If nurses started out with a four year degree, if they are not happy, they can more easily change careers. That, by the way, is exactly what hospitals don't want. They want nurses to stay as indentured servants, unable to move into something else if they don't want to stay at bedside nursing. It is nothing more than a trap. Think about that the next time that you put down the BSN programs.
Lindarn, RN, BSN, CCRN
Spokane, Washington
I know we speak about this entry to practice issue without ever reaching anywhere near understanding.
I just wish folks would at least get that the advocating for BSN entry is not about "elitism" but instead it is about EMPOWERING the workforce! LindaRN just stated the issue quite on target.
Agree with the system or not, in the US a bachelor's in anything simply allows more OPTIONS to you and makes a few more doors open that otherwise simply will not. Call it underwater basketweaving if you will but that degree will let you be an FBI agent and a diploma or AA will not. (A poor example representative of many!!!)
Don't you think part of the reason the status quo of our work environment continues to exist because they know so many of us, when you get down to it, really have no other OPTIONS? So they'll just keep dishin' it and we'll keep taking it....'Cause, what else are they gonna do? Leave? Not likely......
The question is one of barriers to other careers and why it might be difficult to change if one is desired.
Lack of what is generally considered an entry level of education by many other career fields would seem to be one such significant barrier.
That's the point I was trying to make. Not that a degree is such a holy grail but that the lack of one can be an inhibiting factor in moving from nursing to something else. I was certainly not going into the diploma/ADN/BSN dogfight.
When I was a probation officer, I worked with my clients to help them get jobs. One of my probationers was just out of the Army. I did a skills assessment with him and he said: "I fired a cannon in the Army. Who needs that in the real world?"
The technical skills we prize as nurses are often irrelevant to outside careers (unless we can reframe them to be of value to an employer). Employers are not apt to pay for our terrific code skills or IV technique if they don't need that.
My point is that I was disappointed that a PHD in Nursing could not
embrace change. .
Just for the record, it is VERY unlikely her PhD was in nursing as the first PhD programs in nursing were not created until the late 1970's. She most likely had her doctorally degree in some other field. Let's not blame higher nursing education for EVRYTHING bad in the nursing profession. Some of the bad things are a result of non-nurses having a lot of power from both outside our profession and from within it.
Specializes in Chiropractic assistant, CNA in LTC, RN.
I agree the IT is not the "hot" field it was a few years ago. My husband and I both hold a BS in Computer Information Systems and were unable to find jobs in our area. He has worked for a large textile company for almost 20 years and the only IT job he was offered was a 3rd shift programming job at a considerable pay cut. I wasn't able to find anything because I was a new grad with no experience and the market was flooded with computer people with years of experience who had been downsized. The vast majority of our IT jobs are going to India (didn't now THEY were losing jobs to China) but since everything else is going to China, it really doesn't surprise me.
I had wanted to become an RN for many years but didn't think nursing school was doable with small children. Well, most anything is doable if you want it badly enough. I will graduate with an ADN degree next May. My husband plans to pursue his own ADN degree a year or two after I graduate. (one of us has to work) He wants to combine his IT degree with an RN degree and go into nursing informatics. I want to focus on bedside nursing for a while.
I truly enjoy working with people and have loved my clinicals as far as the patients go. Some of the nurses have been wonderful and others have been the type that eat their young. I know I will face this in the workplace as well but at almost 44, I have faced it before. There is good and bad in all jobs. The secret is to find your niche. If you are truly happy with what you do, it makes dealing with ornery co-workers a bit easier. You find them anyway too, not just nursing.
Just for the record, it is VERY unlikely her PhD was in nursing as the first PhD programs in nursing were not created until the late 1970's. She most likely had her doctorally degree in some other field. Let's not blame higher nursing education for EVRYTHING bad in the nursing profession. Some of the bad things are a result of non-nurses having a lot of power from both outside our profession and from within it.
The Dean told me her PHD was in Nursing, not another field.
Miss Mab
414 Posts
I know we speak about this entry to practice issue without ever reaching anywhere near understanding.
I just wish folks would at least get that the advocating for BSN entry is not about "elitism" but instead it is about EMPOWERING the workforce! LindaRN just stated the issue quite on target.
Agree with the system or not, in the US a bachelor's in anything simply allows more OPTIONS to you and makes a few more doors open that otherwise simply will not. Call it underwater basketweaving if you will but that degree will let you be an FBI agent and a diploma or AA will not. (A poor example representative of many!!!)
Don't you think part of the reason the status quo of our work environment continues to exist because they know so many of us, when you get down to it, really have no other OPTIONS? So they'll just keep dishin' it and we'll keep taking it....'Cause, what else are they gonna do? Leave? Not likely......
Miss Mab----blowin' in the wind.....