When do going back to school STOP!!

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I have a burning question that have been on my mind for a while now. I have been in the Medical field for over 28 years, and I must say it have been very challenging. I have notice that Nursing is the only career that requires a educational move than a promotional move. I'm thinking this is not always good, CNA's have to go back to school, LVN's to become RN's, RN's back to school to become Nurse Practitioners and if you want to specialize into anything, you have to go back to school to for that position. To become a midwife requires more education, a Nurse anesthetist requires more education; it's non ending to just wanting a career. On top of that, keeping up CEU's and other necessary requirements.. When does this stop? What ever happen to just getting regular promotions within a job, instead of going back to school??

Specializes in Critical Care and ED.

It stops when you want it to stop. You have to ask yourself how you foresee your life and career going. If you want limited job prospects and a lifetime of being at the mercy of the corporations then feel free to stop right here. If you want to progress, earn more money, have a more challenging work environment and earn more respect from your coworkers then you keep going back to school. No one is making anyone go back to school. If never has to stop if you don't want it to. I'm nearly 50 and halfway through a master's program in the hope I might be able to enjoy a job which I can contribute my many years of experience to, earn more money, save my back and finally get a little respect. I know nurses older than me who still only have a diploma and they're stuck in their field with little to no chance of progressing or surviving a layoff. Which do you want?

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Specializes in ICU.
Calivianya you make some good points, but I'm sure your brother had to go to some schooling to get where he is at. Even if it was some leadership classes the company paid for perhaps. I'm sure he had to work hard to become CEO. I font think they'd just hand that over to just anyone

Your brother also has something that helped him out tremendously, and that was commitment and loyalty for 40+ years. I would say that if a nurse would give a department 40 years she has well might see some benefits come to her as well. She would stay at here job as an RN but she could be head of a department or become a director of nursing.

Truthfully I'd say nurses that would work 40 years in one spot is a rarity now days. Plus you might not be able to climb the ladder of a higher health care worker, but there are different ladders you can climb as a nurse. A whole world of different specialties that you are eligible for. Many people can not say that about their profession. A lawyer is still a lawyer. He can climb the ranks and become partner, but one lawyers office still is like any other lawyers office. Nursing on the other hand has so many new and exciting avenues to choose from to spice up your nursing career

He did go to college, but he only went once for one degree - and he held more than 15 job titles with the company.

There are new avenues to spice a nursing career up, for sure, but they are all for personal gain and not professional gain. Cath lab makes the same pay as med/surg makes the same pay as postpartum. It just is what it is. I'm not saying any one specialty should be paid more, because every nurse does valuable work, but it is discouraging to do so much education and training just to maintain the status quo. Most companies would reward you for the amount of training a nurse does just to be a nurse. The reward in nursing is you get to keep your job.

I think most non-nursing people would laugh at you if you told them there was another job that they could take to change things up, and you'd have them orient for three months, complete 30+ online education modules, work with a preceptor, and complete an inch thick stack of skills competency check offs - so they could get paid exactly the same salary they are making right now or even take a pay cut.

I guess this is just a personal issue for me because I am the "poor kid" of a high achieving family, so the topic of lack of promotions and lack of "better" career opportunities in nursing makes me a little bitter.

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Specializes in Critical Care and ED.

I think most non-nursing people would laugh at you if you told them there was another job that they could take to change things up, and you'd have them orient for three months, complete 30+ online education modules, work with a preceptor, and complete an inch thick stack of skills competency check offs - so they could get paid exactly the same salary they are making right now or take a pay cut.

I totally get your point here, and I agree, but honestly my main reason for going back to get my Bachelor's was originally because I could see a shift in the economy of healthcare and knew I would have to remain competitive. If Diploma Nurse A loses her job tomorrow because of cuts, she might not be able to get the job in the hospital across town because Bachelor Nurse C is going for the same job and will likely get it because of the letters after her name. The older you are the harder it gets. Experience counts for a whole lot but letters after the name speak louder. It's protective. I've seen it happen over and over. This was also a motivating factor in me going back for my Master's. Things keep changing in the world of healthcare and I want to ride it with a good solid grip, rather than hanging on for dear life.

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Specializes in orthopedic/trauma, Informatics, diabetes.

Things change and we need to learn about the changes. My brother is a mechanic. Has been for more than 25 years. Needless to say, cars have changed with the times. He has to have continuing education to keep up with the changes in his field if he wants to keep his job.

Medicine changes every single day. Everyone has to keep up.

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Times have changed. Formal education as a professional gatekeeper along with degree inflation is here to stay.

I wonder where a 16 year old boy working on the loading docks today will ever get a chance to rise through the ranks the way they used to. Without the chance to rise in the company I can see him as a worn-out middle aged man working for a much younger MBA boss.

