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Who's Who in the Nursing Hierarchy
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Kathy Quan, RN, BSN, PHN
Kathy Quan, RN, BSN, PHN, has over 30 years of experience in home health and hospice care. Teaching patients, caregivers, and other nurses has always been a passion of hers. She also loves to write and has several websites and blogs for nurses, caregivers, and patients. Kathy has also authored four books about nursing, the health care field and caring for aging parents.
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Non-Management Leadership Positions
Beyond management roles, there are also a variety of leadership positions for nurses in facilities and agencies that include Clinical Nurse Specialists, Staff Educators, Risk Management, Quality Improvement Specialists, Infection Control Specialists, Nurse Researchers, and Nurse Practitioners. Although they aren’t part of the management track, these roles require a BSN or Master’s degree with a clinical specialty focus.
Career Growth Paths and Salaries
Nursing offers many roles and career paths making it attractive to a wide variety of personalities. Nurses may choose to spend their entire career providing bedside care, or they may chose to specialize, educate, or manage other nurses. Roles for nurses have expanded tremendously and will continue to do so as the health care needs of a growing and aging population demands.
Pay scales as well as job opportunities depend upon education and licensure, often times even more than experience. BSN nurses make more than RNs with an ADN/ASN or Diploma doing the same job. A brand new Staff Nurse with a BSN outranks an experienced RN with an ADN/ASN or a diploma RN, depending upon the situation. A nurse with a BSN is expected to have more leadership skills and an advanced knowledge base to draw upon. In reality, this may not always be true, but in a competitive job market, employers are demanding more bang for their buck.
Quality of care studies have shown that patients fare better when cared for by nurses with higher education as well. Consumers are demanding better quality of care, and those who reimburse health care such as Medicare and private health insurances have mandated quality improvements. Nurses today should seriously consider getting a BSN as a minimum requirement. This can be achieved through a direct BSN program, or first getting a LPN license and then moving on to BSN and RN to BSN programs.
shantelle1109
about 1 year ago
2 comments
Any health care environment, be it a traditional hospital setting, a home health facility or even hospice care, have a hierarchy of health care professionals. -The Balancing Act Lifetime
kpinne1
about 2 years ago
2 comments
I have been a nurse for 17 years. I have an ADN and I don't think a nurse straight out of school with a BSN should ever outrank an experienced nurse with an ADN. We have life experience as well as clinical experience behind us, and from what I have seen ADN prepared nurses get more hands on patient care experience in school then BSN prepared nurses do. As far as hierarchy I have worked as a Charge Nurse, a Unit Manager, and a DON. I am currently the administrator/Director of service Delivery for a Home Health Agency.
PotentialUnlimited
about 2 years ago
70 comments
Be it that the legality of the manner sets power to this "hierarchy", we are all equal in gods eyes. The terms that are defined in my profession does not impede on the fact that no one is any better than any one else, even regardless of title.