DISCUSS THE DIFFERENCES IN COMPETENCIES BETWEEN NURSES PREPARED AT THE ASSOCIATE DEGREE LEVEL VERSUS THE BACCALAUREATE DEGREE LEVEL IN NURSING .
Baccalaureate nursing practice incorporates the roles of assessing, critical thinking, communicating, teaching and leading. Another advantage of baccalaureate program is that it is acting as a bridge towards master” degree and that’s where specialization comes into play. But, to my knowledge, there are programs that allow a perspective individual to earn their master’s bypassing the BSN altogether, making it not really essential in the nursing profession.
EDUCATION LEVEL.
Studies indicate that nurses with higher education provide better care which includes health promotion, disease prevention, early detection of health of health deviations, prompt and adequate treatment of the human response to acute and chronic illness, and compassionate care for those experiencing death. Leaders in the nursing community are insisting that the BSN become the standard for entry into nursing. Also, studies have demonstrated that better patient outcomes are achieved in hospitals staffed by a greater proportion of nurses with baccalaureate degrees to those with associate degrees. But even though those studies show that there might be correlation between the level of education and the quality of care, there is certainly no concrete proof that the better care is provided by the BSNs.
HIRING AND SALARY LEVEL.
Furthermore, better hospitals tend to have higher hiring standards, so there is no wonder that they are staffed with better educated nurses, but it does not necessarily mean that these nurses make a hospital better and not the other way around. Another point that could be made is that hospitals that have a higher proportion of baccalaureate degree nurses tend to keep lower educated nurses on edge, so to speak. Since the differences