Nursing was a second career for me. I have a previous 4 year degree and had a career in that area. Now I'm middle aged, 3 years out of nursing school with ADN, almost 3 years of experience in critical care peds.
I'm being strongly encouraged to get my BSN. They will not fire me if I don't but I won't be able to transfer within the hospital very easily and my prospects should I seek employment elsewhere are probably not great.
I am, with much reluctance, applying for some on-line programs. I am just resentful that I will be writing papers and spending precious time away from my kids, my personal time, and I am a very busy mom with the family activities. Frankly I'm burned out with school. Have a bad attitude about going back.
So if I am to do an online program that takes things slowly, say one class at a time, how many hours will this require per week? How much will it take away from family? I would like to hear from those who are in a similar situation.
I am begrudgingly starting my BSN program later this month. I can see the writing on the wall now and I hear others on this forum talk about difficulties getting a job with only an ADN. Additionally down the road I would like to get a Master's in something. I just haven't figured out which route I want to pursue just yet. Good luck to you!!
Specializes in orthopedic/trauma, Informatics, diabetes.
Add me to the list of resentful. Not that I don't love learning, I do. But I cringe everytime I hear the phrase "the baccalaureate trained nurse" Then why not count those of us with a baccalaureate degree in another, related category. I have a Masters, too.
I transferred to a different program (RN-BSN) b/c the first was ridiculous.
I am finding it interesting to look at the issues I learned in nursing school differently now that I have been practicing a couple of years.
I am turning 50 soon and I have been in school almost half of the last 25 years. I'd like to be done!! If I go to school until I die, my loans go away.
As far as the very competent experienced ADN nurses, the Magnet status wants 80% BSN. That leaves room for those that it would be counter productive to send back to school to remain as ADN nurses. There is pressure at my facility to get a BSN, but subtle. I am just going to go ahead and get it over with.
As far as timing, I work weekends, so I have time while my kids (I had kids late, too- I have a 10 and 13 year old) are in school during the week to work on school work. My sessions are 7 1/2 weeks each and I am taking 6 hours (2 courses) each session, so I should be done in less than a year. It is doable. And it is interesting to talk to other nurses about their practices.
Specializes in Oncology; medical specialty website.
Because the ivory-tower nursing elite feel that the only degrees that matter are nursing degrees. You could have a degree in rocket science, and they'd say, "That's lovely, dear, but you don't have a BSN."
It's like that scene from "Wayne's World" where the guys are bowing before Alice Cooper saying, "We're not worthy, we're not worthy!" Only Alice Cooper is the ANA.
I understand your frustration completely. However, here is a little story of a friend of a friend... RN - ADN, decades of experience in her field. Works in a hospital unit. She refuses to get a BSN, cannot transfer into another unit. BAM! Needs hip replacement surgery. Surgery goes good, everything is okay, but she's in pain constantly. Orthos say nothing wrong, it's healed nicely. She attempts to get qualified as disabled. You and I know that won't fly. So, she feels she's not able to go back to work, but has to. But, they have to qualify her/make sure she can do the work still. If she had her BSN, with her experience, she'd have a lot more options. Right now, she faces being unemployed or working in chronic pain. So, you never know what is down the road.
I do the Univ. of TX at Arlington RN-BSN. The RN course are 5 week sessions. So, 5 weeks and you're done. They go fast. Any pre-reqs are 8 - 10 weeks. If I really could put my brain to the grain, I could have knocked it out and been done in just over a year. I take four courses per semester, which is not that bad. You can go as fast or slow as you wish. It's cheap too. Some of the people in the courses are in situations like yourself and they have said that some of the courses have re-energized their feelings for their career. Good luck in whatever you decide. I totally get the lack of enthusiasm.
LoveMyBugs, how does Western Governors handle the clinical portion?
WGU does not have a clinical (most RN to BSN programs do not) - it's a 90 hour community health practicum that you do in your community (interviews, mostly).
