Good Day,

I'm curious as to how many of our RN colleagues with non-nursing

bachelor's degrees have found

"barriers" to continuing their education at the Masters level ?

For example, I have found that the vast majority of schools do

not consider RN's with non-nursing Bachelor's

degrees for admission to their MSN programs. The few

that actually do consider such candidates

for admission, do so I'm told, based on the

"philosophy" of the faculty (such as UCSF which

has a well-known "MPEN" program for non-nurses

with a bachelors in any field BUT nursing.

I believe that other well known schools

such as Yale, Case Western & University of Washington (Seattle)

also consider RN's with non-nursing Bachelor's

without "jumping thru too many hoops"! I have also found

some schools that have a so-called RN-MSN "bridge" program,

which in general requires 16-24 credit hours @ the BSN level. (As if we need

to cross any more "bridges" on our educational journey!)

With the shortage of qualified nursing faculty,

it is quite surprising that more MSN programs

don't consider RN's with non-nursing BA/BS degress

for admission. Of course, we are sometimes

a profession slow to embrace change!

The irony in all of this, is that my application

to an MEd, MBA, MPH or even a JD program would be highly regarded,

whereas it would be considered with "less" favor to a MSN program!

If you're looking for the input of fellow applicants, you might try one of the nursing student forums or maybe the MSN/NP forum.

Actually I think the faculty shortage that you refer to might be contributing to the requirements that are holding you back. A shortage of faculty translates to a shortage of spaces in nursing programs, so there must be ways of weeding out some quite qualified people. Requiring a BSN is likely one such method.