ADN vs. BSN Approaches to Patient Care

ADN vs. BSN Approaches to Patient Care Associates prepared nurses are able to sit for the NCLEX as well as bachelors prepared nurses. They are both able to practice and perform many of the same skills and procedures. Their differences in clinical competencies are few, but their differences in critical thinking, decision making, communication, leadership, and management techniques and abilities, are many. The bachelors prepared nurse has received a higher and more in depth level of education in their field. This additional study and preparedness gives the bachelors prepared nurse the ability to understand not only the “what” and “how” of their clinical procedures, but also the …show more content…

The responses to the patients experiencing emotional distress differed greatly. The ADN students responses focused on assumptions, inference, false reassurance, and action suggestions such as, “Try to relax.” The BSN responses were focused on open ended questions to enhance patient-nurse communication, specific comments based on observations from the patient, and asking patient questions to empower them in their distressful situations. Haggerty’s study showed that there was a difference in the way ADN and BSN prepared nurses are taught to respond in patient situations, and that ADN programs focus more on somatic patient situations and BSN programs focus greatly on both types (Haggerty, 1987). In conclusion the baccalaureate level of education provides nurses with higher communication and assessment skills that give them more opportunities to verbally explore distressed behaviors and create a more effective patient-nurse relationship. Although both the ADN and the BSN can perform the same clinical skills and procedures, the bachelors prepared nurse is able to understand what occurred in the patient that required the procedure and why they are performing that specific procedure. The bachelors prepared nurse is likely to have a smaller margin of error in their practice than the associates prepared nurse, and this will have a positive effect on patient care and nursing practice in the future.

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