Is it true that a BSN will be mandatory soon?

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An instructor of mine (I'm in another state) stated that she recently went to a national educators conference and that they were saying that within the next several years in NY it would be mandatory to have your BSN. Does anyone know anything about this? Thanks

Specializes in ER/ICU/Dialysis.

I have to agree with JJJoy. I think mandatory BSNs would only exacerbate the current nursing shortage. Traumahawk99 brings up a good point about the nature of nursing. It can be very rough and especially with new nurses. I think more needs to be done with the promotion of nursing as a rewarding career and maybe more opportunities at the state and federal levels with financial aid to those who choose nursing as a career. I know there are programs available, but not enough. Also, I think we nurses need to be more supportive of one another, and more supportive to new nurses, and stop acting like it is some type of club. There seems (to me) like there can be a lot of in-fighting, as well.

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Specializes in Acute Care, Rehab, Palliative.

Surprisingly I have heard very little negative feedback regarding the change. The new guidelines seem to have been accepted with little fuss. The problem I have seen however, is the type of nurses the degree programs are turning out. My workplace has hosted some degree students that were in their final placement before graduation and we were dismayed at their lack of preparation to be on the floor as nurses. By their own admission most of the programs focus on theory, research and endless essays and papers. meanwhile you get a soon to be grad that doesn't know how to empty a Foley bag, transfer a stroke pt into a wheelchair, or bathe and dress a pt. The last gal we had was watching us do the narcotic count at the change of shift and she said with a serious face ' So you have to count these- what- every week?'

Yikes!!! This was about 6 weeks before grad.

Anyone have any similiar experiences?

All in all the BSN requirement has caused little waves in my neck of the woods anyways.

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all in all, i don't see a problem with the way things are. why do we need a single education system? lpn, adn, and bsn programs produce trainees, who are in turn vetted by the nclex. i think it works well just as it is.

the reality is in the future we're going to have to rely less on skilled people and more on technology. there won't be enough trained people, and society won't have the resources to pay them. the demographics marching toward the healthcare system are sadly unappreciated by the bsn only proponents, who tend to bury their heads in their own little make believe worlds.

it's going to get worse. a lot worse. it astounds me how clueless people are to the coming crisis!

it's a jungle out there kiddies, have a very fruitful day :).

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North Dakota has done the same thing.

There are now more Bachelor's and Master's programs opening up than AA/ADN programs and most have, for instance, 200-500 applications every academic period. The handwriting is on the wall and they are planning on eventually phasing out the AA/ADN in Nursing. This is what happened to the old "Diploma" program, although everyone at the time fought it tooth and nail, and used the same rationale the ADN people are using now - that there would be no way higher education requirements would be able to fill RN need, i.e. "denial."

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Specializes in Med/Surg, Progressive Tele.

IF this is a true why is it that North Dakota requires you to have your BSN to pracitce as an RN ?

"THE RUMOR THAT WOULDN'T DIE!!!!!!" :chuckle :chuckle

There is no such requirement in place anywhere in the US. This has been discussed for over 30 years now, and it's no closer to actually happening than it was 30 years ago.

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You're right, tferdaise. And as far as other posters claiming the BSN is "no closer to happening than it was 30 years ago;" they are, in fact, wrong.

This is a primary reason so many schools are now initiating BSN, MSN, MSN Direct Entry, and RN-to-BSN/MSN programs. States, like New York, have put a referendum on the BSN requirement until the time that more university programs are up, running, and graduating nurses at the university level.

At any rate, A.A./ADN level RN's will be offerred programs (there's one at Hoag Hospital now in California, and so I'm sure many, many other hospitals, that encourages their RN's to earn their BSN right on site, through Cal State Long Beach) whereby they have just so long to get their Bachelor's.

If anyone still doesn't believe this, read the literature from the American Academy of Nursing.

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Specializes in Med/Surg, Progressive Tele.

Im currently a LPN who is back in school working on his BSN (The Univerisity of Phoenix has such a program). Its been an interesting couple of months in school. But what I beleive the real issue is regarding having an undergrad as an entry point into nursing is this, Nursing being taken as a profession, rather then a job. I just finished a paper on this very subject. If you look at Nursing, there are many entry points into nursing, LPN/LVN, ADN, and BSN. Between those 3 nursing there is friction, many RN's think that LPN/LVN are more of a pain in the butt to have around and they should just go away. Most of the ADN's think they are better then most BSN RN's because they get more clinical hours. Its a very splinter profession. I looked at Engineers when I wrote my paper. There is only one way to be a Engineer and that is to get a college degree in Engineering. There are two test that need to be taken before anyone can call themselves Engineer, first before or after they graduate they take the EIT (Engineer in training exam) then they have to work for a year with this certification, then once they completed thier year they are eligible to take the PE (Professional Engineer) exam. This test allows the test taker (if passing) to call themselves an Engineer. What is interesting, the PE test is just like the old nursing test, its a 2 day (all day tests). Once they pass the PE, then they have to get certified in an area in which they are going to pracitice.

There is no reason why nursing can't go this route, if we want to be taken serious as a profession then we need to be educated like one. I trully beleive that nursing today is just spitting people out to fill holes because of the shortage. Some of the new grads as well as nursing students I work with are very poorly trained (i'm not saying there aren't some that aren't excellent new grads.)

The argument regarding that getting a BSN takes too long, doesn't have much merit. If you take someone who has no college credit to a Community college, it takes them 2 yrs to complete thier pre-req's and then 2 yrs to get thier RN. That is the same amount of time it takes for someone to complete a BSN program (with no college credit). So what do we do with the people who have thier RN's already. They can be grandfathered into the new rule. I am seeing more and more hospitals partnering with nursing schools and paying for the RN to get thier BSN's. What I find distrubling are the excuses nurses use to help this all happen. Education is one thing that helps empower people, and people should enbrace education, not run away from it.

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Specializes in Community, OB, Nursery.

North Dakota HAD that requirement. They subsequently revoked it.

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IF this is a true why is it that North Dakota requires you to have your BSN to pracitce as an RN ?

from the north dakota bon..

http://www.ndbon.org/education/academic/nursing_schools.shtml

sure looks like adn qualifies you to sit for the nclex in north dakota.

bsn requirement = fantasy of those running bsn programs, and *nothing* else.

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Specializes in Med/Surg, Progressive Tele.

TramuaHawk, I can only tell you what I have read in my research. I have contacted the North Dakota SBON to get a clarification on it.

Question: Why is your post full of anger, I just posted what I have read, and no finger pointing....

from the north dakota bon..

http://www.ndbon.org/education/academic/nursing_schools.shtml

sure looks like adn qualifies you to sit for the nclex in north dakota.

bsn requirement = fantasy of those running bsn programs, and *nothing* else.

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tferdaise - the engineering model you describe where you have to not only graduate but also work a year and then get certified to a particular area of engineering before being a "professional engineer" would seem to make sense for nursing. As it is, new grads get their degree, pass the NCLEX and as far as staffing and budgets are concerned, that new grad is a "professional nurse" and legally can fill roles and is responsible for everything that an experienced nurse is - even though they may have no other work experience than school clinicals.

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Specializes in ICU, PICC Nurse, Nursing Supervisor.

this was very short lived and is not in place as of now. there are no states that require mandatory bsn for entry at this time. you can visit the north dakota bon site and see the list of associate degree programs that are approved ....

if this is a true why is it that north dakota requires you to have your bsn to pracitce as an rn ?
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