RN to BSN or RN to MSN

[mo.rn]

Hello!

I've been a critical care RN for almost 10 years and I'm finally ready to go back to school! I have an ADN and a Bachelor's in another field. Question to my fellow RNs out there... should I do a RN-BSN-MSN (leadership or informatics) or skip the BSN and go for the RN-MSN? I've talked to several schools and of course they can't really offer me any good advise. I heard some magnet hospitals won't hire nurses without a BSN even if they have an MSN. Is this true? I just don't want to waste time and money on a BSN if it's not necessary to further my career.

Any advise?? Thank you!

[RegularNurse]

The BSN bias with Magnet hospitals can be unfortunately true. I've seen it myself, but I don't know how common it is.

Your graduate degree should be aligned with your career goals. Do not get some worthless fluffy MSN degree to simply not be a staff nurse. You will be competing for jobs with other super smart nurses who pursued training specific to the exact role they want.

In my opinion, informatics can be soft for some programs. The days of nurse leaders working only as people managers without are coming to an end. Going forward, employers want hard skills. Invest in hard skills, like analytics and programming. Look for informatics programs that can offer you those skills.

Best of luck.