Is a BSN worth it? Nursing is a dynamic field filled with advancement and specialization opportunities. By earning a BSN, you make many of these opportunities more accessible. A BSN also offers job security, higher earning potential and a comprehensive education that prepares you for a variety of clinical scenarios.
Earning a nursing degree is challenging, but it can open many doors for your career. You might be wondering: Is a BSN worth it? Yes! Earning a Bachelor of Science in nursing empowers you to pursue more job opportunities and a higher salary. It also offers job security and career advancement opportunities. Additionally, in recent studies, holding a BSN has been correlated to better patient outcomes.
The need for registered nurses is on the rise, and more patients need the care and compassion that nurses provide. Now is the time to answer the call and earn your BSN through Harding University’s hybrid accelerated Bachelor of Science in nursing program. Through a combination of online coursework and hands-on labs and clinicals, students can earn their BSN in as few as 16 months.
Why Get a BSN?
While both an associate degree and BSN will help you reach the end goal of nursing school, to earn a degree and qualify for the NCLEX, there are many career benefits to earning a BSN that you would not see with an associate degree.
1. More Career Opportunities
With a BSN, a more diverse range of career paths becomes available. These positions might not be as possible or easy to pursue if you only have an associate degree in nursing. As a BSN-educated nurse, you can work at a hospital or other health care facility in such specialty areas as:
- Obstetrics
- Intensive care
- Pediatrics
- Emergency
- Medical-surgical
As a student enrolled in the Harding University hybrid accelerated nursing program, you’ll have the opportunity to test drive these specialty areas through hands-on clinical placements at respected regional health care facilities.
Clinical rotations can lead to worthwhile job prospects after graduation and offer networking opportunities with some of Arkansas’ best health care professionals.
Aside from the hospital roles you can pursue, a BSN also opens the door to diverse positions outside the hospital. These exciting careers require a BSN:
- Legal nurse consultant
- Nurse manager
- Public health nurse
- Travel nurse
- Home health nurse
You can pursue many types of nursing careers with a nursing degree. Read more to learn about 13 career opportunities for nurses.
2. Higher Earning Potential
A BSN is worth it because it sets you up to earn a steady income for your entire nursing career, especially over time. Holding a BSN enables you to pursue leadership roles and specialization, making it a more lucrative option than if you enter the workforce with an associate degree. Nurses with bachelor’s degrees are prepared to perform more multifaceted tasks and can be given more autonomy on the job than nurses with associate degrees.
3. A Comprehensive Education
Is nursing school worth it? A BSN program offers a well-rounded and more comprehensive education than what can be expected from an associate degree program. This is simply because the program is longer; students have more time to develop multiple nursing competencies and experience a wide range of clinical scenarios in their training.
The same applies to accelerated BSN programs, even ones shorter than a typical two-year associate degree program. An accelerated BSN program like Harding’s ABSN leverages students’ existing college education to support their nursing studies.
Because students have completed general education courses in their previous degree program and prerequisite requirements, they focus primarily on nursing courses throughout the ABSN, starting clinical rotations as soon as the first semester.
Harding University prepares its hybrid ABSN students with a well-rounded education and a solid understanding of clinical research while emphasizing compassion and empathy in patient care. The ABSN curriculum covers essential nursing concepts from pharmacology to nursing leadership and management and allows students to explore multiple nursing specialties.
4. Improved Patient Outcomes
Why else is a nursing degree worth it? Because of the comprehensive nature of a BSN education, these nurses stand to have better patient outcomes for those under their care. Studies completed over the past decade’ have found that:
- Facilities that employ more BSN-prepared nurses see lower 30-day inpatient surgical mortality rates.
- With every 10% increase of BSN-educated nurses within a hospital staff, patients who have experienced in-hospital cardiac arrest have a 24% greater chance of surviving to discharge.
- BSN-educated nurses have demonstrated a significantly higher ability to perform several nursing tasks related to patient care quality and safety than nurses with an associate degree.
Is a BSN worth it? Research suggests patients treated by BSN-prepared nurses would say so.
5. Pursue Higher Education
Pursuing higher education and earning an advanced degree prepares nurses for health care leadership roles. If you’re interested in leadership positions, such as becoming a clinical nurse leader or an advanced practice registered nurse, earning a BSN is the first step toward that goal.
A BSN is the minimum degree requirement for Master of Science in nursing and Doctor of Nursing Practice programs. Regardless of where you decide to take your career, earning a BSN sets you up for career advancement early on, which is one of the reasons why a BSN in nursing is important.
6. Job Security
Many health care employers require a BSN as a minimum requirement to apply for nursing positions. This is partly because of the Institute of Medicine’s 2011 study, “The Future of Nursing: Leading Change, Advancing Health,” which recommended that 80% of nurses on staff hold a BSN by 2020; however, there is currently no official requirement for nurses to have a BSN. New York is the only state to implement a policy requiring nurses to earn their BSN within 10 years of their licensing, commonly called the BSN in 10 law.
While you are not required to earn a BSN to practice as a registered nurse (outside of New York), many nurses still decide to earn a baccalaureate degree. According to the most recent nursing workforce survey, 70% of nurses hold a BSN or higher. Additionally, a recent survey found that 96% of new BSN graduates found a job within four to six months after program completion.
Earning a BSN offers nurses a sense of job stability. If more states decide to follow New York’s BSN initiative, having already earned a baccalaureate degree puts you ahead of the game. A BSN also strengthens nurses’ credentials, making them more appealing to employers.
7. Opportunities to Work in Highly Respected Facilities
A BSN education thoroughly prepares students for their nursing careers, as evidenced by the high positive patient outcome rates. As a result, highly respected facilities, such as Magnet hospitals, look to hire BSN-educated nurses to maintain their Magnet status. This status is a formal recognition by the American Nurses Credentialing Center that the facility demonstrates nursing excellence and upholds high standards.
According to an AACN report, Magnet hospitals require all nurse managers and leaders to hold at least a BSN to qualify. Earning a BSN is essential if you aspire to work in a respected facility.
8. Accessibility
Another factor that makes a BSN worth it is that you won’t have to spend four years earning your degree through Harding’s hybrid accelerated track. If you have at least 64 non-nursing college credits, you may qualify for our program, which can be completed in as few as 16 months.
Through our hybrid learning approach, you can take nursing courses online and stay connected to instructors and fellow students through chats and discussion board forums. This allows you to complete coursework at your own pace and have some control over your schedule, provided you meet deadlines. You’ll also have the time to complete prerequisite courses, as we offer three start dates per year with no waitlist.
You will gain hands-on experience through our nursing skills and simulation labs, which challenge you to practice core nursing skills and exercise your clinical judgment in a safe, simulated setting. These labs prepare you to provide real-world patient care during clinical placements at respected local facilities.
You can rest assured knowing you will receive a quality education. Harding maintains accreditation and state approval status at the university and nursing school levels. This means our students receive a BSN degree that meets the strict academic standards set forth by the Arkansas State Board of Nursing and the Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education.
Learn why Harding University has been named the best nursing school in Arkansas.
Ready to Answer the Call to Become a Nurse?
If you have been called to become a nurse, now is the time to act. If you’re ready to put your non-nursing bachelor’s degree toward a future in nursing, there is no better pathway than Harding’s ABSN. Contact our admissions team today to learn more about our accelerated Bachelor of Science in nursing program and get started on your path.