True or false? Nursing to require a bachelors degree?

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Hi all!

I am still very early in my pre-req phase but I have had two people in the past few months tell me that nursing is now going to require a 4 year degree! Has anyone else heard this? If this is the case, I am not sure I can move forward as I cannot afford two additional years at a university! I am already pushing it at 42 years old and starting at the community college.

What have you heard?

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If you search around the site, you will see various threads about the issue. According to long term nurses, it seems the discussion has been going on for 20-30 years.

Many hospitals are pushing to only hire BSN nurses. That doesn't mean that there isn't a place for ADN nurses plus the majority of nurses are trained at community colleges currently. Although I've read somewhere that a suggestion would be that community colleges would work with 4 year colleges to grant BSNs. I even know of a community college that offers a MSN degree but they work in conjunction with a university to do that.

So if you want to become an ADN, then go for it. If you decide later that you want to bridge to a BSN, you can do that.

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It depends where you are, or what towns you are searching for jobs in. If the area has a plethora of colleges cranking out new-grad BS RNs, then the employers can be really choosy and hire only BS RN, because supply exceeds demand. Magnet status also makes them tend to hire only BS RN, too. But rural areas will take what they can get, provided the nurse is a licensed RN. And I've read here that Charlotte and some other places, the hospitals are doing away with LPNs but are hiring associate degree RNs to replace them.

There are a lot of schools starting to offer completely online RN to BSRN degrees, so the trick for diploma RN and associate degree RN grads seems to be to land the first job and get that one year of experience. In most cases, the employer will pay all or part of the cost to get the BS completer online. Getting an associate degree RN and passing the NCLEX should land you a job if you are willing to move. Some RNs here even settled for CNA jobs in nursing homes until an RN job opened up. The hospital I attended diploma school at paid CNAs $15/hour, new-grad RNs $25/ hour to start, and the nursing homes paid LPNs $18-$22/hour.

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Specializes in Nursing Professional Development.

I strongly recommend that you research the job market in your town. As others have said, the job market vaires from region to region. In some places, the job options for new grad ADN's if very limited. In other places, there are plenty of opportunities.

For example, at my hospital (in a city with several nursing schools of all types) we do not hire new ADN graduates. We rarely hire ADN's at all, but will consider an ADN if they have relevant clinical experience. Several of the larger hospitals in my city have similar hiring practices. That leaves the new grad ADN's with very few possibilities and many do not get to work in their "first choice" settings until after they have gone back to school and gotten that BSN or until they have a couple of years of experience behind them.

It is different in other areas of the county, however. So you need to research hiring conditions in your specific area.

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I was ready to do a fast track BSN (since I already have a Bachelor's in a non-healthcare field) but have decided not to because it would cost $16,000 and require me to be unemployed for 14 months. I have a well paid job that provides healthcare benefits for my family, so it would be a lot to give up. And what if I finish my BSN but can't get a job right away?

Since ADN jobs are available in my area, I'm going the community college ADN route. Then hopefully will find a nursing job and pursue the local college's RN to BSN program which requires 30 credit hours and costs $8,000. I can do classes part-time and may even get help from my employer to get the advanced degree.

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Thank you all for the responses. I have no problem working whatever jobs I need to in order to get some experience under my belt. I also may opt to continue on for the BSN, I just don't want it to be mandatory! As it is with many other job fields, it's not what you know but WHO you know. You know the drill...

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Specializes in Adult Internal Medicine.

This is really a hot topic right now.

If your question is "should nursing require a BSN for entry into practice" then there is a big debate. I am a staunch believer that it should be a minimum for entry to practice.

If your question is "will nursing require a BSN for entry into practice" then I think you are safe for the next few years at least.

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Specializes in Acute Care, Rehab, Palliative.

It's not completely impossible that it could become the requirement.I am in Canada and BSN is the minimum here.

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