Why An Experienced Nurse Thinks the BSN Degree is Important

NurseNet, a popular listserv for nurses, often sparks lively discussions about hot nursing topics. Recently, a stimulating conversation about the importance of the BSN degree took place. With her permission, we've reprinted portions of a post by Wendie A. Howland, RN, MN, CRRN, CCM, CNLCP.

"Better Education Makes You Better At What You Do"

Howland says: What's the basic educational preparation for people you think of as professionals? Would you want your chemistry research done by someone with an associate degree? Your child taught high school math or English? Your income tax advising?

Sure, there are good people with lower level education who succeed in life, but don't let that "we all have the same license and sit for the same exam" fool you. Better education makes you better at what you do. There are any number of people who can give you examples of BSNs or MSNs who don't know how to take a rectal temperature and marvelous crusty old LPNs who saved the resident's butt one dark and stormy night, but for every single one of those I will see your anecdote and raise you half a dozen godawful errors made by nurses who didn't take the coursework and didn't get exposed to the idea of autonomy in school.

A More Worthwhile Time Investment

Howland says: The bachelor's degree takes four years. The associate's degree (AS or ASN) takes...three and a half, once you count all the prerequisites you're going to have to take before they admit you into the nursing program. And those who say you can work on your BSN while you are working as an RN with an AS don't tell you (and maybe don't know, to be charitable) that many of your course hours from the AS program are not transferrable, so it won't just be a matter of a semester or two or three. And working as a nurse is hard, almost as hard as nursing school...think you'll have the mental, physical, social, and financial energy for more education at the same time? Oh, and in most jurisdictions you can't sit for the LPN exam and work as one while partway through a AS or BSN program anymore, either.

Better Job Opportunities

Howland says: Look around the place and see who's working. Are you planning to be older some day? Do you see older nurses working in those entry-level staff or charge positions? If not, where did they all go? Why do you care? Well, suppose you work on a general medical floor and get entranced by cardiac rehabilitation after following a patient who did it. A job comes up in the department, hooray! Oops, BSN only. Or you find your heart drawn to helping underserved women in a public health clinic for high-risk pregnancy. Sorry, BSN only in public health.

After five or six years as a staff nurse you have become a resource to new hires and your peers and you realize you have a gift for teaching. You see that a position in staff development has come open, and you are first in line at HR to apply. You got it.... BSN is the minimum. School nursing? BSN. Hurt your back and want to go for a job in case management? BSN.

You discover you have a gift for asking, "Why do we do it this way?" and are amazed to find you want to look into jobs in management or nursing research.....BSN minimum.

You are starting to get the picture now. Also, many, many practice settings give you a differential for BSN.

Deeper Professional Growth

Howland says: The questions in the licensure exams (NCLEX) are developed from errors made in the first year of practice by new grads, and regardless of pass rates from different level programs, anyone in practice can confirm the research: in the first year of work, all new grads perform at about the same level as they get their feet under them and get used to the idea of working as an RN. But after that year, the BSNs pull ahead in ways that are related to their higher level of education.

Why? Because what we call in the ed biz "psychomotor skills," the things you do with your hands, can be done by anyone with enough practice. Hell, we teach lay people how to do peritoneal dialysis at home or suction tracheostomies. But the understanding of why some things are as they are is something you get in better education. More science, more sociology, more psychology, more history, a basic statistics class, and exposure to more clinical settings give you the insight to ask better questions and make better decisions.

Wendie Howland has worked as a staff nurse, inservice/staff development, instructor, NCLEX prep course instructor, case manager in multiple settings, and "other stuff too numerous to mention." On the flip side, she's also been a patient with different levels of caregivers. She can be found at www.howlandhealthconsulting.com.

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