One of the big advantages of having your BSN is the world of career opportunities that are opened up to you. Not only will you be a stronger candidate for general nursing jobs and promotions because of your enhanced credentials, but you will no longer be barred from higher-level, specialized jobs you may be more interested in pursuing.
A bachelor’s degree is often needed to get administrative positions and is a prerequisite for admission to graduate nursing programs in research, consulting and teaching. Your BSN also builds a foundation for your master’s degree, which opens up all four advanced practice nursing specialties—clinical nurse specialists, nurse anesthetists, nurse-midwives and nurse practitioners, according to the U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Getting your BSN can also open the door to the "business" side of health care. Experience on a health care team and nursing expertise are seen as good skills equipping RNs with a BSN to manage ambulatory, acute, home-based and chronic care. Other job offshoots could mean management not just in a hospital, but also in insurance companies, pharmaceutical manufacturers and managed care organizations, where they are in-demand for "health planning and development, marketing, consulting, policy development and quality assurance," the Bureau says.
So what are the best jobs you can get with your BSN? Jacksonville University’s website for its online school of nursing says BSNs are highly sought-after in the following top jobs: ICU staff RNs, managers of ambulatory surgery, clinical nurse managers, nurse educators, RN telemetry unit, charge nurses, risk managers, directors of case management and chief nursing officers.
While all of the above mentioned jobs are leadership positions, they couldn’t be more different in their scope. A charge nurse is responsible for managing operations of the patient care area for a shift, and his or her duties often include staffing; admissions and discharge; and planning out activities in the patient care area. ICU staff RNs work in a specialized critical care unit. Managers of ambulatory surgery often work in outpatient surgery centers or same-day surgery centers where patients do not require hospitalization.
So if you’ve got your eye on the vast options available in management and administration in the nursing world, keep your eye on getting your BSN.