For what it is worth, I think seasoned nurses with decades of experience should be grandfathered into the system.
To the people who stated that the game is changing and people over a certain age should be grandfathered in, it has been changing for years now. This is nothing new. The talk of making the BSN the new standard over the ADN has been going on for decades. While I sympathize with the OP, the fact of the matter is, she is competing with younger BSNs with just as much experience and more education than herself. The OP isn't a seasoned nurse with boatloads of experience, so allowing people to be grandfathered into the system simply because of their age and not nursing experience is not fair to the younger ADN nurses either who have just as much bedside experience as the OP.
I do think it is sad that nurses want to be seen as professionals but so many are against earning more education. I don't hear nowhere near as much complaining from other healthcare professionals about higher education as I do from nurses.
Great post.
What makes people think age=experience?
When i was in class in 2004,most nursing students were late 30's -early 60's second career changers. Out of a class of 35,34 were over 23(i was the only 20 yr old)
I would like to look at some stats on age and experience of nurses,because it seems most nurses that are in their 40's did not start as nurses in their 20's.
Its funny,because i was bemoaning going back to school with the youngsters(i am 32 but feel so old,it must be nursing aging me)
Continuing education is absolutely critical for all (real) medical professions.
Now ill concede that an RN > BSN program is probably not going to cover the most interesting or pertinent information. But an associates degree (of ANY kind) doesn't mean anything these days. Nursing should be no different.
I agree. And if you look at most healthcare professionals, a bachelors' degree is the bare minimum requirement. If we want to be seen as a profession, we need to have the same minimum requirements as the rest of the healthcare team.
I don't think that having a ADN makes one less professional. YOu dont hear of it from other professions becasue they ahve not been told go back to scholl or you can't work anymmoe. TRUST ME...if CEO's physicians, lawyers and politicians had to further their education to maintain their job.....there would be a ruckus!
While this has been proposed for YEARS it has taken a bad economy and a plethora of nurses in the job market that has promotes this transition AT THIS TIME!
I don't believe for ONE minute that the nurses laid off was based on their degree. In reality it has EVERYTHING to do with how much they make....the senior nurses. Since the MAJORITY of the working nurse population at the bedside are ADN nurses with experience it goes to say that those are also the senior nurses. It is against the law to discriminate against the nurse for her age...it is NOT however against the law to lay off nurses with downsizing and education as a the "guideline" so they not only decrease that amount of nurses but the amount of pay that is paid to the nurses that are left.
I have sat in on these meetings and I have heard the strategy personally..... their motives behind the moves are illegal. While they talk about professionalism, education, and patient outcomes..... it is seen as a way to weed out the most expensive and the most verbal.
This is a dangerous precedent....for 29 years from now you too will be laid off for not getting your MSN.
The first part of your post does not make sense. Lawyers, doctors, physical therapists, etc. all require advanced degrees. These profession already caught on to what is needed to be a profession.
The ANA called for all RN's to have their BSN in 1965. Every other member of the healthcare team as moved to a minimum of a BSN for entry into practice (many require a master's degree now), but nursing.
We are never going to be seen as a true profession if we require so little education.
I have a bachelor's degree in a health care field (athletic training), and I am currently in school for my BSN after earning my ADN 8 years ago. I am frustrated that the nursing "powers that be" will not accept my BSH, so here I am, back in college at age 41. I want to get my master's eventually (not sure in what yet).
That being said, I will be proud of my BSN, and I understand the push towards the BSN in our profession. Although I haven't quite figured out how having my BSN going to make me a better nurse.
I attend University of Maine at Fort Kent. Everything is online, and there is no clinical component. I take 2 classes a semester. I am lucky I only have to take the nursing classes because of my previous bachelor's degree. They also give the option to test out of pathophysiology. Most courses are a combination of a set number of discussion posts/replies and papers. I had to do a project with a couple of other student during my community health class. I work full time and am a single mom to 3 kids so I am busy, but it is manageable.
