Male nurses

If you're looking only at pay, then yes, most places do not pay more for a BSN. A BSN however, will open doors into management, administration, education and graduate school. I'm glad I did it. Hopefully the BSN will be the entry level degree in nursing before too long.

Ya, but if BSN was the entry level then that will even increase the nursing shortage by far more.

In Arizona we have 4 universities but probably 20 or more Community Colleges that have nursing programs.

I'm an RN now working to get my BSN...the only reason why I'm doing it is so I have another plaque to hang on the wall, plus I love going to school; but it really doesn't mean much. We all take the same NCLEX and we all do the same patient care.

-David H.

I don't think the BSN will ever become the entry level point. The nursing supply would literally be cut in half, and all the community college programs would have to be closed -- as by definition CC's offer 2 year, not 4 year programs. It's just never going to happen.

Where does the "male" part of the question come in? As far as I have seen the hospital I work for treats men in nursing just as badly as their female peers. As for $, we don't hire ADNs without experience and pay scale here is based on experience (not gender). From a certain perspective ADN new hires make more than BSN new hires- they just have to have worked somewhere else first.

Go ahead and Grandfather the ADN's. After that, make the ADN obsolete.

Nursing should be entry-BSN.

However. We are a bunch of sniveling catty B's. So we won't ever repair anything, we will just continue to cut each other apart.

We don't have the ability to operate in a functionable manner.

You have to remember Diploma programs were here before most BSN programs. ADN programs outnumber BSN programs probbaly 10 to 1. ADN programs will never be obsolete and BSN programs will never be an entry level program for nursing. Men only comprise about 4% of nurses as a whole and they are treated just as bad as any nurse no matter what gender. I have always been treated by my peers very well and never put down because I am a guy. Professional attitude and demeanor isn't about gender or degrees, it's about how the patient percieves you. You come into a patient's room all nervous and talking like you don't know what you are talking about, the patient is going to sense this and start to worry. They don't know if you just got out of BSN program or have 30 years as a ADN grad. They just DON'T CARE! The attitude says it all. They want to be taken care of someone who oozes confidence, whether it is a male or female nurse. Too many nurses coming out of any program today just doesn't seem to be confident in their work. There is something they are missing in school or not being taught. There may be instances where gender bias is an issue and that,IMHO, is just wrong. But in this world this will continue to be a problem. Men will always be an issue to alot of their female counterparts but we just have to live with it.

I honostly don't see any reason to change entry level at all. There's really no practical use in that. ADN/BSN graduate and pass nclex, but yet they go through the same new grad programs and same orientation which is where the real learning begins. The only difference between ADN and BSN is management skills. All the classes that I'm taking are all in managing/leadership. There's no difference in patient care. You can have all the theory shoved in you that you can possibly get, but that's not going to make a difference in practical care of the patient. Anyways, as I've always seen it, you can have an ADN, BSN, MSN, PHD and physicians are never going to look at you as a professional. Half of them don't even know what nurses really do.

-David H.

There is an entire forum here for the debates about what and what shouldn't be the entry level for nurses. I kindly ask that we stick to the op's questions and not derail his thread with a debate. Thanks.

First question: how are males treated? I think basically it's you get what you give. If you're humble, ask questions, treat your female coworkers as equals, and work hard then you are going to do just fine. If come across as a macho know it all, who couldn't possibly take direction from females half his age, you're in for trouble.

2nd issue: You are correct that entry level nurses from both degrees tend to make the same amount of money. This seems fair because you're taking the same NCLEX and both are RNs. As was stated above the BSN comes in handy for the future.

How much longer are you going to work? I see that you're aged 47. If you graduate say when you're 49 are you looking at 20 more years of work, or do you want to retire early. Do you envision yourself at age 60 a bedside nurse, or do you envision you might want to do somethat that is BSN-preferred.

The nursing part of the BSN program is 2 years, the same as the ADN. I would think that with the credits you have for a BA, you might be able to get your BSN in close to the same amount of time, rather than add 1.5 years. Also, perhaps they have an "accellerated BSN" which is only open to those with another degree. This gets you a BSN in one year at an accellerated pace.

However, you can also do an RN to BSN later if you think that's what you'd want. 16 years into my career as an ADN nurse I decided to do just that, with no regrets.

Good luck in all that you do.

oh geeze