Hired, based on having a BSN - page 2

This is part of the reason why. Many hospitals are moving toward requiring your BSN within a certain period after hire (i.e. starting BSN program within two years of hire and completing within five years of hire). If you're earning your BSN as a staff nurse, then the hospital is probably footing at least part of the bill through an education reimbursement program. If you start out with a BSN then you're covering the enitre cost of the degree and the hospital doesn't have to.

Practical experience should trump your degree, but unfortunately money tends to trump just about everything else in healthcare (at least in the US).

Actually, no they don't. If a hospital wants to hire BSNs only, they can do just that. There is no shortage of BSN prepared nurses applying for these jobs. It's an employer's market, they can do what they please. The onus is on the prospective employee to research what their desired employer(s) require and to meet those requirements, not for the employer to change their requirements. In areas of the country where there isn't a surplus of nurses or at community hospitals where new grads aren't begging for employment, ADNs have an easier time getting hired.

I was hired by a Magnet designated teaching hospital (628 beds; 44 on the unit for which I was hired) as a new grad nurse with an ADN at the time. We are required to have our BSN within 4 years of being hired.