In the 1960’s, the American Nurses’ Association (ANA) stated their position on the nursing education dilemma. Their position declared that a baccalaureate degree in nursing (BSN), not an associate’s degree in nursing (ADN), should be the requirement for an entry-level nurse (Blaney, 1986).
The field of medicine is a continually evolving field. There are developments in medicine made daily that affect both medical professionals and patients. While the positive progress of medicine offers many obvious advantages, it is important that the knowledge of everyone involved with health care grows with these advancements. With the evident importance of nurses in the healthcare setting, the education of nurses is clearly significant. There are many problems in the nursing field that are associated with the inability to set standards at the entry level (Jacobs et al., 1998). The writer believes that the nursing degree should always be advanced to a bachelor’s degree, and then fostered with continuing education courses. Furthermore, the bachelor’s program should place an importance on forming a good knowledge foundation and then building clinical skills. Ultimately the writer believes a highly clinical and critical thinking bachelor’s program is the best educational preparation for an entry level nurse.
The concern over having a BSN into the entry level of nursing has been debated for many years. Since the American Nurses Association has proposed the change, the controversy as to what is the difference has between having an associate’s degree in nursing rather than a bachelor’s degree in nursing has sparked a fire in the health field. The education of a nurse is highly important, because the lives of others are in the hands of a nurse. Nurses tend to spend more time with patients than doctors. Their ability to respond, treat, and communicate is imperative to the health field and overall, the patient’s life. Nurses should be able to understand the definition of what a nurse is, what is expected of a nurse, and the education requirements and options that are available. Going through an associate’s degree program prepares the nurse for a broader and more basic care of patients. BSN programs infiltrate a better understand of nursing as a leader, the health field, and educates the nurse in more detail on the care of patients. There are also more hospitals requiring BSN as an entry level, like Magnet hospitals. These hospitals are shown to provide better care and lower statistics, like in death hospitals.
There has been great debate in the nursing community for years regarding what should be the educational requirements for a practicing nurse. There are currently many options for men and women to enter the field through LPN, ADN, and BSN programs. More recently, programs have been popping up allowing accelerated BSN obtainment through second degree programs. The debate stems from the conflicting ideas of whether nursing as a whole is a trade, requiring an associate’s degree, or should be considered a profession, often requiring a Baccalaureate degree. In this paper this author will use past nursing history, current medical demands and advancements, and clinical patient outcomes to argue that the minimum education for a nurse should be a Baccalaureate degree.
Ultimately, the leaders in the nursing community must decide what they want before actually implementing any standards and regulations in regards to entry-level requirements as a Registered Nurse. There must be a consensus and plan to make a bachelor’s level education the minimum requirement to practice as a nurse. The amount of knowledge, clinical experience, background in philosophical and ethical ideals entailed in a bachelor’s program is what is necessary to create a critically thinking, competent nurse. Setting a bachelor’s standard will also help maintain the public’s trust in the nursing profession as well as within the health care community.
In 1965, the American Nurses Association shared its vision for the future of nursing education. A primary goal in its message was that a Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) becomes the minimum requirement for entry into nursing practice (Nelson, 2002). Fifty years later, debates on this issue continue. In its report, The Future of Nursing: Leading Change and Advancing Healthcare, the Institute of Medicine shared its recommendation that 80% of nurses possess a bachelor’s degree by the year 2020. A significant number of health care facilities have adopted the practice of hiring nurses with BSN over those with two year Associate’s Degree of Nursing (ADN) or a three-year hospital based diploma program. Stakeholders in the Registered Nurse (RN)
The second key message focused on the recommendation that registered nurses receive greater levels of training and education. This message emphasized the need for nurses to enter the work force with a baccalaureate degree, or obtain it shortly afterwards. It also stressed the need more graduate nurses, specifically “nurse faculty and researchers at the doctoral level” (IOM, 2011, p. 164). Innovative solutions were devised to speak to nursing school capacity and curriculum in order to attain the IOM recommended goal of 80 percent of nurses holding a BSN by the year 2020.
Nursing is continuously changing and expanding. According to John Hopkins the future of nursing centers around four themes; “improving and increasing nursing education, supporting nurses in practicing to the fullest extent of their education and training, creating a culture and systems in which nurses act as full partners with other healthcare professionals, and collecting better nursing workforce data” (Brooks, 2011). Over the years, collaboration has become much more prevalent and results with fewer errors and redundancies. As years progress, it will continue to grow. Furthermore, education is becoming a very important aspect of nursing. Most workplaces require a bachelor’s degree to be hired, whereas in the past it didn’t matter. Personally, I know I will pursue my Bachelors of Science in Nursing and hopefully continue on to my
ADN graduates develop professional level skills after completing a BSN program(Rosseter,2014) ADN is two-year program that fulfills the nurse education requirement of becoming a Registered nurse. A BSN degree prepared the Registered nurse for better future career in nursing filed line pediatrics, geriatrics and other specializations. These specialty fields offer higher salaries that standard RN positions. BSN degree decrease the risk of patient death and failure to rescue. The higher level of medication error and failure to perform procedure in best technique by nurse prepared at the associate and diploma level as compared with the baccalaureate level nurses. BSN prepared the nurse for critical thinking, leadership skills and how to educate the patient and their family members as a professional. BSN nurses has better patient’s outcome compared as associate nurses. Both AND prepared and BSN prepared nurses they can care for patients and perform duties such as assessments, medical charting, treatments, completion of procedure within scope practice. But AND nurses without Baccalaureate degrees they may not qualify for some other nursing jobs that require additional education. BSN makes nurses more versatile, better able to assume leadership roles and superior in their primary role of patient
Nursing leaders nationwide believe that it is important for nurses with an Associate Degree to return to school to earn their Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) education within 10 years of graduation from an Associate Degree program to keep their licensure. The reason why this bill is passed is because of patient safety. Nurses with Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) have lower mortality rates in surgery department, less incidences, and better outcomes in the acute care settings which are heavily emphasized in the Affordable Care Act necessary for payment reimbursement (American Association of Colleges of Nursing, 2014). This bill A01977/S02533A was introduced in January 27, 2012 in the state of New York. At the same time the state of New Jersey also introduced similar bill A553. This author will represent one of the registered nurses with an Associate Degree who is going back for their BSN education to see the effectiveness of the bill on the healthcare system and therefore supports the bill.