Why are Nursing majors looked down upon, especially in comparison to other majors like engineering or STEM? All nursing schools seem to have very rigorous curriculums in chemistry and biology, and a lot of clinical hours are required.
In fact, a lot of nursing schools have very low acceptance rates. For example, schools like UC Irvine have 3.5% acceptance rate for nursing major this year, and many direct-entry universities like CSU Fullerton and SDSU have very impacted nursing programs, which require applicants to have fairly high GPA and SAT/ACT test scores just to be considered. It seems like it would be at least just as hard to get into a nursing school in comparison to a college considered to be good.
In California it really is tough. It’s more reasonable in other parts of the country, thankfully, but it can still be harder to get in than the university as a whole.
My personal opinion is that, for the longest time, many nurses got their RN degrees from hospital-based programs that did not offer bachelor’s degrees. BSN programs are a relatively newer thing, and are the wave of the future (if not the present) in terms of hiring and professional advancement.
My daughter has had fellow classmates turn up their nose at her desire to get a BSN. She tells them the medical professional would grind to a halt without nurses, and I agree lol.
Perhaps popular opinion has not caught up with the changes in the profession.
I do not believe that RNs are looked down upon. Most people realize that RNs make a omfortable living right out of college, and that it is hard to enter most nursing programs. For many students, the alternative is to go the pre-med route. Tens of thousands of those students end up not being accepted by any med schools. That means they end up with a bio degree and no clear job prospects. Many try to get into Physician Assistant programs, but those are also very competitive. Meanwhile, their RN boyfriends or girlfriends are supporting them.
I think it is at least partly because of the bodily fluids/manual labor issue. In addition to providing actual health care, nurses are dealing with messiness, i.e., transporting patients, bathing patients, and cleaning up all manner of goop. It’s a combination of medical and janitorial duties that you don’t find in many (possibly any) other occupations, and I say that with huge respect for nurses.
… although at many hospitals, the RNs are the ones telling the Aides and the Assistants to clean up those messes.
That is a silly question - looked down on by whom?
why should you care what anyone so out of touch thinks?
I don’t know of anyone who looks down on nurses. If anything, people love their nurses since they are the ones who actually know and work the patients, especially at a hospital. I think people know how hard nurses work and how professional they are in dealing with difficult doctors and patients.
Because one can become an RN with an associate’s degree? Because it’s mostly a paid by the hour job? Because things happen and sometimes it’s the nurse’s job to clean it up? If you feel like people are looking down on you, and you’re bothered by it, maybe this isn’t a good career choice for you.
The thing about nursing is thwre is no reason to go to a school like that for nursing. You can go anywhere amd you will make the same when you get out.
If you are saying that you shouldn’t spend $250K for a BSN degree if you can find a good program for a total of $100K or less, I totally agree. Some of the students of the most expensive programs get angry when they find out they are doing clinicals next to community college students.
However, the quality of nursing programs do vary. Some programs provide much better clinicals and much better preparation for the exam and have higher pass rates. Some programs are highly respected by employers, who like to hire grads of those programs because past grads have been well-qualified. A BSN will open more opportunities both short-term and long-term than an associates degree.
@ordinarylives That is an uneducated response. Almost all jobs require a BSN. Usually nurse assistants clean the mess.
Really? My daughter is a BSN at a level 1 magnet hospital. She cleans up enough messes that she avoids mesh shoes. More than 50% of NCLEX exams are administered to ADN and diploma graduates. If almost all the jobs require the BSN, what are those 84,000 (2016 data from the NCSBN) new RNs doing?
Sexism? An historically female occupation.
I know that with my son its a macho thing. I would LOVE for him to become a nurse. He is a teen boy with an impression that he has gotten from movies and TV of the nurse stereotype of a hot female. But, I know many many HS senior girls that are scrambling and have gotten rejected by the CSU nursing programs, so maybe for them it is sour grapes.
Bobbybob-
What do you do? Are you a nurse or how do you get your information? Aren’t you the person that is in trouble for bullying and now you try that here by calling someone uneducated? This is supposed to be a SUPPORTIVE forum. You aren’t contributing to anything.