Needing a BSN to practice in WI

U.S.A. Wisconsin

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I was just told that a law is being passed that WI nurses need their BSN to be an RN in Wisconsin, and that the current nurses are grandfathered in. Has anyone heard this!??!?

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Specializes in Hospice.

No, i haven't, Our local technical college has just started a major expansion program to enlarge their healthcare department. I imagine they wouldn't have done that if that was truly in the works. who was your source?

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I've not heard anything about this, either, although I'm not in WI -- and, if it were true, it would be a big enough deal that nurses all over the US would have heard something about it. I did a quick Google search and found something about the WI Dept. of Public Instruction considering a new rule that would require a minimum of a BSN to work as a school nurse in WI. That would have nothing to do with licensure, and would not be that big a deal by itself -- I believe some states already have that requirement, just as many public health departments require a minimum of a BSN to work as a public health nurse.

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Specializes in Neurosurgical, Orthopedic, Wound Care.

Have not heard of this at all.

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I was told by an instructor that the state of WI is trying to make this a law. She said that if it went through, those of us who would be grandfathered in would have 10 years to complete our BSN. A nurse that graduated 10 years ago said that back then they were trying to pass the same law. Who knows.....I'm not going to hold my breath! Just wondering if anyone else had heard that rumor.

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Specializes in Hospice.
I was told by an instructor that the state of WI is trying to make this a law. She said that if it went through, those of us who would be grandfathered in would have 10 years to complete our BSN. A nurse that graduated 10 years ago said that back then they were trying to pass the same law. Who knows.....I'm not going to hold my breath! Just wondering if anyone else had heard that rumor.

I hope so...to be taken seriously we need to up our entry to practice....but i seriously doubt it will ever happen.

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I was told by an instructor that the state of WI is trying to make this a law. She said that if it went through, those of us who would be grandfathered in would have 10 years to complete our BSN. A nurse that graduated 10 years ago said that back then they were trying to pass the same law. Who knows.....I'm not going to hold my breath! Just wondering if anyone else had heard that rumor.

There has been a fair amount of publicity about how NY and NJ are currently considering a similar proposal. I've not heard anything about WI considering it, and I can't find anything about it on the Net. The only thing that comes up is the DPI rule about school nurses, which apparently did get passed.

I obviously don't know anything about the instructor who said this to you, but they are not always an infallible source of information (although one would think they probably would be) -- lots of people post here asking about stuff they heard from an instructor which turns out to not be true.

If it is true, and anyone can find any documentation of this, I'd certainly be glad to know about it.

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While it is an interesting thought, I'm not sure that any state will be able to do this entirely. Although the economy has kind of tanked the job market, it will pick up again and with another nursing shortage in our future, I can't see getting rid of a large part of the staffing pool. While I am a little biased as an ADN, I haven't seen a huge difference in the bedside care of nurses with different degrees. The hospital I currently work at requires a BSN for management and supervisor positions which I can understand, but for regular bedside nursing, I don't really see a point.

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I can not see that happening to soon, The Technical colleges would lose a lot of money because of this and they are state owned so they would lose a lot of tax money.

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North Dakota tried to make BSN the entry level. It proved unworkable. They changed the law back.

I did a search and found nothing suggesting that there is a move afoot to change entry level in WI to BSN. The only thing that came up was the measure relating to school nurses, and even that legislation is still in the proposal stage.

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Specializes in CVICU.

At the hospital where I do clinicals here in WI, my instructor says that 60% of the nurses hold an ADN. A law like that would never pass right now.

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Specializes in burn ICU, SICU, ER, Trauma Rapid Response.

I think there are few states that care less about an RNs entry to practice than Wisconsin. In Wisconsin my experience has been that they care what you know, not how you came to know it. I work at one of the larger hositals in Wisconsin and our SICU manager that was just hired last year doesn't even have a BSN. I don't know of any hospitals in WI that pay more for BSN either. I don't know of any hospitals that have "BSN only" in their job adds for staff nurses, though the UW has "BSN prefered" in theirs but I know lots of ADN new grads who have been hired there.

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