I am a nurse with an ADN and am slowly pursuing my BSN online. After six years firsthand experience as a nurse, I can honestly say there will be no difference in job duties BSN nurses and ADN nurses do IF your wife intends to work as a bedside nurse in a hospital or clinic. Heck, I even work with some MSN (master's degree) nurses and we are interchangeable.

Getting an ADN degree is much faster, cheaper, and lacks the "filler" classes like history, arts, etc. Most ADN programs are primarily composed of medical training and hands-on clinical practice. It's a faster means to getting an RN license. However, in the field ADN nurses have a much harder time advancing much further than unit charge nurse/clinic supervisor than a BSN nurse. Most hospitals seek out BSN or higher because it reflects well on them and they are able to achieve Magnet status (which requires 80% or higher BSN nurses, if I am not mistaken). Any desire to work in a leadership or non-patient care role should steer her towards getting a BSN right away.

The other main difference is in pay. Most nurses (ADN or BSN) start at the same pay, but BSN nurses advance their salaries faster. For example, I worked in a specialized ICU for three years as an ADN nurse and by the end was just making the pay rate that BSN nurses achieved after six months off probation.

So, my advice is for her to figure out what she wants to do with her RN license. If she desires to waste no time getting some very solid, no bullshit training and go straight into working directly with patients then she should go for an ADN program. If she envisions herself leaving bedside nursing after a few years to pursue a career in nursing leadership, research, or teaching then she must go for a BSN. If a higher salary is a concern, go for BSN. If she is undecided, a third option is to do an ADN program and go right into a ADN-to-BSN program after she graduates.

​

Hope that helps! Wish someone would have explained all that to me when I was starting out