46 year old new nurse - Should I get a BSN?

Published

Specializes in Tele, ICU, Staff Development.

Dear Nurse Beth,

I am a 46yr old new nurse. Prior to my nursing career, I was involved in healthcare management and healthcare IT. I have my MS in Health Administration as well as a BS in Psychology. My question to you is, how necessary is it for me to get my BSN? My organization has put a lot of pressure on LPN's to get their RN or BSN. I know I don't want to get into management again, it's not my thing. I enjoy bedside care but I realize I probably can't do it for the remainder of my nursing career. If you were me, what would you do? The compensation for getting a BSN is less than a dollar where I work. I've already got loans I'm paying back for my education and I also don't want to be tied down and in debt to an institution where I'd need to work off the loan if I were to choose tuition reimbursement. My understanding is that there is more theory and management in the BSN. I don't agree with the notion that a BSN makes a better nurse. I'm a good nurse and I think my prior experience in healthcare makes me very marketable down the road but if the BSN is going to make or break me, I'd like to know now. Any advice you have is appreciated.

Dear Should I get my BSN?

For right now, and as long as you plan to work as a bedside nurse, you'll be fine with an ADN and not a BSN. And you are right, it's not a BSN that makes you a good nurse or not. But the market is moving in favor of BSN prepared nurses.

It's when you want to leave bedside nursing that you'll be more marketable with a BSN. Look at job postings in your area or facility for Case Managers, Utilization Review, Informatics, Staff Development, Risk Management, Infection Prevention, and so on (I'm thinking of areas you may be interested in down the road). Check to see if the qualifications include a BSN, or if they say BSN preferred”.

Now in your case, you are highly educated in a related field. Sometimes an employer will waive a BSN requirement if the applicant has a non-nursing degree or experience in the field.

So to summarize, you are more marketable than a nurse with an ADN, and less marketable than a nurse with a BSN.

The sure thing would be to get your BSN, but only you can weigh the personal variables of cost and the want-to” factor.

Best wishes,

Nurse Beth

nurse-beth-purple-logo.jpg

Up Vote Up Vote ×

Here where I work--EVERY hospital has a statement you must sign if you are an ADN upon hiring that you MUST start on your BSN within 2 yrs and complete within 5----I will be 65ys old by then----and the increase in pay incentive is minimal but the debt will plague me long into retirement-no choice here. So many ADNs are now being "forced" into working elsewhere or complying.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Tele, ICU, Staff Development.
Here where I work--EVERY hospital has a statement you must sign if you are an ADN upon hiring that you MUST start on your BSN within 2 yrs and complete within 5----I will be 65ys old by then----and the increase in pay incentive is minimal but the debt will plague me long into retirement-no choice here. So many ADNs are now being "forced" into working elsewhere or complying.

Do they help with tuition reimbursement?

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in ICU.

I hear a lot of people on here also saying that it's this "magnet" status requiring people to get BSNs and I have been told by local hospitals here that magnet status only applies to LPNs working on the floors, not whether RNs have an ASN or BSN. This came from HR people at local hospitals. One of ours is going for magnet status and there are two hospitals in my town. Both have many LPNs working the floors. One of the hospitals laid off all of their LPN floor nurses and hired RNs over the summer. The other one still has LPNs working the floors. Around here the pay difference is approx $0.50 for a BSN, so I can understand many people's reluctance to obtain one.

I kind of feel the whole thing has been blown out of proportion and far too many rumors swirl with this debate. That is why I went and talked to people in the HR departments at our local hospitals. I'm sorry but one study done like 20 years ago about outcomes does not convince me that there is a huge difference in outcomes. I don't think more education is ever a bad thing, but just to expand one's knowledge, not to say they are inherently different.

OP, I would go and talk to your local hospitals and see what they want you to have. Get it directly from the horse's mouth and not based on what so-and-so told somebody. I will be 40 when I graduate next spring and I am not forseeing huge difficulties in finding jobs in my area. Many areas are very short staffed right now and are paying huge incentive bonuses per shift for nurses to work just for basic coverage. I think this is some conspiracy throughout schools to get more money. It all comes down to politics truly and not what is best for the patients. I don't feel it's right for seasoned ASN nurses to feel threatened in the job market these days. I do my clinical rotations at the exact same place and floors as BSN students. Right now, my school is on the floor 0700-1530 and the BSN school comes on at 1600-2200. We all do the exact same things. But that's just my two cents.

