"Don't waste your time getting your BSN..."

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People are always trying to tell me that I am going to waste my time by not stopping after getting my ASN. They say that getting your BSN just gets you management positions and that it does not pay more. I am going for my masters so I can be a CNM, so I have to have my BSN anyway but, how could it be true that a person with a BSN gets the same as a person with a ASN? (Aside from the fact that working in different dept can make a difference)

Specializes in oncology, surgical stepdown, ACLS & OCN.
IN my former life, I was an accountant with an AS in Accounting and a BS in Business. I worked as an accountant for 8 1/2 yrs. I had to take the full-time day nursing program because I couldn't go to school for another 4 years to become a BSN. If I would have done that, I would have had a full-time schedule in addition to working and I could't work full-time for 4 years and attend full-time school for 4 years. This is why I entered the diploma program. The beautiful thing is, after I graduate, my school is affiliated with a university where I can take 8 online classes and in one more year, I can have my BSN.

Question, for those of us who earn a diploma or ADN in nursing and a have Bachelor Degrees in other disciplines, are we considered BSN nurses and if not, why?

I wish I could get aBSN that quick!!! I currently have an ADN and will look for an accellerated program.

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ADN: Associate Degree in Nursing

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Isn't it true, that the more knowledgeable you are, the more valueable you are?

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Specializes in ED, Cardiac-step down, tele, med surg.
Isn't it true, that the more knowledgeable you are, the more valueable you are?

With respect to one's career, more knowledge should yield a larger salary. But does the BSN necessarily provide that. Can a diploma or ADN be more knowledgeable or is the BSN always more knowledgeable? I'd guess the answer is no, but in our society, if one has a degree they make more money and they get more respect etc...even if they are less knowledgeable than a person with a lesser degree.

I think one benefit to requiring a BSN to practice is that it would force nurses to get a degree that would yield more opportunities in the long run by making the nurse eligible for grad school even if he/she wanted to go into a different field. It is a credential that has become more and more necessary on an economic level in our society. It gives the person more status.

I don't think it has absolute value in that the degree is context specific to our culture. Theoretically a person can attain vast amounts of knowledge without getting a degree, but in our culture they will often NOT be rewarded financially or be given more status.

One more question. Do you think that we have discussed all of the components of this issue here? I mean, haven't we already established that an ADN/diploma graduate can know just as much as a BSN if they are taught on the job? Haven't we established that the reason for the bachelors degree is a means to getting a better paying job and having access to graduate school and also for personal enrichment? And so, how could that be a waste of time?

Basically, I don't understand the controversy here? It becomes a non issue at a certain point and so why are we repeating points that were made when this post first started? Am I missing something? Please let me know what I am missing? Thanks and I mean no offense or disrespect to anyone here,

J

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I guess what I am trying to point out, is that by furthering one's education, one has more avenues to down. Myself, god willing, am hoping to eventually get my Phd. I want to learn all I can and then some. Eventually I want to be the best nurse that I can be.

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I guess what I am trying to point out, is that by furthering one's education, one has more avenues to down. Myself, god willing, am hoping to eventually get my Phd. I want to learn all I can and then some. Eventually I want to be the best nurse that I can be.

Being the best nurse you can be should not be confused with being the most marketable/well educated nurse you can be.

I think it's safe to say that I probably will not end up with a Ph.D in nursing, but I, too, want to be the best nurse I can be.

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Specializes in Oncology/Haemetology/HIV.
Isn't it true, that the more knowledgeable you are, the more valueable you are?

No, it isn't true.

Look around you....in all avenues....there are some very knowledgeable and some very educated people that are quite worthless and useless, especially in employment.

People are not just one thing....one has to have many good components to be an excellent nurse and valuable.

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Specializes in Post Anesthesia.

As far as BSN/ADN/diploma the only advantage I see is there are a lot more opportunities for an RN with a BSN just out of school. The hospital I work for requires a BSN or diploma and will only hire a AD RN with several years experience. Clinical skills- they are polished in the first year or two of practice. I would like our profession to decide what education is required to be an RN, but this has been a debate since BSNs first began. With the nursing shortage I don't see it changing soon.

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Specializes in Med-Surg.
As far as BSN/ADN/diploma the only advantage I see is there are a lot more opportunities for an RN with a BSN just out of school.

Not for those just out of school, but in for many experienced nurses as well. Depending on where you live BSN-preferred jobs are given to ADNs with experience, but sometimes not. I asked for the unit educator job where I work when I was half-way through my BSN, with 14 years in this hospital most of them on the unit I wanted to be the educator on, and I was refused.

The extra job opportunities may be the "only advantage" as you say but it's a mighty good motivator for some of us, especially those us who are aging in nursing.

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For every 10 people that say getting you BSN is a waste of time, there will be 10 more that would ask "why didn't you just get your bachelor's" if you got your ADN.

That old saying that opinions are like fecal evacuation orifices, everyone's got one.

(Or something along those lines.....)

And it stinks.

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Being the best nurse you can be should not be confused with being the most marketable/well educated nurse you can be.

I think it's safe to say that I probably will not end up with a Ph.D in nursing, but I, too, want to be the best nurse I can be.

I'm just a little over a year at this thing called "nursing". And if I based my opinion of who was "the best nurse" on who was the most highly-educated, I can guarantee you my opinion would be crapola.

Some of the BEST nurses I have seen functioning in the last year have had the LEAST formal education, and I do mean that sincerely. I am in NO way putting down nurses with higher education; I happen to prize it myself. However, I have seen LPNs with 20 years of experience with a greater understanding of nursing care than the entire posse of recent shiny-new ADN grads. And I have also seen a BSN nurse in action that I wouldn't let care for my dog. Not kidding. Her 'higher education' was nothing more than ink on paper and a reason for a party in my opinion.

If one achieves a higher education WHILE LEARNING CLINICAL SKILLS and gaining assessment and critical thinking experience, then that's a formidable combination. But the value of a higher education without all the rest that goes into being a great nurse? Utterly useless.

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Specializes in Med-Surg.
If one achieves a higher education WHILE LEARNING CLINICAL SKILLS and gaining assessment and critical thinking experience, then that's a formidable combination. But the value of a higher education without all the rest that goes into being a great nurse? Utterly useless.

I agree that educated nurse does not translate to "great nurse". You can't teach that in school. People are inspired to greatness from within. And you can be great with any degree.

Kind of makes you wonder why don't we just throw it all away and wait for people to just gain experience on the job. Making it like electricians, plumbers and car mechanics who have highly specialized professional skills but on the job training is where it's at.

All of us know LPNs who run circles around RNs. I work with one whose been on my unit for about 18 years. The ADN students flock to her during clinicals begging to work with her and be assigned her patients. She's my role model on how to be a floor nurse.

I always cringe a bit I read people say, and they say it often "I know a BSN nurse who is a crappy nurse compared to the LPN/ADN nurses I work with". Crappy nurses are not borne from degree either. There crappy nurses from CNA's up to Mastered prepared. That comes from within as well.

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