How do competencies vary between ADN and BSN?
Rebecca Bohlmann
Grand Canyon University: NRS-430
March 25, 2015

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 the older nurses to return to college after working for so long. The nation’s Magnet hospitals have required all nurse managers to hold at least a baccalaureate or graduate degree in nursing by 2013.
I decided to face my fear of university coursework and am now finding out that there are valid reasons to advance education, primarily patient mortality rates. I chose Grand Canyon University because they have core values in professionalism, ethical decision making, accountability, critical thinking, and effective communication. This is achieved through the application of liberal arts constructs, science, health and nursing theories, and the values of the Christian faith within the scope of nursing knowledge and evidence-based practice. Religious values, ethics related to decision making, transcultural considerations, and statistics aren’t typically discussed in length, if at all, in ADN programs. While there are similarities between the two degrees, major competency differences are that community colleges lack teaching in major areas. “Additional competencies expected of the BSN graduate include systems thinking, critical thinking, and data management to achieve quality patient care outcomes and assure patient safety. The BSN graduate also develops competence in evidence-based practice to answer clinical care questions, and often lead practice teams in doing so. Other competencies relate to population-based care management and health promotion” Mathews, M. B. (2013). The major of ADN programs gloss over lightly in these areas, focusing on skills and bare bones information needed to perform the job and pass the NCLEX exam. Sure, an ADN can perform most skills as well as a BSN but may not have the critical thinking or understand the use of evidence based practice.in regard to the reasons for the task at hand.
: Patient outcomes and safety, as well as the quality of care, were improved when that care was delivered by a baccalaureate-prepared nurse. Specifically, these studies either demonstrated reduced patient mortality rates when care is provided by BSN