My parents said that when they were younger, companies would invest a lot of training in their employees and the loyalty was there. These days you compete for unpaid internships.

Running faster to stay in place educationally is where we are.

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Specializes in M/S, LTC, Corrections, PDN & drug rehab.
I have a burning question that have been on my mind for a while now. I have been in the Medical field for over 28 years, and I must say it have been very challenging. I have notice that Nursing is the only career that requires a educational move than a promotional move. I'm thinking this is not always good, CNA's have to go back to school, LVN's to become RN's, RN's back to school to become Nurse Practitioners and if you want to specialize into anything, you have to go back to school to for that position. To become a midwife requires more education, a Nurse anesthetist requires more education; it's non ending to just wanting a career. On top of that, keeping up CEU's and other necessary requirements.. When does this stop? What ever happen to just getting regular promotions within a job, instead of going back to school??

Well, isn't it up to the individual if they want to continue their education? I have met many CNAs who are happy being CNAs. Same with LVNs & RNs. I know once I become an RN I don't plan on becoming any advanced practice RN. The CEUs aren't that big of a deal to me. If they are to you then you are in the wrong field.

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On top of that, keeping up CEU's and other necessary requirements.. When does this stop? What ever happen to just getting regular promotions within a job, instead of[/font] going back to school??

I don't have a problem with anyone who decides they are not interested in getting increasingly advanced degrees. But I find the concept of a nurse who is not interested in staying current through some pretty minimal continued education to be rather scary. Medicine/nursing/health care is a constantly evolving entity. I want my caregivers to be up on the latest advancements and research, to constantly be honing and improving their skills and learning new ones as they develop.

Maybe you're burned out and need a break. After 28 years, I could certainly understand it.

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Specializes in 15 years in ICU, 22 years in PACU.
What ever happen (sic) to just getting regular promotions within a job, instead of going back to school??

Where are you from and whatever kind of job are you talking about??? A factory line worker who does the exact same thing for 30 years and is paid for not dying?

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Specializes in ER and case management.

I think I know what you are saying. Yes, other posters are right, you have to have more in nursing to do the different jobs. In the OLD days though, you could get hands on training and move up, fro example, nurse to charge to dept manager to don. Those days are long gone. And to a limited extent there is still some movement in the smaller places, but in big organizations, safe to say pretty much never. Stuff is to complicated now, so many rules and regs...you have to specialized/higher degreed to get the knowledge and/or keep up. Remember, nursing as a whole is trying to show itself as a profession and not a trade like it used to be, and professions have degrees, higher degrees and specialized certifications. Does that help?

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Specializes in Telemetry.

From her previous posts, OP is in California working as a Method 3 LPN and seems upset that no other state BON will accept this background for licensure in their state.

In order for OP to move to another state and work as an LPN, she would need to attend and graduate from an LPN program and then pass NCLEX-PN.

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Specializes in ICU.

According the OP's rationale, a medical assistant should be able to work up to a physician by on the job training? Seriously? A CNA, RN, and NP are completely different jobs. Scopes of practice are way different. The vast amount of knowledge a NP needs to accurately diagnose and prescribe is completely different from a CNA. Those types of things cannot be learned on the job. A CNA does not really need to know pharmacology or patho. They have a fundamental knowledge of A&P. Not the extensive amount that a LPN or RN have much less a NP. The fact that nurses are responsible for lives is a huge difference than the loading dock guy becoming a CEO.

I started out in retail for a company as a dept. manager at the age of 18. I had some experience as a sales associate at another company. I moved my way up through management over the years and ended up taking care of stores for the entire state of Indiana at one point. I developed management training programs and did the hiring in addition to taking care of my own store. It was all on the job training and I did not need a degree. But the retail job market is not even close to the medical field. There was no intricate amount of knowledge that I could only learn in school. If I didn't get something done that day, nobody's life was in danger. There really weren't any national regulations for retail managers. We had to comply with labor and OSHA laws but that's about it. The most complicated thing I did was sell guns but we went for training every year on gun compliance. The government provided that. It's just really not even close to the same thing.

Now, do I think that a nurse who say has her ADN and has worked on the job for 20 years can be trained to be say a DON? Sure. Can they be a charge nurse? Yes. That to me doesn't require say a BSN or higher. That is something that can be trained for on the job. There are levels in nursing one can do with on the job training. But can a RN just train to be a NP? No, not at all. There is too much that needs to be learned in a classroom. It's not comparative to me.

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"The older you are the harder it gets. Experience counts for a whole lot but letters after the name speak louder. "

Not true. I have an associate degree. Experience earned me a six figure income.

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