This Sunday's Parade Magazine featured their annual report "What People Earn." Always very interesting but...if you look on page 4, there is a colorful box listing jobs that do not require a college degree. Here's the list: Sales Representatives, Translators, Dental Hygienists, Registered Nurses, Insurance Adjusters, Transportation Workers, Athletic Trainers, Auto Technicians, and Legal Secretaries. Shocking to say the least. I hope I won't be the only one writing to this magazine to correct this terrible misconception.:angryfire
I think the kicker is that you may not "need" a college degree (as in diploma nursing)..but those programs are fading fast...but as far as a legal secretary...I would like to see someone get out of high school, have no networking connections, walk into a lawfirm and apply for a job...yeah, we probably know someone who has done it, but they are few and far between.
California doesn't even require that you actually graduate from an nursing program (RN) to take the NCLEX-RN and work as an RN. There was recently a thread from someone who is moving to Tennessee who is upset because they won't accept her California RN license as is. She has to go back and finish school first.
Though I agree that the article is a bit misleading unless they explain the situation a little more fully.
CA has a thirty unit option that is only available to LVNs in California and cannot be endorsed to any other state. They have to be an LVN and can take just thirty additional hours, but we never recommend it, it can't be used anywhere else. They had to complete an LPN/LVN program and pass the NCLEX-PN and then complete the required hours. Still is another year of college if you do the math, but they are missing a couple of courses from it being the same as the ADN.
Oh please, and that's why ADN and BSN programs are swamped with applicants. I've never heard of a diploma program to become a RN. Touting that you don't need a degree to become a RN is ridiculous.
And I am a very proud graduate of a Diploma Nursing program. These programs were almost all hospital-based. When you speak to a nurse and they tell you that they went to ----------hospital school of nursing. These are all Diploma nurses.
Unfortunately, you do not see them too much anymore, but they are still there. New Jersey actually has several.
Oh please, and that's why ADN and BSN programs are swamped with applicants. I've never heard of a diploma program to become a RN. Touting that you don't need a degree to become a RN is ridiculous.
Here are two that I readily know about. Sentara Norfolk General has had an RN school since 1892 and Watts, which is right down the road from me, has been around since 1895. Sentara's website says it is one of six diploma programs remaining in Virginia.
The reason their graduates are becoming rare are because THE SCHOOLS themselves are becoming rarer and rarer.
So you don't technically need a degree to become an RN, and places still exist where you can do that. What they're not telling you is that it takes just as long to get a diploma as an ADN, and it can cost a whole lot more - Sentara seemed to be pretty reasonably priced (Sentara IS a big conglomerate), but Watts here in Durham is ten grand a year each year for two years.
I think diploma nurses have an outstanding education and are probably the most technically clean student nurses out there. They spend HOURS on the floor - hours that those of us in ADN and BSN programs just can't get. So while I know I'm getting an outstanding education, I'm more than a bit jealous of those fortunate enough to go to diploma programs - not just for the education, but because they've taken part in a wonderful tradition. Hospital schools used to be the only formal training programs for nursing. How wonderful to be a part of that.
Okay . . a little off the subject, but dental hygenist was listed there also and I know my Aunt worked her butt off to get her degree from UMKC (University of Missouri - Kansas City). It is a four year Bachelors degree. But maybe it is like nursing where the degree isn't ABSOLUTELY necessary. Just wondering if anyone knew anything about that?
You can also get a technical degree in dental hygiene, but strictly speaking you're not called a dental hygienist (that's the four year folks; there's some part of the title that those folks cannot designate themselves as); I'm not sure of their title. The equivalent for us, I think, would be the difference in an RN and an LPN. (Those folks do work their butts off to get that BS, and around here they make more right out of school than an RN - but you couldn't pay me ENOUGH to look in nasty mouths all day. Ick.)
It's like radiology - you can be a radiology technician (I think that's a year or a year and a half) or get a 4 year degree and be a radiologic technologist. I see the UNC RT students in the hospital cafeteria at Duke all the time.
But even knowing all that, if I were a 4 year prepared DH, I'd be ANNOYED by that!
Oh wow, that's interesting about the diploma nurses being in-hospital. I'm getting a BSN from a hospital, which is also a school. I actually did some googling and found out it used to be a 3-year diploma program before being phased out and turned into a baccalaureate program.
All diploma nurses graduate/graduated from in-hospital programs, that's where they're based. There is no affiliation with a college. Your BSN program is based at a college that provides the degree.
On the California RN license with no degree. It USED to be true that if you had completed your nursing classes in a BSN, but had not finished your bachelors degree you could apply for a license and sit for the NCLEX. That is no longer an option, and hasn't been for several years. I don't know if you ever had to finish the BSN after that, but I know at our school, the students applied in the summer after their junior year. As i mentioned though.....that was then. Now??? Nope. You have to have GRADUATED before you can sit for the NCLEX>
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I'll assume you either ignore this or tell them otherwise if it's warranted. :)
:lol2: 
justme1972
2,441 Posts
I think the kicker is that you may not "need" a college degree (as in diploma nursing)..but those programs are fading fast...but as far as a legal secretary...I would like to see someone get out of high school, have no networking connections, walk into a lawfirm and apply for a job...yeah, we probably know someone who has done it, but they are few and far between.
That article, sends the wrong message.