my nursing school (which was not a community college) taught both adns and bsns. i was responsible for knowing, understanding, and applying all the content that the bsn students were learning, i simply did not get all the credit for the extra courses that they took, like epidemiology and research. i have just as many prerequisites as a bsn student, but at the time, they had a spot open only for an adn student, so i took it. i do agree that people should aim for bsn degrees, however, i don't like being discounted as a nurse, simply because i'm an adn.
to the op, nursing is really not as crazy high in demand as your mother is thinking. yes, there are jobs, however, they are often harder to come by for new grads...and those jobs may be in less desirable (to you) areas, depending on what kind of nursing you want to do. a lot of hospitals are really pushing for bsn grads only for magnet status (amongst other reasons), so your job prospects may be limited getting an adn.
