Value of a Nursing BSN Degree
If you want to become a nurse, you can do so with an Associate Degree in Nursing (ADN) or a Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) degree. However, while both education options can get you started in the profession, they do not produce the same career outcomes. A BSN opens the door to several more opportunities and paves the way for earning an advanced practice degree in the future.
A BSN degree from Pacific Lutheran University prepares you to practice as a generalist nurse within a complex health care system. More specifically, our ABSN program equips you to:
- Provide evidence-based competent care to individuals, families and communities.
- Practice the profession across the continuum of health care settings.
- Perform the role of service as a professionally educated member of society.
- Employ principles of ethical leadership and quality improvement in the profession.
- Collaborate with other health care disciplines to provide safe, quality care.
- Pursue practice excellence, lifelong learning and professional engagement.
- Demonstrate knowledge of how health care policy influences patient outcomes.
Importance of a BSN
A BSN dives deeper into the profession than an ADN, covering nursing research, informatics, patient advocacy and more. Thereby, a nurse with a BSN has a better understanding of how social, economic and cultural issues affect patients and our health care system.
Furthermore, the American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN) recognizes a BSN as the minimum education requirement for professional practice. As a result, many health care employers now require their ADN-prepared nurses to go back to school and earn their BSN within a specified time frame. So if you have been asking yourself, “Is a BSN worth it?” the answer is a firm “yes.”
By earning a nursing BSN degree, you will:
- Stand out with employers. A growing number of health care employers understand the value of having more educated nurses on staff, so they prefer nursing graduates with a BSN or higher.
- Provide safe, effective care. A growing body of evidence shows the more BSN-prepared nurses a health care facility employs, the better the patient outcomes.
- Earn a higher salary. Nurses with a BSN have better earning power than those with an ADN.
- Have more job opportunities. A BSN enables you to practice in a myriad of health care settings and pursue certification in a variety of specialty areas.
Contact us if you want more reasons to get a BSN from Pacific Lutheran University.