codeblue1961

In 1992 I heard a lot of "in 5 yrs BSN will be the standard", it still isn't in most places. Perhaps some of the metro hospitals have so few openings that they can afford to be that picky, but most rural hospitals have to get what they get. I live an an area that has about 500k in the MSA and we have an ADN school that has little problem placing grads and a BSN that is the same. My advice to those who are ADNs who can't find a job. Find one in a small market setting, work for awhile, and then take your experience to the bigger one. Again, this is not the the first time that the "BSN is better crowd" has made the push and it fails everytime as soon as the labor pool shrinks a bit. I will say that there is nothing about the BSN program that makes them better technical nurses. In fact my experience is the opposite. What I have seen locally is that the local university program has really stepped up their clinical skills training. Now the ADN advantage fresh out of is closing quite a lot. I guess that the program directors have figured out that they actually have to turn out nurses ready to go into the market at the entry level. FWIW, I have been there and done that with all the BSN mania, and it might take hold and stay this time or it may not. I would advise going to BSN school if you have the opportunity and resources, but there will be a place for ADN's for a good while if you are willing to go where the elitism has not hit yet. As for AACN (of which I am a member) and others, read the studies closely and see if they even studied how easily ADNs found jobs. They may not have even studied them.

I would say that your interview skills and intellect would be more important than being a "minority". Critical care areas such as ER and ICU require excellent critical thinking skills as well as the ablility to multitask. Show those attributes in an interview and you will be more likely to get the job

I feel your pain. I am trying to build a program from scratch myself. Education has been very neglected in our unit. I think that my main thing to remember is that I can't do it all this week. I will look at the Laura G. book and already have the AACN Core Curriculum book. Being a dual role nurse (TL and educator) makes it tough, but that just means our success will be sweeter.

NTI was great. Had a great time, and found out about this board there. Well handled by the Chicago folks, even though there were a few thousand unanticipated attendees. With over ten thousand folks present, things went pretty smooth. Anyone who has not attended an NTI should try to attend in the next few years. The lineup is very regional friendly: New Orleans in 2009 D.C. in 2010 Chicago again in 2011 One of those places is close to most folks, with a trip to the west coast coming soon after. There is no better enrichment/education opprtunity than NTI.