I am sure many people have heard of the social issue/ cause "school to prison pipeline" that many civic groups are trying to eradicate. I am here to draw attention to a similar related problem , the college to welfare pipeline.
Due to an intricate , intimate, and covert relationship between big government politicos, higher education, Bureau of Occupational affairs, and the Federal/ State Department of labor, we have a serious student debt problem in the nursing field that is only going to get worse. Nurses need to wake up and take note of the LPN to RN hoax, and the RN-BSN hoax. These are all well publicized , propaganda driven falsities that are crushing nurses into debt driven higher education requirements. These propaganda driven requirements brainwash nurses into believing that without the extra education, they will not be employed.
And to a certain degree, they are correct, but its important for nurses to see the pitfall, before taking the dive. There is little to no difference in responsibility or pay rate from LPN to RN, and most RNs are taking the lower wage, just to have a job. There is zero difference in job responsibility or pay from RN to BSN, but the dollars spent to get there are substantial. The RN to BSN pipeline is a grotesque narrative that is being sung, for the sole purpose of enriching nursing schools. The NCLEX exam is identical for RNs and BSNs, the scope of practice is identical, and so are all the pay rates. A staff nurse is a staff nurse, is a staff nurse, too.
So why go for your BSN? Its because the hospitals and other various 24/ 7 institutional care providers say so. They have all built a united wall against the ADN RN. We are becoming an extinct species, because no one will hire us. Is the BSN a job guarantee? Of course not. Is any higher education a job guarantee? Nope. Big government politicos want student debt to skyrocket , so that they can fly in and save everyone with free bailouts, loan forgiveness, and thousands of more votes on election day.
May the buyer beware, until that utopia comes to fruition. In the meantime, take a serious look inward into the pitfalls, tricks and traps of higher education in the nursing field. The powers that be want you to keep jumping hurdles , spending more and more money, hoping to get hired, and falling deeper and deeper into debt, during the process. The higher you jump, the more you spend, and the less you earn. For many nurses who fell for these schemes, the financial devastation has been both swift and severe.
I actually transferred out of my first RN-BSN program which had a clinical component. We basically served lunch trays to seniors. Any clinical component is not enough. It needs to be meaningful and challenging, not just going through the motions. I’d be perfectly fine with being challenged academically and I don’t think a clinical component is something that should be required for working RNs, the only way to truly learn clinical skills is in actual practice. Or simulation.
Serving lunch trays is not supposed to happen, of course it does though. I found clinicals to be helpful. I would have liked to have more clinical training when I went to school. I disagree with the only way to truly learn clinical skills is in actual practice. I feel clinical training and on the job training are both very important.
Would the nurse have clinical training all throughout the program?, and it be mandatory, like it is for the Associates of Nursing?
Sorry; I misread what you were asking. Remember that the ADN nurses had already completed the clinical requirements for graduation from their program, and had already passed the NCLEX. The ADN-BSN nurses completed an advanced health assessment class, and then did a community health clinical and also a clinical preceptorship at the end of the program.
I feel clinical training and on the job training are both very important.
They are important, but clinical as we know it: popping a few pills, vitals checks, practice assessments, and reviewing charts; not conducive to learning clinical reasoning and judgment. Student nurses don’t know and can’t know what nurses are doing while they’re doing it. Student nurses aren’t always guided in assessment to confirm their assessment findings. I think simulation experiences early in nursing programs would be a huge benefit in a controlled and safe environment for students to learn how to think like nurses. I enjoyed and learned a lot from my clinical in my ADN program for the most part. My clinical instructors were phenomenal, but not everyone is so lucky. I’m a huge advocate for sim and I feel that it contributed to the development of my nursing skills in an important and meaningful way.
Interesting topic and I'm sorry OP that so many respondents piled on you for awhile there. You are absolutely right, nobody is living your reality except you.
The pile-on just reminds me why nursing is not, and will never, ever be a profession. Backbiting, backstabbing, bullying , personal humiliation, degredation, sorority style pile ons, and insisting that I am the problem, not market saturation and forced compliance with an expensive useless degree-mill style ADN-BSN.
Can you imagine the outrage that would result if any other "profession" suddenly started moving the goal post to the right, and throwing out seasoned, experienced workers? Like law enforcement?
Again. I am giving this post a five star rating. I have been in nursing for decades at all levels. In all sizes of facilities from 100 bed rural, to gazillion bed teaching centers and this posting has truth, evidence based facts throughout. I have lived and witnessed every example she wrote about. I have lived the inner workings of recruitment both in medical facilities and schools, she is right on and factual in her writings. Until we as nurses stand together and act as well as just voicing our concerns on forums, this stuff will continue. I try to dissuade anyone from pursuing anything in medicine because of the travesties I have seen and lived. I wish I had a fall back career and could leave nursing altogether. I have loved it all my working life but despise how the “suits” have tainted it.
