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<p>That’s a smart idea. I always wondered why more people don’t take their pre-med requirements at a local college or a CC during the summer, do well, and then be happy.</p>
<p>I know a young man who got a bachelor’s degree in aviation engineering (wanted to be a pilot). Couldn’t get a job where he wanted to live. Went back to get a new bachelor’s in electrical engineering & had to take 3 more years of school. Just got hired by Boeing & has relocated from HI to CA.</p>
<p>Another young man I know got a bachelor’s in chemical engineering + a bachelor’s & master’s in finance, all in 4 years + 1 summer. He got a great job in finance and is very pleased.</p>
<p>Getting multiple majors & degrees doesn’t seem to be that much of a career advantage, but it probably depends on the individual. I know a young man who has a master’s in both public health and social work. He is still trying to find his path, but has yearly contracts so he can pay his bills. Another young man we know had 3 master’s degrees, including two in engineering but was willing to settle for a temperary emergency hire position with no benefits (fortunately has been hired into a full-time position).</p>
<p>Around here, they are encouraging folks to try to get bachelor’s degrees with their RN, RT and other health-related CC degrees, to give them more options.</p>
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<p>Med school adcomms typically will devalue pre med science requirements taken at a CC or during a summer session. CC coursework gets devalued when there are no additional upper level science coursework from a 4 year college to reaffirm the CC science grades. Summer coursework get devalued because adcomms want to see how well a student is able to stack up against other competitive/high achieving students while still taking a full 16 credit/semester courseload. (Because the courseload in med school is insanely heavy and it costs the school too much–literally too much because tuition even at private med schools doesn’t come close to the actual cost of educating a physician-- to have students not succeed.)</p>
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<p>I was thinking about that today. I know several adults who switched careers without getting extra degrees, and are doing quite well.</p>
<p>What I don’t understand is why people think that in order to be happy, you have to start from scratch. You shouldn’t spend your life doing something you hate – but why spend your life like a hapless teenager searching for your “passion” when instead, you can try to master a lucrative and highly sought-after skill and bring it with you to make yourself happier? No new degree required.</p>
<p>FWIW, I switched careers from law into public health without going back to school. I asked others in the field, including MDs & MPHs whether I should go back to school & they were unanimous that I could get what I needed via workshops & perhaps a course or two here or there + on-the-job training. So far, over the past 5+ years, so good.</p>
<p>Where I live, hospitals are far more likely to hire an ADN nurse with three years experience (the first being as an LPN after the first year of school) rather than a BSN. Which is also why it is far harder to get into the community college nursing program than the four-year BSN program at the state u or the local four-year college.</p>
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<p>That’s good to hear. Congratulations! What made you want to switch over, HIMom? Also, when you switched from law, was it a huge switch in terms of career, or had you done something that tied into public health before you made the jump?</p>
<p>Can someone enlighten me?</p>
<p>Leaving aside specialties such as nurse practitioner, certified nurse midwife, etc. - what does a BSN know (or know how to do) that an RN with an associate’s degree doesn’t?</p>
<p>I’m not trying to be snarky here (not that I ever am ;)). I really do not know.</p>
<p>I had wanted to major in community service & public affairs but mom vetoed that idea, so I get a BA in sociology & law degree. Stayed in the field for about 25 years before deciding so many people were dying breathless and wanted to make a difference, so dove into public health in the deep end. Started a non-profit corporation & much more. It has been an interesting journey.</p>
<p>Sorry, don’t know much about the varying nursing differences. Do know that in HI, they are looking for experienced nurses because they don’t want to invest in training them (want others to have trained them). Many are having to go to other states first to get training/work experience & then try to come back to HI to get jobs.</p>
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<p>As a current college student, I see a similar problem a lot outside the nursing world. No one wants to train or pay interns; a lot of places (nothing prestigious like MBB or IBM, though) say you need to be able to get “college credit” in order to be eligible for the job. I call bull – without training and without pay, what’s the point of accepting the job? Additionally, if your only experience is as a social media intern – for which I see at least ten postings, per day; it’s essentially updating Twitter accounts – who’s going to hire you?</p>
<p>I was surprised that a young man said he was considered by interviewers to have “two years of experience” because he had two (paid) summer internships (and also worked during the school year for two years). That propelled him to the top of the job candidates, since he had more experience than many others. He is now working at a job (he had 3 job offers to choose among) that is quite different from any of his prior experiences.</p>
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<p>Well, you do not “have” to get a second bachelor’s degree to become a nurse. You can be an RN with an ADN. It’s just if want to work at a hospital which requires a BSN, if you want to move into management, or you want to be an advanced practitioner that you probably need the BSN.</p>
<p>If you already have another bachelor’s degree, that means you have English, government, history classes, etc. that you would need for the BSN. So you’re only really filling in the science classes (if you don’t already have them from your prior, which you may also have) and the nursing classes. A BSN degree minus those general classes is pretty much the ADN. It was not much more to get my BSN than an ADN. The ADNs take a few less nursing theory classes and maybe pharm II or something along those lines. It would have been silly for me to not go ahead and get the BSN with all the credit I already had from degree #1.</p>
