In a former life, I was an education counselor, so from that perspective, let me set a few things straight about education and the RN.
1. Nurses, don't require a degree. For most of the time, nurses were taught in diploma schools and some still are. Most of what a nurse learns is learned on the job. All education is great, but if a nurse is really going to be "well rounded" by education, they should have a bachelor's degree in one of the liberal art subjects and then nursing school.
2. The people who are most concerned about nurses having BSNs as entry level education are the educators. No big surprise there. Most hospitals couldn't care less, because they need people liscensed by the state as registered nurses.
3. Management requires a BSN only because there are a limited number of management slots, and education is a way of legitimately weeding applicants out. My boss was an ADN and manager of a cardiac unit for about 20 years before getting her BSN. In reality, a nurse would be better served with a A.A. in business management than a BSN if they are going to be managers.
4. MDs respect nurses. They don't really care how much education a nurse has because whatever education they have is not an MD and that's all they recognize. Why? Because they're MDs; it's a different profession. RNs are just as good as MDs, because in modern health care, both are essential for patient care and treatment. Competeing with MDs for professional status based on educational qualifications is a fool's game. The MD is considered the top of the educational food chain. But why would a nurse need or want a doctorate of medicine? They are equal with doctors in the profession of helping sick people even if they only went to a diploma school.
5. Continuing education is more important than formal academic degrees. What difference does it make if someone got their MSN 20 years ago? What have they done lately? Subscribe to three nursing mags and do their CEUs and you will be on top of the game. Combine that with national certification and you really have something that shows current competency.
6. It's true: if you want to be a psychotherapist, you need a MSW or some equivalent. Why? Because there is a glut of people getting BSc degrees in psychology and sociology. Why? because they're easy degrees. If the world needed therapists as much as they needed nurses, you'd have therapy schools with AASc programs just like nursing schools. In fact, look at the military: When the Air Force needs nurses they will commission nurses with ADNs. When they don't, they require a BSN. We aren't competing with other professions; we are nurses.
7. What I am saying will always be the case, and why? Because there will always be a nursing shortage, and not because of demographics, but because nursing takes a certain kind of person, and it's hard work. There is a shortage of bedside nurses; there always will be. There is no shortage of nurse managers or executives or NPs or CRNAs, and that's good news. Because if you really want to be a nurse, you can be and you don't have to continously seek after more and more degrees. You will always have a job, and you can be a professional person with initials after your name, and all that with only a diploma.
Specializes in Specializes in L/D, newborn, GYN, LTC, Dialysis.
Originally posted by nowplayingEDRN
There is more to bedside nursing than cleaning bottoms and emptying bed pans. And nursing is a profession in all 50 states, I believe and if I am wrong, someone please correct me. However, the bedside nurse would not be ableto do their jobs better if it wasn't for the nursing researchers. And the nurse/doctor relationship is a symbiotic one. Each needs the other.....the nurse needs the doctor for the medical diagnosing and subsequent orders that come from it and the doctor depends on the bed side nurse to be EDUCATED and KNOWLEDGABLE so that the information he/she reports back to him/her aids and assists in the diagnosis and treatment of the patient.
ADNRN, I am not trying to pick but from a previous post of yours and this one, you would do well to leave your ivory tower and not act like you are superior to others. If you do not, you will have extreme trouble in the field of nursing. It is just that negative attitude and superior behavior that propigated the practice of nursing eating their young, which contributes to the nursing shortage.
this is a good post, and worthy of repeating. sadly, the intended won't understand it, i am afraid. best wishes.
in order to learn about nursing, i have to read the assigned readings. (which is basically self taught) the teachers aint teaching me, i am teaching myself about the rationales.
adnrn just letting you know that medical schools and law schools DO require a degree before starting their programs.
I think he/she was just pointing out the fact that you don't have to have a 'pre-med' degree or a 'pre-law' degree to get into those schools. You can get into medical school with a BA degree as long as you have the chem, anatomy, bio courses, etc. Just like you can get in law school and not have a criminal justice degree or something along those lines.
I think it's a shame that nursing doesn't value all the different levels of education and practitionners. Bedside nurses, whatever their degree are invaluable. That doesn't make them better than nurse educators or researchers. Their role is equally important. What people don't seem to realize is that each role is dependent on the other. Where would nursing be without those nurses with their "useless" masters and PhDs? I'll give you a hint: the same place it would be without nurses at the bedside.... NOWHERE I'd want to be. Maybe this is a bit of a rant, but I just don't get why there is so much one-upmanship in nursing, when we should be glad there are people who do the jobs that we don't want ourselves.
in order to learn about nursing, i have to read the assigned readings. (which is basically self taught) the teachers aint teaching me, i am teaching myself about the rationales.
Ah, Grasshopper. They have taught you so much that you can now find the path by yourself. It will soon be time for you to leave.
There is more to bedside nursing than cleaning bottoms and emptying bed pans. And nursing is a profession in all 50 states, I believe and if I am wrong, someone please correct me. However, the bedside nurse would not be ableto do their jobs better if it wasn't for the nursing researchers. And the nurse/doctor relationship is a symbiotic one. Each needs the other.....the nurse needs the doctor for the medical diagnosing and subsequent orders that come from it and the doctor depends on the bed side nurse to be EDUCATED and KNOWLEDGABLE so that the information he/she reports back to him/her aids and assists in the diagnosis and treatment of the patient.
BRAVO!! BRAVO!!!
Symbiotic.. THAT was the term I was looking for! I was going to make a lengthy reply, but read this post and found this had all been said. :)
ADNRN, I am not trying to pick but from a previous post of yours and this one, you would do well to leave your ivory tower and not act like you are superior to others. If you do not, you will have extreme trouble in the field of nursing. It is just that negative attitude and superior behavior that propigated the practice of nursing eating their young, which contributes to the nursing shortage.
Ah yes. I am the reason for nurses eating their young. I want to have no status and work at the bedside until I'm 70, and yet I am the one who is acting superior and living in an ivory tower. How exactly am I acting superior to anyone? Because I state my opinion on an opinion-stating newsgroup? Jeez! Or is it something else? Perhaps I'm acting superior because I'm not acting inferior. Hmmm? Perhaps I can rent out my ivory tower around here and make some real dough.
SmilingBluEyes
20,964 Posts
this is a good post, and worthy of repeating. sadly, the intended won't understand it, i am afraid. best wishes.