Competencies between BSN and ADN, RN Nurses

There are numerous differences in competencies between BSN and ADN. Nursing is a dynamic profession and life long learning is essential for nurses to stay current with the increased complexity of the healthcare needs of today and into the future. In other words, the needs of our patients are changing, as we must change in order to be prepared to better serve that need.
Nursing has a long history of formal education which moved out of hospitals and into colleges and universities early last century. The associate degree level of nursing was developed out of a need to produce nurses in response to a shortage during and following World War II. It was a proposed as a temporary solution to a shortage to a shortage but was not intended to replace the professional level of nursing education.
The national advisory council on Nurse education and practice, policy advisors to congress and the U.S secretary for health and human services on nursing issues, has urged that at least two thirds of the nurse workforce hold baccalaureate or higher degrees in nursing in 2010. The Veteran’s Administration [VA], the nation’s largest employer of registered nurses, has established the baccalaureate degree as a minimum preparation its nurses must have for promotion beyond the entry –level beginning in 2005 and has committed $50 million over a five year period to help VA nurses obtain baccalaureate or higher nursing degrees.
In an article in the September 24, 2003 issue of the journal of the American Medical Association, DR .Linda Aiken and her colleagues at the University of Pennsylvania found that patients experience significantly lower mortality and failure to rescue rates in hospital where more baccalaureate prepared nurses provide direct patient care.