Why Should I Get My Bachelor’s Degree if I’m Already an RN?
Below, you can learn more about getting your RN to BSN from our nurse expert Shanna Shafer, BSN. She talks about the driving factors behind going back to school to get her RN to BSN degree, as well as what the process was like for her.
Why Should I Get My RN to BSN?
“When I decided to get my Bachelor’s degree, even though I was already an RN, it was based largely on the availability of promotions and moving up at the job I was currently at. I was working as a Registered Nurse at an ABA (American Burn Association) approved Burn Center in a large hospital, and every year we had to go through and fill out some information about moving up on the clinical ladder. I realized, about two years in, that I was stuck at the level of pay and responsibility that I was at, simply because I didn’t have my Bachelor’s degree.
That said, I am kind of a nerd, and I always wanted to go back for my Bachelor’s anyhow. I wasn’t satisfied with an Associate’s degree, even though it was a great way to get into the profession — I wanted to know more. I remember during my Associate’s program I got very little training in intensive care: no time with patients on ventilators or drips or anything like that, and I was oftentimes at clinical sites where Bachelor’s prepared nurses [and BSN students] were actually given those patients, because they were learning a more intense regimen of patients to care for. So I knew that I would want to get my Bachelor’s right away, even before I finished my RN program.
Once I was in the field and working as a nurse and realized that my ability to get promoted or get pay raises was dependent upon my education, that was the clincher for why I decided to look for a Bachelor’s program.”
