What can ADN nurses achieve with a BSN other than accumulating more debts?

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  1. Is BSN a good investment?

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I talked with a couple ADN nurses who have completed their BSN degrees.

They get a few dollars more in pay, but their debt is over their head. Amazing..;)

Specializes in Nurse Leader specializing in Labor & Delivery.

The ABSN programs are much more intensive, longer hours, five days a week of clinicals. They cram 2 years of clinicals for an ADN program or a traditional BSN program into 16 months.

THey can forego all the other stuff because the presumption is the student has already received it through their other degree.

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Specializes in Med Surg.

I like to use the same answer Crash Davis got when he asked "What's in it for me?"

"You can keep coming to the ballpark...and keep getting paid to do it."

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The ABSN programs are much more intensive, longer hours, five days a week of clinicals. They cram 2 years of clinicals for an ADN program or a traditional BSN program into 16 months.

THey can forego all the other stuff because the presumption is the student has already received it through their other degree.

My lpn to Rn program also crammed 2 yrs of clinical into 1 yr.

Well,not really as it built upon clinicals from lpn school.

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What annoys me most about the whole debate is nursing's refusal to recognize any non-nursing bachelors or master's degrees. Nobody cares about anything but the almighty BSN. There are many RN's out there who have a lot more education than a new grad BSN, but are still treated as inferior because they don't have the NURSING bachelors. C'mon, if you have a bachelors of science, AND you are an RN, then you should be recognized as a bachelor prepared RN.

My current employer refused to allow me to put "BS" or "MS" on my badge, so my badge says ADN. That annoys me.

I am an ADN nurse, CCRN, and I have worked in ICU's at several major medical centers and obtained highly competetive positions. I even got accepted to CRNA school (though finances and my personal situation precluded me attending). I chose a school that recognized my non-nursing BS and MS.

I love the bedside and intend to stay here until I can't any longer. I find it satisfying and lucrative (I'm not rich by any means, but I have been able to support my family nicely and still have stress free time off to enjoy them).

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Specializes in ER.

I'm saving money by going the ADN and then getting my BSN. However, I planned for it during school and I went to a partnership school.

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Specializes in Critical Care.
What annoys me most about the whole debate is nursing's refusal to recognize any non-nursing bachelors or master's degrees. Nobody cares about anything but the almighty BSN. There are many RN's out there who have a lot more education than a new grad BSN, but are still treated as inferior because they don't have the NURSING bachelors. C'mon, if you have a bachelors of science, AND you are an RN, then you should be recognized as a bachelor prepared RN.

My current employer refused to allow me to put "BS" or "MS" on my badge, so my badge says ADN. That annoys me.

I am an ADN nurse, CCRN, and I have worked in ICU's at several major medical centers and obtained highly competetive positions. I even got accepted to CRNA school (though finances and my personal situation precluded me attending). I chose a school that recognized my non-nursing BS and MS.

I love the bedside and intend to stay here until I can't any longer. I find it satisfying and lucrative (I'm not rich by any means, but I have been able to support my family nicely and still have stress free time off to enjoy them).

Many of us have BA/BS degrees in other fields or at least a lot of liberal arts college credits in addition to our ADN. I haven't heard of a hospital putting ADN on the ID badge, they are not doing that where I work or our competitors, so far at least. I wonder how common that is. They only put our first name last initial and RN on our badge, while at least one of our competitors put the last name on which I don't think is a good idea when you consider the possibility of stalkers and most nurses are women.

The state university BSN program costs over $11,000 year and they have the nerve to charge MORE for the online option. My public city university goes out of the way to make getting a degree more challenging than even the more highly rated state university. I don't know if it's because the city has a large ghetto population and they want to prove people who graduate from them are really qualified, but I think it contributes to the poor overall graduation rate. They are really doing a disservice to all the poor and working class students by making it more difficult to graduate when a college degree is becoming essential to a decent job! I think private colleges have higher grad rates than public schools. However private colleges are $20-$40,000 a year or more it is just crazy! Ironically in the last several decades while tuition has increased way beyond inflation, now the majority of teachers are untenured with very low pay and many times without even health insurance. The colleges are just as profit seeking and corporate as private business, taking advantage of both their employees and their students to maximize profit and the top dogs are way overpaid! So the students are overpaying for inferior, less invested teachers many who qualify for food stamps because they are paid by the class and it can actually be less than the minimum wage! And all these instructors have at least a masters!

My hospital goes along with all the colleges, pubic, private, non profit, and profit and have alliances with almost all the universities now even WGU so maybe it doesn't even matter where you get a BSN from. College just seems to be one big racket if you ask me, impoverishing and turning students into indentured servants for the profit of colleges and big business. In the old days companies had apprentice programs and even hospitals had diploma programs where you didn't have to take out a virtual mortgage just for the chance to vie for a job! The businesses actually did their part to recruit and train the workers. Now we have to go into debt just for the chance for a job, how is that progress!

