Degree Restrictions in Career Growth

Hey guys, in this short presentation, we’re going to talk about degree restrictions in career growth. Meaning if you don’t advance your degree in nursing, you may not be able to advance your nursing career. So let’s talk a little bit about it. So degree advancement, is advancing that nursing degree worth it? Are you an RN and do you have a diploma or an ADN? So you have an associate’s degree in nursing and you’re trying to decide, should I go back to school, should I go get all those prerequisites and then take a bridge program and take another year’s worth of nursing school just to get a BSN? Is this worth it? Let me tell you that. Yes, very much. I know you’ve heard this before and it will never not be true. Knowledge is power and having a higher degree will give you more opportunities.

Trust me, I have been there. My nursing career started when I was an LVN and then I had an ADN and then I had a BSN and now I’m in school to get an MSN in acute care nurse practitioner. However, when I was here, I was limited. I just had so many restrictions and so many limitations. When I became an RN, an associate’s degree, RN, I was able to move up a little, but when I became a BSN, a lot of doors opened up for me because you have more opportunities. So yes, it is very much worth it. So let’s talk about some advantages to obtaining that BSN degree or an MSN degree. Anything that’s going to give you a higher degree. So some of the advantages is number one, a career advancement. So having a higher degree, like an MSN or a BSN will give you more opportunities for management roles.

They want at least a BSN, but would prefer an MSN. It gives you a higher-up, an opportunity to get leadership roles. If you want to be an educator, if you want to be an educator at a college or a university or at a hospital, you have to have a higher degree than most of the people that you’re teaching. So at a hospital, most of the nurses either have ADNs or BSNs. So again, they at least want a BSN or an MSN. If you’re teaching at a university and you’re teaching bachelor, a BSN program, you have to have at least an MSN. You’ve got to have a higher degree then your students are going to obtain, which is a big, big, big requirement for trying to advance your career and obtain a higher degree. And another big advantage is increased knowledge in clinical practice.

So for example, if you are obtaining a BSN or an MSN, you do more research, you study more regarding evidence-based practice and so you’re able to apply that into clinical practice so that you can have better patient outcomes. There has actually been studies done that say BSN prepared nurses have better patient outcomes in ICU and NICU or in the OR because they are more well rounded and more prepared to take care of patients. So because of the studies and because BSN nurses tend to be more evidence-based practice savvy, hospitals who want to obtain a magnet status, prefer BSN prepared nurses. They actually have a requirement, or at least the hospital that I work at does, they have to have at least 80% BSN prepared nurses and the rest can be ADN or a diplomas in order to qualify and apply to get a magnet status.

So again, most hospitals rather have nurses, bedside nurses with bachelor’s degrees. Another advantage is increased income. Some facilities do give a little bit of a raise from going from a diploma or an ADN to an a BSN. And most definitely if you get an MSN, you’ll have a raise there. So a few of the disadvantages, and trust me, there’s not too many disadvantages if you don’t go back and obtain a higher degree. Well the biggest one is career restrictions. If you do not advance that degree, you’re not going to be able to advance your career. So again, most employers want nurses with BSNs, but if you want management, leadership education, you’ve got to have some type of an MSN degree. Another disadvantage that prevents a lot of nurses from going back to school is cost. Yes, it is expensive.

It’s a lot of work. Yes it is. It is very costly. You have to get books. You still have to work, you have to worry about tuition. But there are a lot of hospitals out there that offer some type of tuition reimbursement. Hospitals offer tuition reimbursement so they can have more people going back, especially those nurses that have ADNs so that it can help them obtain their BSN. The hospital I work at offers, I believe about $2,000 a semester If you’re in school trying to obtain your BSN. So it’s there because remember these hospitals want you to have a BSN. Another disadvantage is time. And I know that’s a big one for a lot of people, especially if you work full time, it’s harder to go back to school when you have a full-time job.

But because of the bridge programs that are out there, a lot of them are online and a lot of them are self-paced. So you can take your time, you can go at your own pace if you want to go part-time, do that. But it is a disadvantage because you have to spend more time going back to school. But trust me, it’s worth it. So the key points, consider your advantages and remember there is more advantages than there are disadvantages on going back to school. So consider the advantages, consider why you want to advance your career, why you want to advance your degree, consider the disadvantage and con and is it really worth it? So that’s the million-dollar question and yes it is. Trust me on that one. Take it from somebody who actually many years ago I started out as a CNA and then like I told you earlier, LVN, ADN, BSN. Yes, it is worth it because you can see the progression that you make and you will be able to have more doors open up for you and your options are limitless when you’re able to advance your career. So I hope this little lesson has helped you. I hope that you understand the importance of advancing your degree in order to prevent any restrictions in your career. So make sure that you guys go out and be your best selves today. And as always, happy nursing.