What can I do with my BSN that Assoc. RN's can't?

hock1 · Jun 14, 2004

Rest assured your degree is not wasted. The hospital I work at requires management to have BSN. They sent (or are currently sending) ADN managers back for their BSN. The pay difference for floor nursing is the BSN receives $0.50 and hour more than the ADN. Those are the big differences between ADN-RN and BSN-RN in my area.

OC_An Khe · Jun 14, 2004

It is only a big issue if you let it become one. As far as bedside nursing is concerned an RN is an RN and it doesn't matter how that particular RN was educated. However, you can do far more with your BSN as far as career choices and areas of further practise are concerned. More than half the jobs for RNs are not at the hospital bedside giving care, and many of those require a 4 year or more degrees.

Good luck in your boards.

Dixiedi · Jun 14, 2004

I just graduated with my BSN this spring. I'm working as a PCA2/Graduate Nurse at a local hospital until I take my boards... I am taking my HESI tomorrow at the college I graduated from. This is an 'exit' type of exam that we have to pass before taking our boards. I'm feeling down about not being able to pass and have this huge fear that I am not going to pass my boards!
Amidst my fear, I am questioning taking a role as an RN on floor nursing. It seems like most of the RN's on my floor have an associates degree, and I am questioning if I should be doing something different since I have my bachelor's? The pay is the same for an Assoc. or BSN, which doesn't make any sense to me. Just wondering what else is available that I might not be looking for, or what your opinions are!?
Another BSN student who just graduated as well was speaking with me, and said she wonders if the Assoc. degree RN's laugh thinking that we have wasted our time getting our BSN when we get the same pay/same responsibilities. Is this a big issue?
Thanks!
Miranda

With a BSN you will have opportunities that are not available to the diploma and ASN RNs. However, you are a brand new nurse! You will have the same license, also void of specialized certificates, as the other RNs. You also lack experience!

The ANA is pushing for BSN entry level, but to date (and I've been a nurse for 30+ years, first hearing this as a student) it hasn't come to pass.

It's funny, I have a neice who got her BSN a couple years ago. She is still ticked off becasue she doesn't make more than the ADNs and that at her hospital LPNs are working right along side her. I routinely tell her "get over it" you chose to go for the BSN and you should understand that it affords you more oppotunities in nursing, it does not neccessarily make you a better nurse! She really doesn't like me very much!

As you mature as a nurse, you will see the opportunites you have (with increased salary) that the others do not.

SmilingBluEyes · Jun 14, 2004

NO associate's degree nurse will laugh at you for getting a BSN. We are too busy and mature for that. Where I work, no one knows for sure who has what degree and no one cares. You will find professionalism (and NON) in all levels of entry. You are in a good position, having your BSN. If you choose to go into management or teaching, you may be able where an ADN may not. and you are that much closer to completing a master's degree one day if you so choose. No one here or anywhere else will be laughing at the path you chose. Just be respectful of all you work with and you will be fine.

Quickbeam, BSN, RN · Jun 14, 2004

I have a great job in community/public health that was only open to BSNs. One thing every nurse should do is look down the road to when they may not be physically able to do floor nursing. A BSN opens doors to other career tracks. I could do my current job from a wheelchair yet it is still nursing.

Dixielee, BSN, RN · Jun 14, 2004

I got my associate in nursing in 1973 when I was not wet behind the years. There were still a lot of diploma schools at that time and not many BSN programs. I worked in many areas of nursing including hospital education before returning to school for my BSN and completing it in 1993. I don't think the BSN changed the way I do anything, but I did enjoy returning to school. My program was geared to RN's and it was refreshing to be viewed as collegue and not as a "student" by the faculty. I think the BSN program presents more of a world view, at least mine did, where the AS programs focus on clinical issues. I would suggest any young person going into nursing to go for the BSN because there are more doors open outside of the hospital settings. I also think my AS program prepared me for anything I needed as a beginning nurse. I would recommend anyone who may be older, with family prehaps to go for the AS program. Why not get your degree and start making some money as soon as possible. There are so many bridge programs now that make it much easier to advance if that is the road you want to take. I agree with a previous poster who said there is no war between the degrees, at least I haven't seen it. Most folks don't know or care where you went to school or what kind of degree you have as long as you are a good nurse.

nursemike, ASN, RN · Jun 14, 2004

I'm in a 2+2 program--you get an ADN in 2 years, then go on for a BSN if you want to.

