Educational Preparation
Association Degree versus Baccalaureate in Nursing

ABSTRACT
There is so much debate on whether it is important to get BSN or staying working as ADN. If I look at it with my point of view then nurse is a nurse whether she has AND OR BSN.I am a nurse with ADN who took the nclex test just like the other degree schools take and passed my test the first time. I am working with the nurses some that have BSN and some ADN. I have not seen anything difference that a BSN nurse would do for the patient that ADN nurse would not be able to do. Only difference I probably seen is that pay rate is higher and they get to take management position.
Difference between ADN and BSN
ADN and BSN nurses both work hard to obtain their degrees during nursing school. Both struggles through three or four years of college to complete pre requirements whether it is BSN or ADN program. ADN and BSN nurses both have to take the nclex exam to obtain a nursing license. It is a great start to achieve an ADN and pass the board exam to get a good job to support the family. One benefit of getting ADN is that one can have great paying while going back to school to finish BSN. There is no restriction on when one can start back going to school to get higher education.
Although BSN and ADN nurses both perform the same job skills whether they are working on the medical surgical floor or nursing home setting, there is a big difference between obtaining the degree. Association degree can be obtained from local community college with two years class education and hands on clinical experience. Baccalaureate’s degree can be obtained from online universities or with four years program from accredited local universities. According to the philosophy of Grand Canyon University;” ‘Baccalaureate nursing practice incorporates the roles of assessing, critical thinking, communicating, providing care, teaching, and leading. The caring professional approach includes the values of autonomy, altruism, human dignity, integrity, and social justice with unconditional regard for all people.
According to American Nurse Association,” BSN nurses are prized for their skills in critical thinking, leadership, case management, and health promotion, and for their ability to practice across a variety of inpatient and outpatient settings. Nurse Executives, federal agencies, the military, leading nursing organizations, health care foundations, magnet hospitals, and minority nurse advocacy groups all recognize the unique value that baccalaureate-prepared nurses bring to the practice setting.”
It depends on the individual to consider a career in nursing to weigh the disadvantages or advantages of enrolling in which program is better for them. One advantage of getting a higher education is that nurses can get job in the management field. One has to also see their financial status whether they can afford to pay the fees for universities to get higher level education. Middle class people end up suffering the most when it comes to obtain higher education because they do not get financial aid. Rich people can pay out of their pocket and people with no money get full support the government. As far as working as a floor nurse, I do not see much difference which nurse performs better job skills whether it is nurse with BSN or ADN. I have only been in BSN class for less than two weeks and I do not really see any education being provided that would benefits me on my job or improve my skills to perform any better than I am already doing. I wish BSN was more about clinical than just writing the papers. I do agree that associate degree nurse have less classes than BSN but they perform the same tasks at the job. For example, I am working with nurse who has BSN degree from University of California but she does not have more knowledge than me being an ADN nurse. In fact, I am the one who is training her with whatever skills she needs to learn to perform her job. I understand that BSN or MSN is required for management and teaching positions. Of course new nurse is not going to get that position fresh out of the school, she/he has to have clinical training to achieve the higher level position. BSN also has more theory than clinical which is not what is needed the floor if one is going to be the floor nurses. I have worked with the nurses who graduated from excellent school but does not even know the difference between medication and different kinds of insulin. They do not even know how to react in the situation if patient coded. They do not even know how to react in the situation if patient coded. It is the nurse with clinical knowledge and hands on training who saves the patient’s life not the piece of paper that has BSN or ADN written on it.On the other hand, there are also license vocational nurse doing the same thing as registered nurses in the nursing home setting. BSN or ADN get to start intravenous lines and administer iv meds and get paid higher. I feel so bad when they are being criticized by Licensed vocational nurses for getting paid higher for getting paid a lot more than them for doing the same thing on the floor. They do not understand that how BSN and ADN nurses have struggled to get their degrees.
I have also witnessed BSN nurses getting nervous in the clinical settings in the hospitals. When I did my Registered Nurse rotation, there were both BSN and ADN students present. At that time what I noted was that ADN students were able to provide more skills than the BSN students. I believe that reason behind it was that BSN student did not get to go to clinical setting in the beginning of the rotation like ADN students. I do not think that BSN students get to go to the hospital until end of their programs. ADN nurses were much more comfortable around the patients than BSN students. As fresh out of school, they both need training to provide skills that are needed to perform their job better.
Research
Research
I have searched the web to find out what researcher have to say about the difference between BSN and ADN nurses. Only difference I was able to find out was how BSN and ADN both have their own responsibilities when it came to taking care of the patient. Only thing that I was able to differentiate after researching was that BSN nurses has more critical thinking skills. According to the ncbi research,” No major differences are noted between the cognitive abilities of students in baccalaureate and associate degree programs. Baccalaureate nurses are generally perceived as being better prepared for a wide range of nursing competencies and are seen as performing in the professional role for which they have been prepared. Associate degree nurses are seen as performing well in the technical role for which they have been prepared, as well as in some leadership roles for which they were not originally prepared. In general, nurses were seen as performing in the roles for which they had been educationally prepared. However, the service setting infrequently utilized graduates of the two types of programs differently. Differences were more likely to result from the role functioning of individual nurses. (NCBI, 1990)
PATIENT CARE SITUATION
I have not personally witnessed anything difference that a BNS nurse would do for the patient that ADN nurse would not be able to do. All nurses perform at their best ability to provide well patient care to improve quality of life. I probably make every single nurse proud when patient gets well and goes home. BSN nurse probably would be better understand disease process if patient was admitted with pneumonia because they have studied more in depth about the disease process. BSN nurse would do not only do physical assessment but also do social and emotional assessment too. He/she also identify it as community acquired disease. She/he will focus on educating the patient on more proper care to prevent the disease. On the other hand, ADN, nurse would do her best to take care of the patient to discharge him/her back at their previous body function.

In the Conclusion
I believe that nursing is very rewarding career and I love taking care of the patients with all my heart. I hope all the hard work I am putting into achieve my BSN will give me pride in my profession. I believe that after achieving BSN will give me more confident to perform even better on my job. Both BSN and ADN nurses are working very hard to improved better patient care to decrease mortality rate. It depends on the situation of the person if they can achieve higher education or not. There may be family situation that would not let the ADN nurses achieve the higher education. There are rumors that all nurses have to have BSN by 2020. I wish that is not true because not all the nurses can afford to get back in the school to get higher education.