I was hoping to have it shared hundreds of times to social media, to begin dispelling the myth/ hoax of the "nursing shortage" . It was this hoax that gave birth to the most sickening abuse of the nursing field, that is ADNs being forced out of the industry, albeit, later in life. BSNs will be forced out too, when MSN becomes the new entry level, because I already see it percolating.
When I see displaced / unemployed persons (like I was 22 years ago) falling for the hoax, and walking themselves like lambs to slaughter into nursing school in my area, I tell them they are wasting their time, and not to make the mistake I made, when I believed the constant fake media "shortage" crisis, the click bait "sign on bonuses" and the phony job ads that one would have to be blind to avoid.
Yet the powers that be..ie, the intricate woven united alliance of politicians, lobbyists, higher education, chamber of commerce, dept of labor, have continued constantly to push, push, push, push the farce....so when someone like me tries to speak the truth, I get that furrowed eyebrow, deer in the headlight, look of sheer amazement/ shock on someone's face.
And this is a HUGE issue in healthcare and nursing especially: nurse turnover is through the roof and job satisfaction is nearly non-existent. Facilities can't recover the cost of training new staff whether experienced or not because they leave so soon after starting. There is no level of expertise on many units because seasoned nurses end up leaving and it's new grads training new grads, blind leading the blind; all at the expense of patient care and nurses. It's absurd.
Very true, in LTC...but if you are one of the lucky , few "chosen" one's who lands a hospital gig, (in my area) the voluntary turnover rate (notice I sad voluntary) is low. Mind you, this a a mega hospital, magnet, 'best of the best' research/ teaching hospital system that has thousands of applications . They require a full year of training before you even get to the bedside. They have an entire department of "nurse educators" with letters and certs out the wazzoo, who "train" the new hires for a year....
At some point during/ after the training is completed, you are then studied, judged, picked apart, criticized, scrutinized, discussed smorgasboard style in a conference room of "nurse educators" and Nurse CNOs, directors, HR, etc. It is here that they decide if you kiss orifice enough to be cut loose from the program and retained on the job. ..or if you "didn't make the cut" at which point, they use this to destroy the nurse's confidence, and toss her, like a used styrofoam cup , out the door, without warning.
This is what the new BSN does not know, going in. She/ he is just basically auditioning for an entire year. They hire on more BSN new grads than they plan to actually employ/ retain, and they have been doing this for years. Like Homebound said so well, it has nothing to do with skill, competence, work ethic, devotion, etc. Its how well you can glue your mouth shut, kiss orifice, play the game.
After reading a lot of these responses this thread is making me depressed. I feel that it would be helpful if people would also indicate which state and county they are in to give some perspective of which areas are or aren't effected. I am in CA and in my county there is a shortage ofexperienced nurses so they spend millions of dollars on short-term contracts. I am aware of the possibility of not landing a job here and I'm aware that relocating will likely be necessary. Now I am going back to reading the thread to look for a response from someone that can offer some hope. ⛅
After reading a lot of these responses this thread is making me depressed. I feel that it would be helpful if people would also indicate which state and county they are in to give some perspective of which areas are or aren't effected. I am in CA and in my county there is a shortage ofexperienced nurses so they spend millions of dollars on short-term contracts. I am aware of the possibility of not landing a job here and I'm aware that relocating will likely be necessary. Now I am going back to reading the thread to look for a response from someone that can offer some hope. ⛅
Please do not be fooled by the hospitals / nursing homes spending millions of dollars on short term contracts. This is not being done because there is a shortage anywhere. Its being done to avoid the cost of hiring, training, retaining, medical benes, paid time off, FMLA, workers comp, raises, HR staff to manage employees, payroll, handling grievances, issues, discipline etc. Its happening all over, here in PA too. When you add up the cost of all these things, is actually less money to pay contracted staff, than it is to hire your own. Do not forget that contracted staff will be doing the job of 2-3, not one, so this is where the hospital really jacks itself off to beef up their bottom line.
I am in CA and in my county there is a shortage ofexperienced nurses so they spend millions of dollars on short-term contracts.
I was recently contacted by a nurse recruiter who wanted to offer me a short term contract (local travel) . Come to find out, the recruiter is working for a staffing agency that is owned by the corporate conglomerate nursing home chain who wants to use the travel nurse. The corporate conglomerate knows exactly what it is doing...roll 3 jobs into one job, and hope the experienced nurse falls for it. I didn't. I was onto the scam right away, and politely (sort of) reminded the recruiter that this is why they cannot keep staff, because an RN Supervisor, tripling as an LPN and a unit secretary does not work, and never has. and never will.