Up Vote Up Vote ×

They have been threatening to require all registered nurses to have at least a BSN since I was a nursing student 37 years ago. Where I have worked, the BSN nurses make the same wage as the ADN and diploma nurses. We all work the same days, shifts and units. When the day comes when someone can walk onto a nursing unit and determine who is ADN or diploma vs BSN just by watching their patient care, well I don't think that day will come.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in ER - trauma/cardiac/burns. IV start spec.

This is only for you to decide but if it were me I would not start a BSN at this point. The BSN demand is part of the "everyone has to have the college degree" mentality plague hurting this country. Not everyone has to have a BSN/MSN and many hospitals just want a B something degree. You have an MS in hospital administration and if you want to leave the bedside and move into a higher management position I suspect that degree will get you farther than a BSN.

With respect to all nurses having a BSN - a BSN does not automatically make you a better nurse than an ADN. In the ER I worked not a single new grad BSN survived in the ER, not one. None of them felt confident enough to make the cut and there is a local college that produces BSN's so we had quite a few. The other university produced ADN's that out performed the BSN's in our ER. There was no pay difference for the degrees here, we all made the same pay, our only pay difference's came from certifications or shift diff.

I was 40 when I started my nursing career and was very glad I did not start a BSN as I developed a severe latex allergy and had to give up my lifelong desire. I did not work long enough to pay back my original student loans what if I had taken more loans out? I am not really that strange for developing a latex allergy while nursing it has been happening to hundreds of nurses so you may want to add one other consideration to your decision - what will you do it something happens and you cannot continue nursing? How much more will you owe in loans then?

If you love bedside nursing stay there and worry about more degrees later.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Geriatrics, Dialysis.

Hows this for a clear as mud answer? It depends. Personally I would think with a BS and an MS already the BSN is not necessary. But maybe you work or may work in an area that prefers BSN prepared bedside nurses, in which case your higher degrees outside nursing won't count for anything. Another consideration is the ROI for another degree. Will it make you enough money before you retire to make paying for it worthwhile?

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Corrections, neurology, dialysis.

I am 54 years old and two classes away from getting my BSN. I was hired with the contingency that I get a bachelor's degree. As for it being needed to get a job, in my area, definitely yes. No one will even look at your resume without it. I got in because I workd as a traveler at the hospital I work in now, and they liked me so much they asked me to stay. They wouldn't have given me a second look otherwise.

Up Vote Up Vote ×

I totally agree with Nurse Beth. I see the push for BSN prepared nurses in specific institutions that are looking for accreditation that will impact their reimbursement rates. It's not becuase they make a nurse better at what she does, especially when it comes to bedside nursing. I have been weighing a similar situation. I am ADN prepared since 1990. I am now 59. Not having a BSN limits my employment options but I am so close to retirement that it doesnt make sense to me to go through a couple years of study plus the expense. I'd like the title but doesn't seem worth it to me. I will just continue what I am doing (hospital based GI lab) or something similar until it is time for me to hang up my cap. Point is, look at your long term goals and examine all options to get there.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Med/Surg/.

I think you are going to find differences in many states for awhile. I will say that here in Dallas at Baylor they will not hire anyone who doesn't have a BSN...I have a friend who graduated about 3 yrs ago and asked then and was told that. They are going to all try in the future but again it's all about location. Some will and some won't......

Up Vote Up Vote ×

I don't know the right answer, but just wanted to tell you that I am 47 (graduated last spring) and working while attending school for my BSN. It's just one day a week, so pretty do-able, although there is certainly plenty of homework. That being said, I am just finishing my second of four quarters and I haven't really learned any new skills or clinical knowledge. It's all stuff like research, leadership, cultural and social issues in nursing, etc. This is at a highly respected and top rated university.

So basically, I'm not sure it is making me an immensely better nurse. I am simply doing it

to make myself more marketable, since most hospitals around here require it within 5 years of hire, and some won't even interview you if you are not at least enrolled in a program.

Up Vote Up Vote ×

I think you've be fine as it is and if you have a MS in psychology you'd be a great asset in a psych hospital, clinic or practice. You could probably be the manager of the psych floor and make lots of money. I wouldn't get a BSN and this point, tiu have plenty of education and a BSN doesn't really make a huge difference. It hasn't for me other than have hiring managers say that its good I have a BSN but haven't seen a difference in pay because of it.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
+ Join the Discussion