A lot of my class, including me, sees the ADN as a way to pay for the last two years. In my case, I can do what I want with just an ADN, but I'll probably go back for the BSN just to deepen my knowledge base. Plus, options are never a bad thing.

Ha, ha, sucker! J/K

purplemania, BSN, RN · Jun 14, 2004

It makes no difference as long as you don't want to apply for a management position, and who is to say that might not happen in the future? You open more doors. Our facility pays $1/hr extra for BSN. Even if it did not, as an older student I realized I could never acquire the experience so had to go for education in order to expand my practice.

psychomachia · Jun 14, 2004

With a BSN you will have opportunities that are not available to the diploma and ASN RNs.

You get to take the side of "A BSN is better than an ASN/ADN/Diploma/Regent's/Foreign trained/everyone else debate"

That's always fun....

ayndim · Jun 14, 2004

I just graduated with my BSN this spring. I'm working as a PCA2/Graduate Nurse at a local hospital until I take my boards... I am taking my HESI tomorrow at the college I graduated from. This is an 'exit' type of exam that we have to pass before taking our boards. I'm feeling down about not being able to pass and have this huge fear that I am not going to pass my boards!
Amidst my fear, I am questioning taking a role as an RN on floor nursing. It seems like most of the RN's on my floor have an associates degree, and I am questioning if I should be doing something different since I have my bachelor's? The pay is the same for an Assoc. or BSN, which doesn't make any sense to me. Just wondering what else is available that I might not be looking for, or what your opinions are!?
Another BSN student who just graduated as well was speaking with me, and said she wonders if the Assoc. degree RN's laugh thinking that we have wasted our time getting our BSN when we get the same pay/same responsibilities. Is this a big issue?
Thanks!
Miranda

This is my take on it. I am going for an ADN first. Then once employed our local university has a RN to BSN program that is one night or day per week for one year. I am doing it this way on the advice of my godmother, who is an RN. She was an ADN for many years before getting her BSN and then her MSN. She has degenrative (sp?) disc disease and is now an educator for a local community college. She advised me to get an ADN first for financial reasons. Then to get an employer to pay for a BSN. She said in the first years it doesn't matter what your degree is in. Obviously, the exception would be if you want to go into a job that requires a BSN. At my kids school the nurse must have a BSN and I worked at a company that had a company nurse, who also had to be a BSN.

I would like to be a CNM one day and I look at it like this. I have to work in l&d for a few years to be able to get in the program and know what I am doing. Might as well work on my BSN at the same time.

But I am a stay-at-home mom who is anxious to get back to work in two years. If I were single I might have gone for the BSN first. Plus, the only financial aid I can get are loans. Not really interested in loans so I am paying out of pocket. The ADN program is about $3000 including books, uniforms, etc. Tuition alone for the BSN is $10,000 total not including books, uniforms, lab fees, etc.

I think what you do first just depends on where you are and what your goals are. At least your first step towards an advanced degree is out of the way if that is the way you decide to go. And when you have more experience you will get paid more for a BSN, according to my godmother. And your duties will be the same as the ADN nurse.

Congrats on you BSN and good luck with your boards. :balloons:

tiredfeetED · Jun 14, 2004

I just graduated with my BSN this spring. I'm working as a PCA2/Graduate Nurse at a local hospital until I take my boards... I am taking my HESI tomorrow at the college I graduated from. This is an 'exit' type of exam that we have to pass before taking our boards. I'm feeling down about not being able to pass and have this huge fear that I am not going to pass my boards!
Amidst my fear, I am questioning taking a role as an RN on floor nursing. It seems like most of the RN's on my floor have an associates degree, and I am questioning if I should be doing something different since I have my bachelor's? The pay is the same for an Assoc. or BSN, which doesn't make any sense to me. Just wondering what else is available that I might not be looking for, or what your opinions are!?
Another BSN student who just graduated as well was speaking with me, and said she wonders if the Assoc. degree RN's laugh thinking that we have wasted our time getting our BSN when we get the same pay/same responsibilities. Is this a big issue?
Thanks!
Miranda

1) No RN will ever laugh at you for education, you will never stop learning..

2) In the ED i work on the Floor with Drs., FNPs, nurses with ADN, BSN and MSN/CNS ( the pay for CNS is not much better, exp= pay).

3) One of the most important things you will learn on the floor is critical thinking which is invaluable.

By the way Congrats on graduation! GET READY TO LEARN!!!