Is having a ADN useless these days?

Nursing Students ADN/BSN

Published

Do employers favor those with a BSN ?

Specializes in ICU.
triquee-

Just out of curiosity, are you currently enrolled in a nursing program?

I am indeed.

Why do you ask?

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Specializes in ICU.
It is not helpful or accurate for you to presume you know my thoughts or intentions.

The pervasive hostility and lack of respect for baccalaureate nursing education...

Ditto.

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Specializes in Acute Care Psych, DNP Student.

never mind.

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*** Really? I didn't know that. We have several working in our SICU and they just do regular staff nursing right beside the ADNs and BSN. What is it they come out with in addition to RN?

The programs I've seen are clinical nurse specialists, or clinical nurse leaders. Coursework over and above an RN program.

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*** I meant to say that I had never seen a "BSN required" for a staff nurse job in WISCONSIN. I thought it was clear I was referring to Wisconsin but maybe not. Obviously anyone who spends any time reading Allnurses knows there are hospitals in other areas of the country that require BSN for staff nurses (at least for now). Not being a resident of OK and never having worked there and never having spent any time looking at job adds there I would not presume to try to describe what goes on there.

I am not even saying there are no "BSN required" staff nurse job in Wisconsin, just that I have never seen one and I spend a fair amount of time looking.

I'm sorry..... I didn't realize I was on a "Wisconsin only" discussion board.

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The programs I've seen are clinical nurse specialists, or clinical nurse leaders. Coursework over and above an RN program.

And Nurse Practitioners.

The people who hold MSN's doing regular staff nurse work just may be a regular staff nurse. Maybe they don't have enough experience yet to get an NP, CNS, or CNL position. I know when I get my MSN (or DNP more than likely) that I will need to continue working as an RN for a while longer before I can expect to get into an NP position.

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Some of you think a BSN is worthless, while others value their BSN. I don't think anyone actually said ADN itself is useless. The question was "Is having a ADN useless these days?" As in, in this economic state we are in. No one said the ADN itself is useless. We are talking about competition and if having a higher degree is an advantage.

Some of you don't think it's right for an employer to favor BSN's over ADN's. Some of you do. That's as far as it's going to get. Obviously everyone is sticking to their opinion. We just need to leave it at that.

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Peanut butter and fluff sandwich??! I don't put fluff on mah peanut buttah sammiches. I like grape jelly. Mmmmmm....

A B.S. in Biology + an ADN isn't all that different than a BSN, except for the letters after your name. When it comes to breadth and quality of education, I think anybody with half a clue about higher ed would know that. An ADN just might be enough to get my foot in the door. That's all I need. I think I can probably live without 3 credits of "Nursing as a Profession" (total fluff). Besides, I would be a grade A idiot if I let some stranger trying to justify their own choices, guilt me into dropping an additional $15-30k for a buck more an hour and break room bragging rights.

I think what this discussion all boils down to is that pretty much everybody ever, on the planet, in the history of mankind, likes to feel superior. But folks who've been around the undergraduate block can see through the BS (puns are cool!).

I don't consider my BSN as "break room bragging rights". Nor do I feel "superior" because I have a BSN.

I have a BSN because it eliminated having to get yet another degree (I already had one BS degree - I did like your pun, BTW), and I didn't want to be slogging away at an RN-MSN program taking classes I could have already taken (there are usually classes required for that degree path that are part of a BSN program). I have a BSN because the program I chose gave me 16 hours of work at the MSN level, and helped kill two birds with one stone since those classes will transfer to any of the three schools I plan on pursuing my MSN at (already checked that out). I have a BSN because it got me my RN license faster than any of the surrounding ADN programs would have, thanks to insanely long waiting lists. I have a BSN because it was the best choice for me.

Not for bragging rights or superiority - not by a long shot. It's why I take umbrage with the statement I bolded in your quote above.

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*** I can think of 5 methods of entry into RN practice off the top of my head.

Diploma

ADN

California's 30 unit option

BSN / Accelerated BSN

Direct entry MSN

The OP's point has held essentially true, though. Diploma and ADN are different, yes. But a BSN and an ABSN (I have an ABSN) are the same thing - I actually had MORE clinical hours than the traditional BSN programs in my area. The difference was I already had a BS when I entered the ABSN program, so all I really took were the last four semesters of nursing school - all the upper division courses. So an ABSN/BSN are really the same thing. And a direct entry MSN STILL fulfills the BSN requirement since they have to complete the NCLEX before they can get the MSN.

I wouldn't really count CA's option because that's not really readily available to everyone - just LVNs in California (or who hold a CA license) and it's not recognized outside of the state (or that's what I've read online, anyway). To get recognized anywhere else, they're having to get a traditional ADN.

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Specializes in ICU.
I don't consider my BSN as "break room bragging rights". Nor do I feel "superior" because I have a BSN.

I have a BSN because it eliminated having to get yet another degree (I already had one BS degree - I did like your pun, BTW), and I didn't want to be slogging away at an RN-MSN program taking classes I could have already taken (there are usually classes required for that degree path that are part of a BSN program). I have a BSN because the program I chose gave me 16 hours of work at the MSN level, and helped kill two birds with one stone since those classes will transfer to any of the three schools I plan on pursuing my MSN at (already checked that out). I have a BSN because it got me my RN license faster than any of the surrounding ADN programs would have, thanks to insanely long waiting lists. I have a BSN because it was the best choice for me.

Not for bragging rights or superiority - not by a long shot. It's why I take umbrage with the statement I bolded in your quote above.

No need to take umbrage. You’re not in the camp I’m addressing when I say that. Your reasons are, first and foremost, practical – something I completely understand. It's the very same vein of reasoning for my decision to go the ADN route and not the BSN route. Makes perfect sense to me.

It's when people start saying that ADN nurses don't value education and are intimidated by people who hold higher degrees that I have to say, "I call BS!"

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No need to take umbrage. You’re not in the camp I’m addressing when I say that. Your reasons are, first and foremost, practical – something I completely understand. It's the very same vein of reasoning for my decision to go the ADN route and not the BSN route. Makes perfect sense to me.

It's when people start saying that ADN nurses don't value education and are intimidated by people who hold higher degrees that I have to say, "I call BS!"

LOL and it's OK for people to say BSN is fluff. I call BS on that :) I'm sure the PhDs, and NPs that developed those programs had nothing in mind other than getting customers for their fluff courses, right? And a BSN is so obviously just a bunch of fluff classes that most graduate nursing programs require it. Yeah, I see your point.

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Specializes in ICU.
LOL and it's OK for people to say BSN is fluff. I call BS on that :) I'm sure the PhDs, and NPs that developed those programs had nothing in mind other than getting customers for their fluff courses, right? And a BSN is so obviously just a bunch of fluff classes that most graduate nursing programs require it. Yeah, I see your point.

Oh yeah. There's plenty of fluff. Even more than I originally thought, having recently engaged in a discussion about nursing theory.

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