Picture this: you are a sought-after registered nurse helping others on a daily basis. You feel secure in your job and after a few years of experience, you will be qualified to take on various leadership positions, both inside and outside of the hospital. If this sounds like a future you want, then a Bachelor’s of Science in Nursing (BSN) degree may be the best option for you to pursue. Why get a BSN? The reasons lie in the numbers – as the healthcare landscape continues to advance, so does the demand for more baccalaureate-educated nurses.
What is a BSN?
A Bachelor of Science in Nursing degree or a BSN is one of the pathways you can choose to begin your career as a nurse. You can earn your BSN degree in a couple of ways: through a traditional, four-year BSN track or through an accelerated BSN track.
A traditional BSN program can take up to 24 months to complete excluding pre-requisite courses. But, if you have all of your pre-requisite courses completed, you can choose an accelerated nursing program, like Concordia’s ABSN track, and earn your degree in as few as 16 months.
Concordia’s blended education model, which combines online nursing theory coursework, hands-on experiential labs, and in-hospital clinical rotations, offers the same quality education as a traditional program, but in a shorter amount of time. This gives you the opportunity to start your nursing career sooner. Why get a BSN over other nursing degrees? Here are three important reasons why earning your BSN is worth it for your nursing career.
1. BSN Nurses Wanted
By 2026, the US Bureau of Labor Statistics claims the projected employment for nurses will reach over 3.3 million. This consists of replacement nurses needed to fill the positions of retiring nurses and new nurses needed to address the ever-evolving demands of healthcare.
In order to address the need for improved outcomes, hospitals are seeking to hire more BSN nurses. By the year 2020, hospitals will be want to have 80% of their staff BSN-prepared. This is due to an initiative called the 80/20 by 2020.
Where exactly are BSN-prepared nurses needed? According to the American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN), nurse leaders from magnet hospitals, federal agencies, leading nursing organizations, healthcare foundations, and minority nurse advocacy groups all recognize the unique value that baccalaureate-prepared nurses bring to the practice setting.
2. Better Patient Outcomes
As patient care rises in complexity, nurse leaders are advocating for an increase in the number of BSN nurses in all clinical settings. Why? Because they believe that education impacts the quality of patient outcomes. Which studies show, holds true.
The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation states that having a higher proportion of BSN-prepared nurses on staff links to better patient outcomes. These outcomes consist of lower:
- Incidence of pressure ulcers
- Postoperative deep vein thrombosis
- Hospital-acquired infections
- Post-surgical mortality
These outcomes have encouraged more than three-quarters of employers to hire BSN-prepared nurses, and almost half of hospitals and other healthcare settings in the US are following suit. Currently, 55 percent of nurses hold a BSN or higher. But the National Advisory Council on Nurse Education and Practice (NACNEP) recommends that 66 percent of nurses hold a BSN or higher.
So, as healthcare continues to evolve, due to new techniques, advancements in technology, and policy, it’s imperative that tomorrow’s nurse is educationally prepared to meet the rigors of today’s nursing profession.
Through Concordia University Texas’s accredited ABSN track, earning a BSN is more accessible than ever. With three starts per year (January, May, and August), qualified students can begin class upon successful completion of prerequisites. From day one of your nursing education, our progressive, faith-based learning style will teach you about the dynamics of compassionate, holistic patient care. This is what separates our nursing graduates from the rest, having the ability to care for the whole patient – mind, body, and spirit.
3. Beyond the Bedside Opportunities
Nurse leaders across the nation are seeking out BSN-prepared nurses because they have a broader scope of practice, meaning they have the ability to treat patients across a variety of inpatient and outpatient settings. Here are just a few of the opportunities available beyond the bedside.
Healthcare recruiting
If you have a passion for the human resources side of health, then moving from direct patient care to healthcare recruiting could be a perfect fit for you. Nurse recruiters play a key role, especially since the demand for healthcare is at an all-time high. They are in charge of helping healthcare providers find qualified nurses to fill job openings. They spend the majority of their day reviewing resumes, interviewing candidates for potential job placements, and negotiating salaries.
Risk management
If you’re looking to provide a mixture of patient care, healthcare management, and communication, then a job in risk management could be a perfect fit for you. In the healthcare community, risks to patients, staff, and healthcare organizations are extremely common. To limit this risk, nurse risk managers cultivate trusting relationships with physicians, healthcare facilities, and patients and their families. They spend the majority of their day communicating with patients and their families about any complex outcomes and take achievable courses of action, without putting the medical team or hospital in danger.
Nurse case manager
If you wish to continue working directly with patients, then nurse case management may be a perfect fit for you. On top of coordinating long-term care for their patients, nurse case managers are responsible for keeping their patients healthy and out of the hospital. They spend the majority of their day talking with patients and families on a daily basis, determining the best treatments for them, and researching the latest movements in healthcare. They also work closely with insurance companies to ensure that their patients are being taken care of.
How Can I Get Started?
In order to get started in Concordia University’s accelerated BSN track, you must first contact an admissions counselor. Your designated counselor will determine your eligibility and which prerequisite courses you’ll need to take. Be sure to have your transcripts on hand before your call. The sooner you make your admissions appointment, the sooner you can get started on your accelerated nursing education!
