Associate's or Bachelor's in Nursing

I'm having a hard time deciding if I should stay at my current Community College and get an Associate's in Nursing or transfer to a BSN program. My current school's next clinical rotation isn't until 2013, in which I wont finish until December 2014 with an actual graduation date of May 2015. I can't help but wonder if it would be smarter to just go straight to a BSN program and graduate with a higher degree...which would probably take me the same amount of or maybe a little longer time than it would for an Associate's. Plus, lately I've been hearing that alot of RN jobs are requiring BSN's...Is this true?! The only thing keeping me at the Community College is that I can obtain a Nursing degree for less of a cost, where as if I go to a BSN program it will be a lot more and I'll have to take out higher loan amounts. I'm rather confused...could someone please help me come to a logical decision...thanks in advance!!

Future Nurse,
In our neck off the woods it appears that an Associates Degree is no longer enough to get a job as a nurse, here in the last 6 months or so the requirement is now BSN!!!! If you are currently working in the healthcare field see if your employer will pay for tuition reimbursement, if not some employers do have tuition reimbursement such as hospitals to help with these costs, try to research ur area of hospitals about this even calling their human resource departments to find out what degree they hire at, some may hire with an ADN and asked that u enroll in a bachelor nursing program within a certain period of time. However each state is different, but most ADN to BSN programs can be done online. Hope that helps in some manner!

Go for the BSN. Hospitals are not hiring or even interviewing ADN/ASN in most cases unless they are in a very remote area and can't get any BSN's. However, there are so many new nurses coming out right now, that they are even moving to these remote areas to get experience. Because of this, tuition reimbursements are also rare, but it can't hurt to ask. BSN will also get you better pay.

If you really want to stick with ADN/ASN, your best chance of a job is a nursing home or assisted living. There is a need for RNs in that field.

It really depends on what kind of nursing you want to do as well. If you want to work anywhere other than nursing homes, get the BSN. If you are young, the student loan will be paid off eventually and you'll be happy you are done with school. Plus if you are in a BSN program, you can usually work as a tech or CNA at the hospital to help with costs.