A bachelor of science in nursing is a four-year degree leading to the registered nurse licence. It is now listed in federal occupational data as the typical entry-level education for registered nurses, despite no state requiring it for licensure.
Enrolment has grown for three consecutive years, rising 7.6 percent in 2025 — in the same year that a record 93,176 qualified applications were turned away across all nursing programme levels.
What the extra two years contain
Not clinical hours. Prelicensure clinical requirements are set by the state board and are broadly comparable between associate and bachelor's programmes.
What a bachelor's adds is coursework the associate degree has no room for:
- Leadership and management, which is why the degree is a practical prerequisite for charge and management roles. See nursing management and leadership.
- Research and evidence appraisal — reading a study and deciding whether it should change practice. See nursing research.
- Public and community health, usually with its own clinical rotation outside a hospital. See public health nursing.
- Health policy, informatics, and quality improvement.
- General education in the liberal arts and sciences.
Why employers prefer it
Three reasons, in descending order of how often they are stated honestly.
Research. The most-cited study, across nine European countries in 2014, found that a higher proportion of bachelor's-prepared nurses was associated with lower surgical mortality, alongside the separate effect of staffing levels. It is observational and hospitals employing more graduates differ in ways that are hard to adjust away, but it is the most careful work available. See nurse staffing and patient outcomes.
Recognition programmes. Magnet-recognized organizations face expectations about the education of their nursing workforce and leadership, which converts a professional preference into a hiring rule. See Magnet recognition.
A 2010 target. The Institute of Medicine recommended 80 percent of registered nurses hold a bachelor's degree by 2020. The target was missed and became the number hospitals were measured against anyway.
What it opens
Graduate education is the substantive one. A bachelor's from an accredited programme is the standard entry requirement for master's and doctoral study, and therefore for every advanced practice role. See nurse practitioners and certified registered nurse anesthetists.
Several certifications also require a bachelor's degree, including informatics and nursing professional development. See nursing certification boards.
Beyond that: military commissioning, most federal and public health roles, and research and education careers.
What it does not change
The licence, the scope of practice, and the examination are identical to the associate degree route. A bachelor's-prepared nurse and an associate degree nurse on the same unit have the same legal authority and, in most union contracts, the same base pay.
The difference is in which doors open later, not in what either may do today. See entry into practice and scope of practice.
Routes in
The traditional four-year route admits from secondary school, with nursing coursework usually beginning in the second or third year.
Two compressed routes exist for people who already hold a degree: an accelerated bachelor's at 12 to 18 months, and a direct-entry master's.
For nurses already licensed, the RN to BSN completion route is the standard path and is usually done while working.
Related
- Nursing education
- Associate degree in nursing
- RN to BSN programmes
- Entry into practice
- Registered nurses
Sources
- Occupational Outlook Handbook: Registered Nurses — U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2025 data, on typical entry-level education. Accessed September 9, 2026.
- Schools of Nursing See Enrollment Increases Across Most Program Levels — American Association of Colleges of Nursing, 2025–2026 annual survey. Accessed September 9, 2026.
- Nurse staffing and education and hospital mortality in nine European countries — Aiken LH, Sloane DM, Bruyneel L, et al., The Lancet 2014;383(9931):1824–1830. Accessed September 9, 2026.
- The Future of Nursing: Leading Change, Advancing Health — Institute of Medicine, 2010, for the 80 percent recommendation. Accessed September 9, 2026.