Is There a Difference? ADN vs. BSN Essay Example

RN in the workforce. An associate degree nurse learns the basics skills needed to begin a career in leadership roles and the very basic skills required for critical thinking and case management. BSN programs focus on a more in depth understanding of these skills and critical thinking abilities as they apply to entire communities of patients. In hospital settings, baccalaureate nurses have a proven effect on lowering patient mortality, failure to rescue rates, and enerally are associated with better patient outcomes (Kendall-Gallagher, 2011, January).

“Recruiting and educating nurses, the experts agreed, is becoming increasingly difficult. The higher level of acuity of hospital patients creates a demand for nurses with higher-level skills to perform more complicated tasks. Nursing, the experts said, requires managerial skills that involve thinking and judging, not just doing. ” (Fagin, 2001). “The American health care system is evolving, and patients’ needs are changing. The population is growing older and becoming more diverse, and health needs are becoming more complex. (Institute of Medicine of The National Academies 2010).

Basic nursing skills are no longer adequate for dealing with the changes in health and healthcare as it evolves. The complexities associated with epidemics like obesity and cancer require a higher level of thinking, a more solid ability to critical think and to see the entire picture as a whole and not just what is presenting itself to the nurse. With more education and training, professional bachelor degree nurses possess a better understanding of the entire care giving picture.

The more education and understanding of theory and evidence-based practice a nurse has, the better able that nurse will be to make excellent

decisions at the bedside and beyond. In patient care situations an associate degree nurse will be well equipped to care for the patient physically. They will be competent in performing bedside tasks, following physicians orders, delegating tasks to other staff, assessing the patients, and providing education to the patients, but what will be lacking is the knowledge and education required to think in terms of the bigger picture.

The ability to see the patient as an individual, and also the patient’s larger role as a part of his family, community and culture requires an increased knowledge base. The bachelor degree nurse has the advanced education to think about the patient on a higher level and to connect what is happening with them as an individual with those factors in and around him in his daily life that may have an effect on the physical and mental health. A patient care scenario in which the differences could become evident may include a situation in which you have a patient brought in with a very high blood sugar.

The associate degree nurse can assess and treat this patient, work to lower the blood sugar, and provide a safe and effective treatment, but with their limited education this may be as far as the associate degree RN would go. The bachelor educated RN is more likely to begin assessing the patient including such factors as the family involvement, socioeconomic status, availability of healthy food, knowledge of correct diet, influence of the culture on diet, and access to primary healthcare. This is evidence of the difference in education and understanding between the two levels of registered nurse

and how that would qualify the BSN as more able to deal with complex and challenging situations in the work environment.