As a professional, getting a Bachelor of Science in Nursing degree will help you to become competitive in several ways. Here is a brief outline of some of the ways you can benefit:
- You get an opportunity to earn more money as a professional
Many studies indicate that individuals who hold Bachelor of Science in Nursing degrees tend to be better off than their Associate-level counterparts. For example, research by PayScale shows that a RN with a BSN earns a median $60,369 a year versus $57,523 for a RN with an Associate Degree in Nursing (ADN). While the money difference starting out may seem small, one thing to keep in mind is that BSN graduates tend to be offered better jobs and have a faster track to management and director positions.
Therefore, when you get a degree in nursing, you tend to increase your chances of earning more money out of the gate than your ADN-degree peers, but even better-positioned to earn more over the course of your career.
- You will have access to a wide variety of jobs
In practice, nurses have access to a wide variety of jobs. As a nurse, you may decide to work as a family nurse practitioner, clinical nurse manager or even simply as a nursing manager. The number of job openings that are available for any of these positions usually varies all the time. This means that competition for job openings may get intense at times.
Interestingly, when you have a BSN, you tend to fit in any of these positions. According to the Nurse Journal, individuals who have higher degrees in nursing usually have the advantage of getting more job opportunities that pay more as compared to their counterparts without degrees or with associate-level schooling.
This implies that while your peers with ADNs will be confined to specific positions, you will have the advantage of competing for more positions. This will definitely help you to secure a job relatively easily.
- It is easier for you to progress in your nursing career when you have a degree
Like any other career, the nursing career has different levels, which are characterized by different pay rates and types of duties. As a professional nurse, you will definitely want to move from the entry level position to higher positions in your career.
Moving up the career ladder will largely be determined by the level of skills and expertise that you show. Interestingly, getting a degree will help you to get the right skill set that will help you to easily progress in your career. When you look at a typical Bachelor of Science in Nursing degree curriculum, in this case Arizona College’s, it’s easy to see the well-roundedness you’ll be exposed to. Everything from ethics and leadership to critical thinking, natural science and general studies will be taught, in addition to everything about human systems and nursing science. When it comes time to convince your employer years down the road that you are the best candidate to be considered for promotion, you can point to how you hit the ground running from day one, and that just wouldn’t have been possible without a more comprehensive, higher-level degree.
- A degree in nursing helps you to be better equipped for a challenging career
In general, a degree in nursing is designed to expose you to a wide range of knowledge areas that are related to the nursing career. This means that when you choose to study for this degree, you will be exposed to a wide range of knowledge as part of your training.
Furthermore, the depth of the curriculum that is used in many schools means that you will gain in-depth understanding of specific aspects that are critical for your professional practice. Gaining such a depth of knowledge and technical skills will not only make you more productive in your work as a professional nurse, but also help you to successfully manage more challenging tasks that you are likely to encounter in the course of your work.
Therefore, it can be seen that getting a degree in nursing will make you very competitive as a professional nurse. This is because it will increase your chances of getting jobs that pay better, apart from equipping you with skills that will help you progress faster in your career.
