If you’re looking at a BSN, then you belong to one of two groups of people. Either you are a high school student who is an aspiring nurse looking to get into the field, or you’re a registered nurse (RN) looking to expand your career options outside of your Associate’s degree through an RN BSN degree.

Although an ADN may help you get into nursing, it definitely isn’t the degree that can give you a footing in the field.

If you’re trying to get a rewarding, long-lasting career in the field of nursing, then a BSN is the very least you need to have. An MSN is a good option for later if you feel like you need more expertise. In the meantime, here are some career opportunities that an RN BSN degree program gives you:

Clinical Nurse Educator
If you want to help shape and educate the nurses of tomorrow, then this is the job for you. You will be more of an educator, with a lot of experience on the side to speak of. The primary work is overlooking and developing the curriculum of the education courses for registered nurses. Of course, you will still be involved in clinical care since that is where most of your on-the-job learning occurs. The average salary starts at around $55,000 per annum.

Staff Nurse
This is your quintessential, run of the mill nurse job, with added responsibilities. There are many places that employ staff nurses – in personal clinics, government hospitals, private hospitals, etc. The average salary differs but is somewhere around to $56,000 per annum. The job involves carrying out treatments and procedures, checking and maintaining logs and files, providing education and valuable medical information to patients and their families, and providing assistance to patients.

Critical Care RN
Amongst all nurse specializations, nothing is probably more hectic and demanding than the critical care nurse. As the name suggests, these nurses attend to patients suffering from a life-threatening injury or disease and requiring urgent specialized care. These nurses work closely with physicians and attend to far fewer patients since their work is both engrossing and all-encompassing. These nurses often perform intensive care treatments and work in close proximity to emergency rooms and cardiac care units. The average annual salary comes up to $55,000.

No matter what specialization you pick, an RN BSN degree will help you cement your role and deliver to the best of your abilities.