I have only been a nurse for 13 years, but I purposely made myself a “sponge”. I have worked in many settings, from the hospital setting in Geri-Psych, ER, CICU to LTC both as a staff RN and manager. I have NO experience in OB/GYN (only because I prefer to feed and rock babies, not “catch” them, lol), and have minimal vent experience because the RT’s always managed THAT, and God help ANYONE who touched their ****.....(they’re worse than surgeons sometimes!!) Most recently, I worked at a addiction treatment facility. I also have multiple AAS degrees, the first two I earned in 1993 and 1994, when I found myself a 28 year old, divorced, single Mom, with an infant, waitressing and barely able to survive.....I went back to school to be a Firefighter, at a local community college, with the intention of becoming a fire investigator. I was fortunate enough to have my tuition paid for through a scholarship program for “non-traditional” careers, but took the maximum student loans available to supplement my waitress income so we could survive. I took and passed the exams for a large city department. At the time, women were very rarely accepted in the fire service, but the government was pushing for minority rights, I had a 3.97 GPA, wasn’t easily offended and I knew I could write my own ticket if I busted my ***.....unfortunately, shortly before I was supposed to interview, I had a severe Crohn’s flare, ended up in the hospital, needed surgery and discharged three weeks later, minus two feet of intestine. I was sick for almost a year and never got well enough to go back to that career. So....fast forward 10 years to 2001....I try and fail,again, with the marriage thing. I find myself, at 35, once again, a divorced, single Mom, with an infant, ADD a ten year old. Sooooo, yep!! I decide to go back to school....nursing seemed like the best choice for a middle aged, single Mom, broke and broken, so off I went, complete with, once again, the max student loan money I could get. Fast forward to present day wonderland....for the most part, I have done very well in my career as a nurse. My passion is teaching, so I always made it a point to volunteer to be a preceptor or train new nurses. I took every opportunity that was offered to learn something new from veteran nurses, thankfully I’ve been surrounded by mostly pleasant nurses, willing to share their knowledge. I, like many of us, decided to go back and get my BSN in 2014. I had relocated to care for my elderly Aunt, wanted to get into teaching, needed a BS to do that, so I figured, WTH ?? I’m already 60K into it, I’ll be put in forbearance for a while, so why not?? Well.....now I’m 20 credits shy of graduating and.....wait for it....I am out of work, since January....with my SECOND rotator cuff surgery....caused by an injury in 2009, when the previous nurse disconnected a patient’s IV but didn’t turn off the pump....fluid all over the floor, on the other side of the bed, on nights, slipped, caught myself...major bicep tear....?
So....here I sit...at 53 years old.....with 3, and 8/10’s of degrees and will very probably (according to my surgeon), never be able to return to floor nursing, or any nursing position that requires BLS cert....and at this point, 85K in loans for degrees that I can’t use....no pity party here, just sharing my story, basically to give an example of how life can force you to have to change direction. At this point I’ve changed over to the Psych program and will do what I can to figure it out as I go, like always and things will work out. My point is that if I had it to do over again, I would have gone straight into the Bachelors program with a less specific major, like business or education, and then gotten certified in nursing. At least then I would be able to actually USE my education, because, as nurses, our bodies have a REALLY SHORT shelf life. ?
Keep on keepin' on Sarola---if the facilities, schools, and administrators are continually permitted to use the cloak of deceit---then what I say is "what goes around, comes around. Reap what you sow."
As I search my memory to find even one employer in the long list of formers and prospectives that I have accumulated in this horrific field, who was honest with me during the hiring process, I come up short. Lets see, fibs about acuity, fibs about patient ratios, fibs about available hours and pay rates, fibs about benes, fibs about support staff...and I could continue. The "fibs" mind you, were varied degrees of little white lies, to straight up falsities.
Really? You don't blame "schools" that deliberately lie about their credentials, their graduates' NCLEX pass rates and ability to get hired after graduation, and who prey on immigrants and other vulnerable groups who, by definition, have little familiarity with higher education and who get lured in with false promises? I sure do.
Of course, I would not include schools who falsify/misrepresent information about their credentials and pass rate, as that is unethical, as well as a criminal act, on the part of the school.
The info about the hiring prospects is a grey area, as the future can't really be predicted: how we can tell the freshman of 2019 exactly what the job market of 2023 will be like? But the whole "there is/will be a massive nursing shortage" schtick must definitely be toned down.
As far as the rest...the concepts of "buyer beware" and "sounds too good to be true" are well-known in many cultures AND in many socioeconomic levels. I think you (general, not the quoted poster) are overestimating the potential naivete here. I’m not denying that some are indeed that vulnerable...but not all are. And it is still up to the consumer to do their research before committing to these decisions. At some point, people have to take responsibility for their own actions. Because unfortunately, there always won’t be someone/something to bail them out.
Workitinurfava, BSN, RN
1,160 Posts
Serving lunch trays is not supposed to happen, of course it does though. I found clinicals to be helpful. I would have liked to have more clinical training when I went to school. I disagree with the only way to truly learn clinical skills is in actual practice. I feel clinical training and on the job training are both very important.