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<p>Well, if you go to my nursing site, there are whole forums set aside for this very debate. My nurse manager (managed two ICUs at my hospital and hired new grads for the critical care nurse internships) told me that in general, the nurses who came in with the ADN lacked some of the critical thinking skills she found in her BSNs-that they were very task oriented but not necessarily good at thinking ahead, anticipating problems, and heading them off vs. just reacting to a crash, etc. She said their well rounded education was obvious in the quality of their nursing documentation and communication skills. Now, I’ve known plenty of ADN RNs about whom that was definitely NOT TRUE. I knew nurses who had their BSNs who had a grasp of the information, but couldn’t manage their time or perform important tasks until they had been in the trenches for a long time, vs. the ADNs who seemed to have spent more actual time in the clinical rotations and entered the field seeming to have better skills. Of course, with practice, that advantage eventually evens out.</p>
<p>It’s an age old debate among nurses. I would say the main reason nurses now go for the BSN is not necessarily for any established superiority but for the simple fact that it’s a requirement for advanced practice and the better jobs seem to be now going to those with BSNs-that’s what many hospitals (certainly NOT all) are mandating.</p>
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<p>In facilities that don’t have a BSN requirement, it would only make sense to choose a nurse with 3 years experience over a new grad, degree notwithstanding. But when ADN new grad goes head to head with BSN new grad, the BSN new grad is gaining ground over the ADN grad.</p>
<p>[RN</a> to BSN: The Wave of the Future | Notes from the Nurses’ Station](<a href=“http://www.rncentral.com/blog/2011/rn-to-bsn-the-wave-of-the-future/]RN”>http://www.rncentral.com/blog/2011/rn-to-bsn-the-wave-of-the-future/)</p>
<p>from another article: ([Hospitals</a> Begin to Require BSNs, Arent Waiting on BSN in 10 Legislation | National Nursing News](<a href=“http://news.nurse.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2010310180001]Hospitals”>http://news.nurse.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2010310180001))</p>
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<p>“In facilities that don’t have a BSN requirement, it would only make sense to choose a nurse with 3 years experience over a new grad, degree notwithstanding. But when ADN new grad goes head to head with BSN new grad, the BSN new grad is gaining ground over the ADN grad.”</p>
<p>But the point is that virtually ALL ADNs will have three years of experience when a BSN is a new grad. That’s exactly how they go head-to-head. That’s why, unless there is a requirement, the hospitals prefer the ADNs. </p>
<p>(The article you linked to is in Long Island, New York, where they would be comparing suburban, high-tech hospitals - including North Shore Hospital - which is a primary trauma center - with more rural hospitals throughout the state.)</p>
<p>It SHOULD be true that BSN nurses - because they have BSNs - have better critical thinking skills. Whether they have better critical thinking skills simply because they are, on average, much younger, is an open question. </p>
<p>Around here, it is pretty common for folks who already have a BA to then go and get an ADN (we have a Mount Holyoke grad around the corner from us who did just that). But it is very difficult for them to get into the ADN program, because they usually don’t have high enough grades in the pre-reqs without repeating them. (The program doesn’t care where you took them - Harvard or Podunk - they just care about the grades. Otherwise, they’d have to sit around and figure out whether Harvard, Podunk #1, or Podunk #2 had equivalent Bio 101 courses, something they are not going to do)</p>
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<p>That doesn’t make any sense-what do you mean “virtually all ADNs will have 3 years experience when a BSN is a new grad?” Yes, the ADN program is shorter than the BSN. What I’m referring to is a 2012 graduate from an ADN program competing for their first RN job with a 2012 BSN grad. I don’t know where you get the idea that most ADNs get their LPN first and then work in that role. Not true. </p>
<p>Right now, the trend is towards choosing the BSN for the choice positions. Hospitals going for Magnet Status are outright stating their preference for the BSN prepared-some are requiring it. Prestigious hospitals such as the Medical Center cluster in Houston are requiring it. I’m seeing it in my city. I believe that eventually nursing will catch up with the other health professions in requiring more education. In many, many markets the ADN is NOT the preferred degree; many are finding that they are lucky if it is non issue, much less is it preferred. </p>
<p>Times are changing. The trend is leaning towards more education. I think it will eventually be settled one way or another that RN is attained through one route only, probably the BSN. </p>
<p>I chose the articles just because they are easy. They are just representative of a current trend towards preference to the BSN. I already stated that rural hospitals most likely don’t have the “luxury” of requiring a BSN prepared nurse. There are markets where there is no distinction-RN is an RN no matter the route. No so in others. MANY ADN nurses are bridging to the BSN program for no other reason than they think the writing is on the wall that their marketability depends on it.</p>
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<p>Ok, you’ve lost me. Why would anyone assume that they have better critical thinking skills “simply because they are, on average, much younger?” </p>
<p>My graduating class from a highly respected BSN program in a large city was almost completely lacking in the typical 22 year old college graduate. It was heavily weighted with second career students. As a 30 something, I was actually on the younger end of the class! </p>
<p>When it’s all said and done, after accounting for the pre-reqs the ADNs have to take in order to be accepted to the program, there is about a year’s difference between the two degrees. I would always encourage anyone thinking of going into the field of nursing to go ahead and get as much education as they can afford. Specialization is the way to avoid the poor working conditions and inevitable burnout which is contributing to the poor retention rates hospitals are seeing. And specialization is requiring advanced education. Someday a NP will require a Ph.D.</p>