Personally, I'm just so tired of being broke and frugal and paying off my student loans from the past, to go back to school and take out more student loans, and no I couldn't pay for them out of pocket with all the bills of being a homeowner and saving for retirement. If I didn't love my home, I would say renting is a much better way to go. Home ownership is way overrated! For me the risks of more student loan debt outweigh the advantages of getting a BSN, and I'll have to take my chances that I'll be able to work till retirement with my ADN. I do not want to be paying off student loans out of my social security when I retire! Everyone has to make their own choices in this matter.

A BSN may be ideal, but it is not always a realistic option for everyone given their own personal and financial situation. I liken it to should one do a kitchen/bath remodel or should one make sure they have money in the bank and the roof, plumbing and electrical are safe and up to date. What good is spending all the money on a remodel if they can't afford to make necessary repairs or keep the roof over their head! Like don't pay for your children's college before saving for retirement, how is that different than going back to school late in life taking out loans when you really need to be saving for the future. I think it is a disservice to encourage older workers to drop everything and run back to school for another degree in the hope that they can get a job with it! If you read the papers or AARP you will see many disabled and laid off workers who went back to school and still were unable to get a decent job or sometimes even any job, and now burdened with student loans they can't afford! I also think it is naive to believe that a BSN will give you job security and save you from a layoff. Many nurses are fired or laid off and in an at will state with no union they can do that for no reason at all, although many times it is a form of age discrimination because of the higher wages and health insurance costs. In fact where I work, being in administration is a dangerous place to be where you can walk into work one day and be escorted out by security because they've decided to replace you with someone else who may be younger, prettier or friend/family of the boss. Three of the top admin that were fired it took over a year for them to get another job, and one even involved a relocation to a rural area and they all had an MSN! Then we have an MSW social worker with $50,000 in student loans from that who is going back to school for nursing! Just crazy how will you be better off financially even if you become a nurse when all your money is going to pay back the student loans! Beats me! When will the insanity end!

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Specializes in Critical Care.
I keep wondering why there is almost a "mythical" issue to BSN, or rather RN-BSN being "sooo expensive," when there are actual quality programs that don't cost that much...:no:

Not where I live.

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Specializes in Pediatrics, Emergency, Trauma.
Not where I live.

Yet there are ones online that are more reasonably priced... :whistling:

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Specializes in Critical Care.
Liberal Arts is a good choice.

You are being sarcastic aren't you? Liberal Arts is a dead end, all it does is give you a piece of paper that you have a college degree. The only way to get a good job with a BA is thru luck or connections. That's why you see so many people going back to school for nursing. Many choose ADN's because there are not a lot of Accelerated BSN options. The one college I know that had it discontinued it. We have one direct entry MSN program at a very expensive private college over $1,000 credit, people end up owing $65,000 to go there, not counting their bachelors! As far as RN to MSN I only know of one or two colleges and they are not for NP, but for admin or education, not my cup of tea. Maybe it's a blessing in disguise to prevent me from going into debt to be an NP. Otherwise I might be tempted to do just that, debt be damned! My lower back is shot and I have pain whenever I have to stand so I don't think clinic nursing would work for me anyway anymore.

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Specializes in Nurse Leader specializing in Labor & Delivery.
Not where I live.

Do you live in the US? If so, the yes there is.

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Specializes in Nurse Scientist-Research.
Not where I live.

If you have a computer and internet access there are several programs that are around $9-12,000 for the whole thing. They are not restricted to residents of their States. You can always find something to complain about in every program (this one makes me take chemistry, this one makes me take Texas history), but cost is not a huge issue if you shop around.

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What annoys me most about the whole debate is nursing's refusal to recognize any non-nursing bachelors or master's degrees. Nobody cares about anything but the almighty BSN. There are many RN's out there who have a lot more education than a new grad BSN, but are still treated as inferior because they don't have the NURSING bachelors. C'mon, if you have a bachelors of science, AND you are an RN, then you should be recognized as a bachelor prepared RN.

My current employer refused to allow me to put "BS" or "MS" on my badge, so my badge says ADN. That annoys me.

I am an ADN nurse, CCRN, and I have worked in ICU's at several major medical centers and obtained highly competetive positions. I even got accepted to CRNA school (though finances and my personal situation precluded me attending). I chose a school that recognized my non-nursing BS and MS.

I love the bedside and intend to stay here until I can't any longer. I find it satisfying and lucrative (I'm not rich by any means, but I have been able to support my family nicely and still have stress free time off to enjoy them).

Most employers also recognize Bachelor of Art in nursing degrees exist either.

Strange....

I wonder why the focus has to be specifically science as opposed to art.

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