The school I obtained my Masters of Science in Nursing Education from has five traditional brick and mortar institutions with a large online program as well. The university is non-profit and focuses solely on the success of the students. They are not well known amongst most universities in my area. I was told that since this program is unknown to one of the hiring board members that I would have a hard time finding a job in nursing education at this institution and at other universities in the area as well.
The article sparked a level of debate that I did not foresee occurring. However, it brought forth many opinions that were valuable. Some of the comments were very interesting and stimulated thoughts for me that I had never considered. The Sad Truth article is the opinion of one person's experience with a local traditional university.
The idea of being bullied by these individuals was probably a wide stretch. However, I have seven years of great experience working in the emergency room, medical/surgical, psychiatric, long-term care, hospice, and now clinical instruction. In the majority of these settings, the facilities are located in an extremely rural area. The medical/surgical floor was the ICU, Oncology, Pulmonary, Progressive Care, OB, Nursery, Trauma Unit, Detox Unit, and much more.
It is an interesting point that at this particular university several of the instructors are known to just read from the PowerPoints, even in my ADN program I had instructors who did this on a daily basis. These same instructors have several degrees that they obtained at this same institution. There is even one instructor who graduated from their BSN program and then one year later started the Nurse Practitioner program. She was hired to fulfill the instructor role soon after graduating. Academic incest? There are several of these professors at this intuition that obtained their BSN, MSN, and DNP from this university. One commenter talked about academic incest from major online institutions. There must be a difference when it is from a traditional brick and mortar university, kind of like your second cousin I guess.
I am not talking about all universities in the nation. This is one person's experience with a local university. I may have tons of excellent nursing experience. I have a known history of excellency in nursing, and I have worked hard to build a ton of interpersonal relationships with families and patients. I was not even considered for employment simply because I have a degree from an unknown fully accredited institution. I understand that it is up to the universities to set standards and qualifications, but to judge a book by its cover is something that just simply should not happen in the 21st century.
Everyone has an opinion on everything in today's world. There was one commenter who said, "Online programs are considered inferior to brick and mortar programs, because online university faculty, only produce a small amount nursing research, that is worthy of publication in peer reviewed nursing journals. Whereas brick and mortar faculty produce a large amount of nursing research that is worthy of publication."
I am not sure for other brick and mortar institutions, but for this one that I have been dealing with there is pretty much zero amount of research published by the school. This logic is insubstantial as well.
As far as bullying is concerned, one commenter stated, "The fact that they demand a traditional degree may seem unfair, but in order to bully you they need to actually hire you and then treat you badly."
So this logic states that the only way a person can be bullied or intimidated is if you work for someone, with that said "I see no logic in your conclusion." People are bullied every day in all situations by people who think that they are better than someone simply because they hold a higher social status.
In another comment from this healthy debate:
"You wouldn't get hired by the BSN programs in my state mostly because you are not doctoral prepared, MSN in nurse education is sufficient for ASN programs but not for BSN or graduate nursing programs. It's not bullying it's BON and DHE requirements. My sister is a BSN professor now. She knew where she wanted to go in her career and ensured she had the correct educational credentials.
If you don't meet the employer's minimal requirements I fail to see how that is bullying."
In your state, that may be true. In the state that I reside in, more than half of the professors were hired with their MSN. The goal is for them to obtain their terminal degree within the next 5-10 years or they will be let go. I understand that logic my friend, but in my state it simply doesn't fit.
I really enjoy this comment and the logic that ensues, "I really dislike the title of this thread. This is casting a large shadow over an entire industry (online education) from one person's experience. One experience does not a 'truth' make. Oh well, I guess that's the point of online forums. Everyone gives their own experience."
So what we are saying here is that one person cannot speak the truth? What kind of logic is that? I must have hit a sensitive spot for this person. The goal of debate is for us to voice our opinions. Some bring great truths and reason in their words, others bring a sword because they are unhappy with how the words make them feel, I am a little guilty of this at times as well. I guess the title of my article should have been "The Sad Experience of One Person's Debate on How They Obtained Their Degree from an Institution That We Do Not Know, Therefore We Will Not Consider Them for Employment, Even Though They May be More Qualified. The End"
This article remake has been fun. We are all adults and able to discuss and debate on an online forum. The Sad Truth article was written from my heart. The commenters were rough at times, but I am a big boy and I wear my big boy pants! Do not worry fellow commenters, I have plans to pursue a terminal degree from a more traditional local university to help guide me into future employment in higher education without the stigma of "What school is that?", "Such and Such University", and as Jimmy Fallon would say, "Ew!"