Specializes in Critical Care, ED, Cath lab, CTPAC,Trauma.
The first part of your post does not make sense. Lawyers, doctors, physical therapists, etc. all require advanced degrees. These profession already caught on to what is needed to be a profession.
The ANA called for all RN's to have their BSN in 1965. Every other member of the healthcare team as moved to a minimum of a BSN for entry into practice (many require a master's degree now), but nursing.
We are never going to be seen as a true profession if we require so little education.
It was a hypothetical example about the outrage it would cause if there was a developed "additional education" required to maintain their positions. I know ALL ABOUT the ANA paper of 1968 and another one in 1978, 1990, 1997, 2000, 2010....Education for Professional Nursing Practice: Looking Backward into the Future
I have considered nursing professional, and myself a professional, from the very beginning of my career even tough I received a lowly ASN degree. In my day the BSN was the degree for the APRN and the physicians didn't like them AT ALL!
I have had an amazing PROFESSIONAL CAREER WITHOUT a BSN. I never needed one to be promoted, make money, work in critical care, cath lab and trauma flight, have high level administrative/director/supervision/Clin spec/educator/instructor positions.
I was asked to get my BSN online in 2003 ( which by the way added NOTHING WHAT SO EVER to my professionalism of competency) by my employer with full reimbursement. They felt it "looked good" to have management with a BSN or higher. I saw no change in my professionalism (nor my salary) in essence I don't believe it taught me anything I wasn't already doing or had already learned. IMHO it was a waste of money...but it was their money so I did it.
To tell a nurse with >the 20 years experience she is no longer "professional" or can give "competent care" is insulting. Who does everyone think has been at the bedside for the last 35 years with all the medical advancements? Certainly not a majority of BSN and MSN prepared nurses. To infer now that they are useless is demeaning. Some would call that being bullied. If the academic were serious they wouldn't make the experienced nurses go back to school and make them re-take all of their general education pre-reques for English and math and the "fluff" extra courses that have absolutely NO nursing involved.
I know that this will lead to a "better rounded individual" that through their literature course will provide better care and make that nurse a professional at last....I cry FOUL! My ASN program at my 4 year college is now their Accelerated BSN degree. Course for course EXACTLY the same. So....because they have a previous 4 year degree in basket weaving (sarcasm) they can go to the same program I went to and have a BSN...but that somehow makes them the better nurse? I disagree....and it makes me angry.
Let me be clear. I think that as nursing goes forward BSN should be the only entry level into nursing if only to stop this incessant bickering and shaming that goes on in this profession. After 35 years I am tired of the brow beating by the academics who believe themselves somehow superior to the lowly bedside nurse who is "uneducated" and have no ambition because they are "uneducated". Really?
It is the elitist superiority that gets under my skin. I have met some very educated nurses who have NO bedside savvy or competence.
I once had a boss with her PhD. Brilliant woman. However as the director of patient care services her complete lack of nursing bedside knowledge was appalling. She believed that a "port a cath, a PICC line and a multi-lumen were all the same...right?" Uhm...no. But she made the nursing policies by evidenced practice. It forever confused me about her evidence since she never practiced at the bedside.
I long for the day nurses were promoted for their experience, integrity, and exemplar bedside experience to the positions in administration. I think nurses were better represented and understood.
I apologize for becoming annoyed but his really gets under my skin. It is perfectly acceptable, and honorable, for a career ambition to be a beside nurse. I see NO SHAME in the desire to be a bedside nurse. We need bedside nurses.
RunninOnCoffee
134 Posts
I am begrudgingly starting my BSN program later this month. I can see the writing on the wall now and I hear others on this forum talk about difficulties getting a job with only an ADN. Additionally down the road I would like to get a Master's in something. I just haven't figured out which route I want to pursue just yet. Good luck to you!!