eons of experience like I had. I know not everyone can go back for their BSN, MSN, etc., but I will always encourage any that can to do it. I was not a subpar nurse before, I just think this was education that absolutely improved me personally. So yes, I definitely think those that do ought to be compensated for the extra stuff that's in their brains, dangit! :)

rob4546, ADN, BSN, MSN · Jun 9, 2015

Rob, that makes zero sense! Unless the person wants the degree for personal satisfaction, why bother?
I always wanted the degree, with or without a pay raise. I'm going to the monies to be added as just another way to add to the pot o' gold.

This is why most of our nurses on staff are ADN's, why bother if it means no more money and I can work without having to do it? I am in a rural area and we are staffed by exclusively ADN's for the most part. Out of the RN's that work I could walk the floor and tell you who I would let work on me and it would be less than 50% I believe. I like most everyone the unit (ICU) but after that it is a crap shoot. I feel bad for saying it because I work there but it is my opinion.

The reason I am doing it is so that I can leap ahead of someone for a management position or get a job if I ever move. More money is just a perk if I stayed here.

Flames9_RN, BSN, RN, EMT-B · Jun 9, 2015

1 never knows where life will take you....never in a zillion yrs did I think I would marry an American gal..give up my dream job in the Cdn Air Force and move to the USA....and then become a RN. An ADN may be fine where you are now and at this moment, but who knows a few years down the road where you will be? And in many centers, an ADN may not be that useful.........

rob4546, ADN, BSN, MSN · Jun 9, 2015

I agree, but I should clarify:
I'm one of those who actually believe that the BSN enhances knowledge and improves care. There are many that don't buy into that; there are threads on here that express the train of thought that Aiken had ulterior motive(s) for her research and that the timing of publication was suspect. I do not feel I am a gullible person, but also not a complete cynic.
When I said 'doing the same job', I was specifically referring to my cookie-cutter job where thinking outside the box is not necessarily encouraged. I can think it, and I DO now think differently about patients and care (since gradjeeation), but turning that into improved patient outcomes is limited by the restrictions of the job itself.
I will admit that on the occasions recently when both my mother and then later her husband were hospitalized, I had more confidence when I saw all the "BSN"s on the nursing nametags. I know what I learned, and I know now what I didn't know before I went through my program (which you could have never convinced me of beforehand), and if people want to call people like me a lemming then so be it. I, for one, would vote on higher pay and for the PowersThatBe to allow me to use my education for the greater good. I was a bedside nurse for a very long time, ICU nearly all of it, and yes I was a rockin' nurse if I do say so myself with that ADN. If I could do it all over though, I would have gotten this BSN back then and who knows how much more awesome I would have been? Ha!
I'm not a proponent of BSN-only entry, or mandatory education for those with eons of experience like I had. I know not everyone can go back for their BSN, MSN, etc., but I will always encourage any that can to do it. I was not a subpar nurse before, I just think this was education that absolutely improved me personally. So yes, I definitely think those that do ought to be compensated for the extra stuff that's in their brains, dangit! :)

I hear what you are saying but I had a question. Do you think that you are absorbing more of the information because you have your BSN after a full and rewarding career? Think of it as a nursing refresher if you will. I am the one that believes that I am learning something it isn't comparable to what I am paying. I learned in stats and research but most of everything else has been busy work and a review of my ADN program.

I have to tell you that I had a pretty rocking ADN program. I also was a non-traditional student (old) so I wanted to learn everything and applied myself to the Nth degree. Also I just graduated so most of that information is still in the forefront. This is one of the reasons I think I am not learning what I should be learning. Have to tell you I am learning almost nothing in ethics. This is the class I was looking forward to and it has turned out to be nothing like I would have expected it.

PrismRN · Jun 10, 2015

I hear what you are saying but I had a question. Do you think that you are absorbing more of the information because you have your BSN after a full and rewarding career?

This very well may be the case. What I learned in BSN was more easily absorbed and applied as I had a healthy foundation to understand how and why I could and should apply extra knowledge to patient situations that I hadn't considered before.

I am the one that believes that I am learning something it isn't comparable to what I am paying. I learned in stats and research but most of everything else has been busy work and a review of my ADN program. I have to tell you that I had a pretty rocking ADN program...Also I just graduated so most of that information is still in the forefront.

I think this may also be a big difference for me - I went to ADN school so long ago and the program was brand new at the community college I attended. Nursing in general has grown leaps and bounds since then; back then no one cared about cultural competency or patients' perspectives. Certainly there was no focus on patient participation in their own care, the phrase "Health Promotion" hadn't been invented yet. In "my day", everything was so paternalistic and if the patient didn't do what you told them to do (without even bothering to tell them why), they were labeled noncompliant - no questions asked. I find that now I just look at patients differently; rather than body-systems and what can I do to fix this one issue, I look at the whole person (dare I say holistically? LOL) and dig deeper into why they are the way they are and how to get them to help themselves out of their current state.

I think ADN programs in general have grown to include so much more than I was ever taught, so those that have graduated fairly recently probably experienced much of what is included in BSN programs? It was mostly all new to me, and the repeats of info were not at the credit of what I learned at my ADN school, they were a result of on the job training of stuff I picked up here and there by just being observant and curious :)

Vegan_RN · Jun 10, 2015

I finished my program at GCU in March and am very happy with the education I received.