Your opinion on degrees.

Nurses General Nursing

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Would you please give me advice?

Do you believe it is a better decision to just get a bachelor's degree or to earn an associates, become an RN and then find a job and hopefully receive tuition assistance from the hospital to earn your bsn while working?

I don't understand the point of associate degrees in any fields in this day and age. You can find some pretty affordable BSN programs in the country. I understand cost is a factor when you choose a program but you also need to think in the long run "is getting an associate degree allowing me to do what I want to do and getting paid a decent wage?" . :)

So EVERY career should require a BSN for entry level positions??? That's absolutely absurd. :rolleyes:

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Specializes in Emergency Dept, Pediatric Trauma.

my understanding of this your BSN being from a university could be better for you **if you go for an advanced degree at a bigger named school, Emory, Vanderbilt, Penn. otherwise typical state universities that offer advanced degrees (ARNP/DNP/MSN) don't care other than accreditation, GPA, and other prereqs being met to a degree that they are looking for.

the two main hospital systems where I live dont care if its a community college BSN or a university BSN, just a BSN (again from the accreditation that they want)

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Specializes in Medical-Surgical/Float Pool/Stepdown.
So EVERY career should require a BSN for entry level positions??? That's absolutely absurd. :rolleyes:

This is unfortunately why we have people working at Mickie D's with bachelors and masters degrees and the order still isn't correct when it makes it to the customer! :roflmao: Lovely degree inflation!

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Specializes in Emergency Dept, Pediatric Trauma.
I don't understand the point of associate degrees in any fields in this day and age. You can find some pretty affordable BSN programs in the country. I understand cost is a factor when you choose a program but you also need to think in the long run "is getting an associate degree allowing me to do what I want to do and getting paid a decent wage?" Personally I don't want to spend more time in school than necessary. If you have the money and time, sure, go back to school to get a BSN later. But personally when I work I just want to work, I don't want to think about writing a paper or preparing for an exam when I am not working. :)

your option isn't viable to all parties, hence the existence of ASN programs, also many of the BSN programs have loftier admission requirements --atleast thats the case locally for my immediate area

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For me, the ADN first then do BSN route was better, even with me having a prior 4-year degree and being able to bridge.

When I first started, there were only 2 options: ADN at a community college, BSN at a university. The BSN would've only taken a semester longer and cost about the same. In those shoes, it seems obvious: Pick the BSN. I didn't, though. The community college actually has the much better reputation and hospitals prefer that program's graduates. With the cost being about the same, I chose the ADN for the higher quality of education.

Now, just 2 years later, there are 2 additional ADN options and 1 additional BSN option, but all of those schools just opened up nursing programs recently because they figured out they could take advantage of the "nursing shortage" that actually still exists in my area and pump out underqualified new grads while collecting tuition money :/. I'm going to be very sad to see the state of the nursing community in 10 years if they persist. You absolutely don't want to unknowingly get caught up in going to a school where the education isn't up to par.

There is no one answer to this, except DO YOUR RESEARCH!!! Find out what hospitals think of the nursing programs at each school. Find out what the costs are, both tuition-wise and practical (maybe one school only does local clinical assignments while the other requires you to drive some distance regularly -- then you have to add the stress of maintaining a reliable distance-driving vehicle, gas, repairs, etc.) Try to find out what hospitals in the area are like, and which ones you might want to work for. Then find out what that hospital's benefits are.

Picking the best school for your own situation is a lot of work, but you owe it to yourself to know as much as you can before committing to anything.

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I think everyone should start out with an ASN because bedside nursing is a tough job to do and that's exactly where you'll have to start out with either degree. If you find the work is not for you, at least you will have less time and money invested. I have an ASN and was able to find an acute care job in the same amount of time as a few BSNs I used to work with in LTC.

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Specializes in Community, OB, Nursery.

I don't usually wade into the BSN-ADN debate, but personally I'm glad I just went ahead and got a BSN. It doesn't by default make you a better bedside nurse, but it does open doors that might not otherwise open. That's not to say those doors won't open later if you go back to school for your BSN after your associate's degree. For me it was just better to rip the bandaid off all at once. Be aware, though, that some places won't hire you without a BSN or a signed agreement to pursue one within a certain number of years. Rightly or wrongly, that's what I'm seeing in a lot of places.

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I'm a fan of going the ADN route, but like others have said it can also depend on your situation. There is only one College in my area that actually has a brick and mortar BSN program. I'm going to be attending a technical college that gets you your LPN the first year and then your ADN the second year, and their graduates get hired by the big hospitals in the state. I'm a little worried about how online BSN will look but I'm hoping to get it through the University of Vermont which us our states medical college, and then become a NP through UVM (seems kind of funny to me that they can only offer BSN online but the masters us brick and mortar lol) basically I plan to have a year or two gap between each degree to give myself some time to pay off a wee bit of the debt.

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a real school vs. an online for profit one, as the longterm shortcomings of the latter become more apparent.

What are the shortcomings of online RN-BSN programs?

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Specializes in public health.

I respect your comment. That's why there are Walmart, dollar stores, Costco, Wholefoods, and everything in between. We all need options, right? I think anyone who is thinking about going to school, no matter what level of degree you are seeking should ask yourself, why am I going to school? Is this degree going to help my career? What's the cost and benefit? Do I want to get all the schooling done now and focus on career later, or do I prefer to work and learn at the same time? I don't think having an advanced degree automatically means you are smarter than those without an advanced degree. However, certain jobs require advanced degrees and certain facilities won't even look at your resume if you don't have a BSN. What school has taught me is not skills (you do that when you practice skills every day). What school has taught me is the way to think on different scales (it has nothing to do with years of experience, your intelligence, how much money you make). I am sure a LPN/ASN is just as good in starting an IV as a BSN or a NP (maybe even better). So ask yourself what you want to do with your degree? There are plenty of ASN who makes $100K+. There are plenty of PhD or DNP who work at bedside. It's not what titles you have after your name it's what you can do with it.

your option isn't viable to all parties, hence the existence of ASN programs, also many of the BSN programs have loftier admission requirements --atleast thats the case locally for my immediate area
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I earned my BSN online and I feel it was a great option for me. Not everyone has the luxury of going to physical class throughout the week and online classes gave me the option to continue to keep working while I was in school. I found all of my professors to be really helpful and I am just as competent in my position as BSN's who earned their degree through a physical school. I can see the importance of the RN component being in a classroom, but BSN is very little technical information and a whole lot of writing papers on cultural competence and evidence based practice and stuff that is really not a reason to be in the classroom. The high acuity components are a little more complicated online, but overall, I think an online degree is a great way to have the flexibility to earn a degree.

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I live and work in NY. Nursing is my second degree. I had no debt from my first degree and I was not about to go into debt for nursing. I got my ASN from a community college ($139 a credit). Since it was basically impossible to get a hospital job as a brand new nurse and without a BSN, I immediately started my online BSN with a state university at $399 a credit while I worked in a nursing home. Took 3 classes a semester. A semester before obtaining my BSN, I finally got a job at a hospital. Now, my union is paying for my FNP (up to 18 credits a year). And they will also pay for a DNP degree. I don't think it mattered what school I went to as long as I passed the NCLEX and got my degree. But I decided for my MSN to attend a prominent private school in NYC - since I was being reimbursed up to 18 credits. If it was a $$$ amount, I would have gone to a cheaper college to make sure I was not paying a penny more than I was going to be reimbursed. But that's just me.

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