With a MSN, why do I need a BSN?

[INrnstudent]

Greetings, just a quick question about pursuing higher education. I finished my associates in nursing 1 year ago and ultimately, I want to finish my nurse practitioners degree. I have been told that if I take a ASN-to-MSN bridge program and I do not receive a BSN, I will be inelligible for certain jobs/degrees.

My question is why does it matter that I won't have a BSN? To my thinking, a MSN is more advanced than a BSN (similar to having a CDL vs just a regular drivers licence). I just want to understand why it matters to future employers that I don't have the lesser degree if I pursue the higher degree. Can someone please help me understand?

Thanks! !

[SafetyNurse1968, ADN, BSN, MSN, PhD]

I'm wondering if it has more to do with the software used for applying for applications along with the need to report to accrediting bodies the "number of BSN"s - I don't think it has anything to do with a BSN having critical information that isn't included in the MSN. The profession of nursing has a hard time keeping up with the fast paced, ever changing world of nursing education and vice versa. I think what may happen is that at some point you will be asked if you have a BSN, and you will have to say "no" and that will be unfortunate, because you have a higher degree. If there is a job you really want with that requirement, my recommendation would be to circumvent by getting in touch with the actual person who will be your supervisor - so often if someone requests your application, you can get around the limitations of checked boxes.

[LadysSolo]

I did a diploma to MSN program, and on completion of the MSN program was granted both degrees. Be sure that is not what they will be doing. I could be wrong, but I believe most programs would grant both degrees.

[RNNPICU, BSN, RN]

Many employers would not want to hire an NP prepared nurse to work an RN job.

[KatieMI, BSN, MSN, RN]

Many employers would not want to hire an NP prepared nurse to work an RN job.

They also might not do so for legal reasons. An NP-prepared person who passed the Boards in many states is considered possessing knowledge and skills (and, therefore, liable for applying or misapplying them) even when functioning on RN level. In other words, if such an RN cares for a patient who has severe chest pain, tries to call provider to get orders for 12-leads and everything else and the patient dies in the process from AMI, that RN can be held liable as an NP because she, supposingly, had knowledge and skills to diagnose and treat ACS, even if she had no legal authority to do so and it was not within her scope of practice at that moment. I am in Michigan, and my class was expressively told to stop working bedside the day we know we passed Boards, for that very reason. This rule doesn't affect MSN/Ed, MSN/leadership, CNSs, and no one else but APRNs, at least in my state.

I know one guy who held and uses his RRT, RN and NP licenses (and so works as either) within the same facility, but he is there longer than I am alive, and he is clearly an exclusion frtom the rule.

[Mavrick, BSN, RN]

I'm wondering if it has more to do with the software used for applying for applications along with the need to report to accrediting bodies the "number of BSN"s - I don't think it has anything to do with a BSN having critical information that isn't included in the MSN. The profession of nursing has a hard time keeping up with the fast paced, ever changing world of nursing education and vice versa. I think what may happen is that at some point you will be asked if you have a BSN, and you will have to say "no" and that will be unfortunate, because you have a higher degree. If there is a job you really want with that requirement, my recommendation would be to circumvent by getting in touch with the actual person who will be your supervisor - so often if someone requests your application, you can get around the limitations of checked boxes.

Absolutely agree with this mentality. It's not about your knowledge base or ability to apply it.

Can the hospital check the box and get credit for a BSN nurse to fulfill their marketing promise to the public that they are a better hospital than that ole hospital down the street with all those ADN nurses.

[matcha-cat]

I think this topic has been mentioned a few times on here, and I think what most people were getting at was that if you get your MSN before working as an RN, employers will find you too overqualified to work as an RN, and they will also find you too inexperienced to work as a NP.

I don't know what the general consensus is on that, though. If someone could clear that up, it would be great.

[phalanx]

I wonder this as well because I know two nurses who were affected by this.

Both were ADN prepared nurses who had many years of experience, returned to school when their hospitals mandated it, one obtained a MSN in leadership, the other in education.

They both were then told they needed to get a BSN as well. One of them did so, the other chose to go to a different hospital (after 20 years) because she was sick of the nonsense.

Bureaucracy rearing its ugly head? Corporate types wanting to check boxes and not actually understanding what the degrees mean?

[xoemmylouox, ASN, RN]

If someone told me I needed to get a BSN after obtaining an MSN I would laugh in their face and turn my resignation in at that very moment.