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
They featured two registered nurses, one made $76,000 and the other made $88,000. We all know that these are far above the average salaries for registered nurses. But if I'm considering a career in the field and reading this, then I'm thinking, "Hmmm......I can be a nurse with very little education and make a lot of money doing it. That's a cinch!" Yes, very misleading.
This has really been a problem for me since before I started the program.... At the information meeting for my school's program the director herself says.. "Where else can you go to school for two years and make $50,000 to start". Now this is indeed true in California (except that with prereq's it takes more like 4 years) but I'd like to know who decided that it would be a good idea to encourage young girls (and guys) who aren't otherwise considering nursing, to pursue this career for the money and flexible schedule. Granted, these are nice benefits of the career, but I can't tell you the number of people I have run into that don't even like nursing and just did it because they didn't know what else to do... It's sad for the patients who have nurses who would rather be anything else and frustrating for those students who are waiting for a coveted spot.
All diploma nurses graduate/graduated from in-hospital programs, that's where they're based. There is no affiliation with a college.
Clarification: Diploma RN programs offer the non-nursing courses (A&P, micro, psych, sociology, human development, etc.) in conjunction with a local partner college or university. The credits earned from completion of these courses are awarded directly from the college/university.
In the past, I think it was the case that these courses were sometimes taught by nursing school faculty. Some nurses who graduated from diploma schools many moons ago have thus encountered difficulty transferring these courses to BSN programs later on. Thankfully, that is no longer typically the case.
Everyone who is upset about this needs to go to parade.com and post a comment to the article...we have enough members on this forum to really make a statement...I posted mine.
The college I go to has an option that after the first year you can get your diploma for LPN and sit for the boards, so there are still some that are affiliated with colleges, at least here in NH.
I know of several diploma programs and most are hospital affiliated.
For those that are rushing over to parade.com to post - PLEASE do not post in such a rage that you are unable to spell the simplest of words or form coherent sentences.
Seriously, read some of the responses posted there thus far and see if you think it does anything to prove our point that we really ARE well-educated professionals.
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>
The reference to the CA/TN situation was one in which the RN from CA had not graduated from any college, had actually acquired sufficient credits in an ADN program, and then applied to sit for the NCLEX-RN. She was granted the opportunity to sit for the NCLEX in CA based on the number of credits completed in an RN program AND because she also held an LVN license. She was not in a BSN program; the quirk in the licensing law allowed her to sit for the NCLEX while not having completed an Associates degree.
Perhaps today that is no longer a loophole option, and frankly I hope that's the case. But since this nurse was licensed ten years ago, it's obviously still haunting those who chose that unorthodox route to nursing.
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.
I'm sure by now you know you're not getting a BSN from a hospital, but rather from a university that holds hospital clinicals?
I think that article in Parade Magazine can lead to some misperceptions. Right away many of us got defensive because nursing - an often challenging, rewarding, as well as humbling and thankless career - was grouped with other jobs that are not of the professional status as other professions we see in healthcare, business, technology, etc. I think the perception many of us had was that nursing was made to look like an "easy" job, one that didn't require a lot of intelligence or education (or pay!), a career that was not a profession. In that sense, it felt like an insult even if that wasn't the intention.
I know and you fellow nurses know what nursing really is about! What I find unfortunate is that those not in nursing will view our field as it is sometimes portrayed.
i didn't read the article but experience tells me that nursing was represented as a job that could be obtained easily without a college degree although we know that nurses without degrees are not the norm and do have limited opportunities away from the bedside as compared to nurses with degrees. so while the article may have been technically correct, it is misleading. additionally i went to the website and looked at the salary survey. they featured two registered nurses, one made $76,000 and the other made $88,000. we all know that these are far above the average salaries for registered nurses. but if i'm considering a career in the field and reading this, then i'm thinking, "hmmm......i can be a nurse with very little education and make a lot of money doing it. that's a cinch!" yes, very misleading.
well...i graduated in 1982 from the bryn mawr hospital school of nursing, with a diploma. i will be graduating on may 5th, 2007, with a bsn. i disagree with the statement made, "i can be a nurse with very little education and make a lot of money doing it." my nursing school experience was a three year program. from my understanding, ad programs are two years. a lot of my nursing school experience involved actual hands on learning and certainly was not "very little education". missing from my diploma program were seperate courses for community and leadership...and maybe a couple more. these courses were incorporated into the three year program. i took the same nursing exam that all the other graduates took...and scored quite well i might add. i went the diploma route because of the increased clinical involvement. i chose to obtain my bsn in order to obtain my msn and become a aprn or possibly teach.
saying all that, the statement made in the article is true. one doesn't need a degree to become a registered nurse.
JoniL&DRN
238 Posts
This has really been a problem for me since before I started the program.... At the information meeting for my school's program the director herself says.. "Where else can you go to school for two years and make $50,000 to start". Now this is indeed true in California (except that with prereq's it takes more like 4 years) but I'd like to know who decided that it would be a good idea to encourage young girls (and guys) who aren't otherwise considering nursing, to pursue this career for the money and flexible schedule. Granted, these are nice benefits of the career, but I can't tell you the number of people I have run into that don't even like nursing and just did it because they didn't know what else to do... It's sad for the patients who have nurses who would rather be anything else and frustrating for those students who are waiting for a coveted spot.