JNW504

The number for each item is the approximate median of each range for the lab values for those who didn't understand. For example, K+ is 3.5-5 so there are 4 bananas. It's just a memory aid to help you remember the ranges of each lab value.

When I stated in my last comment that BSNs should get paid more because they have a higher education, I did not mean in comparison to an ADN nurse who has worked for many years! I don't think that when I graduate I should be paid more than an ADN who has been in this field for 10 years! I meant at an even comparison. New graduate to new graduate and 10 year nurse to 10 year nurse. I'm not on my high horse but there were so many blogs from ADNs who don't think its fair that a BSN thinks they should receive a higher pay. I'm a very humble person and I have no problem working along side any nurse!! But why should we receive no incentive to improve our education. Not receiving higher pay is just bringing all nurses down...that gives an ADN nurse no reason to go back to school!! I aplogize if I sounded a little cocky, but it is just frustrating to see people selling themselves short and bringing others down with them! My best friends mom is an ADN level nurse and she is one of the smartest people I know! But she also has a ton of experience! I would NEVER expect to make more than her coming right out of school!!!! And by the way... about the comment someone made about going back to school and not learning any more than you knew before... I don't know where you went but we don't just write papers and do some other assignments! We go to clinicals three days a week! We are expected to know EVERYTHING about our patients: exactly what there diagnosis is, the patho of it, what has caused it, complications of it, nursing management of the Dx, medical management of the dx, what the lab values are expected to be, what it means when the lab values have shifted and why they have shifted, nutrition, fluids, restrictions, ALL the medications (Mechanism of action, type of med, pharmocology, side effects, expected lab values, etc.), and how each nursing dx relates to the others. Not to mention we have to do a preclinical assingment explaining all of that. It takes many student the entire night before clinical to complete it because it is so much work! Plus we are studying for exams in between. It has never been just a few papers!! Its a hell of a lot of hard work!! Look I know that most anyone going through nursing school will have to deal with that at some point. Maybe not to the magnitude of a BSN level school but we all will!! But we are taught things a lot more in depth than many ADN programs (aeb many of my friends who are in ADN programs). But when you have to do two years of prerequisites and then two more years of all of that school gets tiring, not to mention you sacrifise your financial situation just to get a higher degree! Anyone who has attained their BSN knows that. And I will NOT get "eaten alive" when I get out of nursing school. I'm very easy to get along with and I usually go with the flow. I try extermely hard to do a good job at anything I do no matter what it is so I'm not worried about being "eaten alive" as you say. But when it has to do with my well-being and the income I will make as a nurse of course I'm going to get upset! All students work hard for their degree but BSN students work two years longer for more education! I know there are a lot of great ADN nurses!! I'm not knocking anyone! But just stop being so hard on people who have gone on to receive a higher degree and expect a little more for it. You wouldn't expect to pay your family doctor the same as a specialist would you?? and why... because they have a higher education!!! Why as nurses do you want to make everybody one big blob of a profession with no room for growth!? Like I said, I apologize if I came off as cocky, but it just gets annoying reading comment after comment about how we don't deserve more and I think we do...that is why this is a sight for opinions. Opinions are like butt holes everybody's got one!!

As a nursing student in a BSN program at one of the top nursing schools in the country, I have a major problem with the fact that someone who has their ADN thinks that they deserve the same pay as a BSN!! As an ADN, yes you passed the same NCLEX exam as the BSN student, but that is the only thing that you have in common with a BSN. Most ADN programs only prepare you to pass the exam and nothing more. A BSN program focuses on that and much more in depth knowledge that just the need to know things. There is no way that you will have the same amount of knowledge or experience when you graduated in two years when a BSN graduates in four years! Any other profession makes more for each degree they receive: doctors, teachers, business majors...everyone! If you have your ADN that is wonderful that you obtained any sort of degree... I commend anyone for graduating college! But don't knock people who have gone to school for longer than you that expect better pay. It is common sense that the longer you go to school the more knowledge you attain. Like I said, I am a student, and in clinicals it is easy to see the difference between an RN with an ADN and an RN with a BSN. I'm sorry to burst your bubble but BSNs are simply more qualified. I have friends who are in ADN programs, and their requirements and exams can not even compare to the requirements and exams at the university I attend. Education is a very important aspect of life, and there is no reason that nurses with their BSN should not demand more pay for their degrees. This is why we have more and more BSN nurses leaving the bedside to do management. I didn't sign up to do management. I'm in nursing because I want to take care of patients. That is my passion!! Not necessarily med/surge, but either way I want to be bedside! I'm sorry if this sounds like I think BSNs are better than ADNs because as people no I don't think that! But I do think BSNs are more qualified and have a higher degree so they should make more money!!!