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please note, i inadvertently misspelled professional! thank you for your response. i wish you the very best and hope you get the hospital job you desire. i sincerely hope someone will advocate for us.

Are there any advocates for the ADN RN? After being a nurse for over 30 yrs. my hospital has stated if nurses do not have a BSN (within 6-8 yrs.) per hospital policy they will not remain employed. I work in a magnet facility. I thought magnet requirements were the 80/20% rule for BSN requirement. At 60 yrs old I do not want to go back for my BSN. I can not afford it (hospital pays small portion of reimbursement); I am still paying for childrens college parent loan; working overtime leaves no time for writing papers etc. and I am a cancer survivor and really can not deal with the extra stress. I actually did go back recently with thoughts that I would get my BSN. The first course was "how to be a professinal nurse". Really, after nursing for over 30 yrs? I have to admit that was a total turn off. I am not interested in theory, leadership or research and that is basically what the program was about. I could not go on because I could not continue my schedule, afford the program and fulfill paper requirements. (for the record I did receive B average in my first semester). Over the years I have taken courses, gone to seminars, fulfilled required hospital competencies etc. It is not like I stopped learning or educating myself once I graduated nursing school. It is very disheartening, and quite frankly very disappointing that the ADN nurse is being made to feel inadequate, or not competent without a BSN. I still practice in critcal care, and always have excellent evaluations but now when I go to work it is with a heavy heart. Not all ADN nurses can go back to school. I think it is deplorable that the ANA etc. is not willing to make some provision for experienced, qualified practicing nurses that are unable to go back to school. So after working all these years we will be told we are no longer qualified, and that a BSN grad. is qualified. It feels like a slap in the face. All the years of hard work and many sacrifices for the hospital for nought. (at least I can value the fact that I know I have truly made a difference for many of my patients and their outcomes). Thank you for listening.

I have been a nurse since 1971. Regarding the BSN, back in the day this was something you aspired to if you wanted to be in leadership or management. So I chose to be an AD RN. My interest was and is bedside hands on patient care. I understand the rationale of having the BS degree, and for new entry programs would encourage it. However, is there anyone advocating for the AD nurse with over 35 yrs of dedication, strong work ethics and dependability etc? It saddens me, that as a AD RN I am made to feel almost worthless because I do not have a BSN. I worked hard for my AD, 3 jobs plus raising my 2 children by myself. The stress was so intense that when I finished school I could not put my children thru that for another 2 yrs. Then they went to college and I am still paying for it (so are they). So, it is not like I can just say sure I will go back to school because financially I can not and there is no way I can work OT and go to school. Though the hospital would help financially they only cover a certain percentage. At 59 I do not want any more loans. So I am hoping that someone will advocate for the AD nurse, and the fact that we never stop learning just because we are out of school. In order to maintain our license there are requirements that must be filled, competencies etc. The general public is made to believe that AD RN's are substandard and do not realize that we are constantly learning thru conferences, courses, certifications etc. Regarding the robot RN. Yes it is sad but this is something that is actually in process in Japan at Toyota Memorial Hospital. Look it up if you have the time. Thank you

My hospital is going to mandate the color and brand of scrubs we (RN's ICU) are to wear. This is apparently because patients want to know who there nurse is. (despite the fact we are all required to wear our identifying badge).We are also told we need to be uniform(no pun intended:)) because we are a magnet facility and magnet hospitals are requiring RN's to wear all the same brand and color. Personally I think this is ridiculous. I thought the magnet philosophy was to give nurses a voice? Since becoming magnet we have no voice, or options and morale has dropped considerably. In times of a bad economy when we are struggling to make ends meet, it is not going to be feasible for nurses to go out and spend money for scrubs and especially ones they do not like. Next we will be told caps are back! Also not everyone has the same shape so many of us will be wearing scrubs too tight or too loose because of the brand we will be required to wear. How professional will that look?? Can you share your thoughts on this? Thank you. pb