How do competencies vary between ADN and BSN?
March 25, 2015

How do competencies vary between ADN and BSN?
I am very proud of my accomplishment of obtaining my license as a Registered Nurse as this was my lifelong dream. I chose a very common route to achieve this, through a community college. This program offered a low cost and rather short timeframe to reach my goal of becoming a RN. The ADN program was rumored to be one of the best in Wisconsin so I chose it, with plans of pursuing my BSN right after I graduated. Unfortunately, like most get their ADN, this just doesn’t happen. A person gets a nursing job and deals with work, life and family stressors, who needs to go back to school for a BSN? A BSN does not generally pay better, the job description is the same for both degrees, why would one possible waste their time? During my first class at the community college, the students were told that the ADN graduates generally performed higher on their NCLEX exams than did the BSN graduates. Another point taught was that this ADN degree was more desirable to perspective employers because ADN’s had greater clinical skills and got hired faster. This information seemed to be true, I was hired at a desirable facility and so began my career as an ADN. My career was going great, I was living my dream, having everything I always wanted. Then policies changed, nurses could no longer hold management positions unless they returned to school to earn their BSN. Some of the sister hospitals were becoming MAGNET facilities and the trend was for restricting the hiring of ADN’s. .Many ADN’s were being asked to go back to school, and the company was offering tuition reimbursement. The staff wanted to know why, there was no difference between the two degrees as far as the skill sets were concerned, the pay was the same, so why the sudden urgency? Why force