Forgive me for I am new here, but I am desperately seeking out information from current or previous students in the RN-to-BSN program, especially if they had taken more than one NRSE course per 5 week term. (If anyone knows how I can finally be approved to be in the [Ohio University RN to BSN online-academic outreach initiative] group on facebook, that would also be awesome.

Allow me to provide a little history on myself: I began at LCCC in 2010 as an online-only student, completing prerequisites for my nursing courses. Gradually I began to take the on-campus classes needed to be accepted into the nursing program, until finally I was accepted into & completed the ADN-RN program. So I have had plenty of success with online courses. I have not, however, had many required APA assignments; only 2-3 I believe in the nursing program, but I honestly do not know how strictly they adhered to the APA formatting while grading the papers as they were mostly (in my opinion) busywork assignments. Obviously the ones in the RN-to-BSN program will be vastly different.

Now, I am pretty determined to finish this program as quickly as possible, so I would love to know which courses would be best to pair up in a 5 week term. I also have a few non-nursing courses to complete, but I am not too concerned with them. Currently, for the fall, I am registered for {term1: NRSE 4510 & Fashion, term2 NRSE 4550 evidence based, & term3: NRSE 4580 leadership}.

The non-nursing courses I still have to take will be Exploring Musical Styles, Business Communication, and Intro to Ethics.

Any and all advice is appreciated! Thanks!

Hello, I have four classes left and I will be graduating in December! I really like this program and have found it not to be too difficult. All of the assignments are APA. I have used PERRLA and it has helped me with formatting and citations. I recommend purchasing it!

I took 4510 by itself because I was out of school almost 10 years! That class was difficult because there was an APA paper every week and other busy-work assignments, so I suggest taking that class by itself and not with another nursing class. NRSE 4520-Assessment was super easy and I wish I would have taken that with another class. Also, NRSE 4550- Evidence Based Nursing was not bad at all and wish I would have taken that with another nursing class. NRSE 4580, I found to be very boring and was hard to stay motivated to complete assignments. NRSE 4570 was not difficult at all and was interesting and can easily be taken with another nursing class.

I am not sure what classes other than the nursing classes you may need, but I highly recommend Music 1200- for the arts category. Pete 2000 for the cross cultural category. And Business Communications for the four year English you may need. These classes were very easy and can easily get an "A".

Hope this helps. Good luck in your classes!

~Melissa

Lindesay,

Business communications is not a hard class. Make sure your grammar is up to par, otherwise points will be taken off! There are quizzes just about every week, BUT you can take them as many times as you want to get a good grade. There are also either a paper-minimum of 1250 words, discussion board post and 2 replies, or a journal/reflection due every week. I took Business Communications with 2 nursing classes and Intro to Ethics. I am busy this summer due to all of the school work, but it is manageable. I also wanted to get my BSN ASAP!

Intro to Ethics is a different way of thinking. There is a quiz every week that is due on Tuesdays, and a discussion and 2 replies due every week except when there is a test. The discussion and replies are truly discussion format and do not require APA. The tests I found to be tricky, so make sure you read the question correctly.

Hope this helps! Good luck!

~Melissa

Lindesay...I think you will find that much of the difficulty of the program can be dependent on which teaching assistant is teaching your group.

I graduated when they were whittling down the number of classes and combining some nursing classes. They also added the non-clinical component to the capstone course.

My experience is not recent enough to tell you if taking 2 nursing courses together is a good idea or not. I worked full time, was proficient with APA (which they can be sticklers on) and I took 2 nursing classes together twice. The first time was okay but a lot of work--unlike taking 3 regular classes together because the nursing classes are accelerated. The second time, I took 2 of the 4 credit classes together and thought it would kill me. Between having tough TAs and the material being hard, it was a lot of work. I got As in both classes but in one class, people were failing.

Good luck to you. It took me a while to get through the program since I had twenty something classes to do, but I'm glad I did.

Do you know anyone in the fb group? If you do they can put a request in to have admin add you.

Hello, I have four classes left and I will be graduating in December! I really like this program and have found it not to be too difficult. All of the assignments are APA. I have used PERRLA and it has helped me with formatting and citations. I recommend purchasing it!

I took 4510 by itself because I was out of school almost 10 years! That class was difficult because there was an APA paper every week and other busy-work assignments, so I suggest taking that class by itself and not with another nursing class. NRSE 4520-Assessment was super easy and I wish I would have taken that with another class. Also, NRSE 4550- Evidence Based Nursing was not bad at all and wish I would have taken that with another nursing class. NRSE 4580, I found to be very boring and was hard to stay motivated to complete assignments. NRSE 4570 was not difficult at all and was interesting and can easily be taken with another nursing class.

I am not sure what classes other than the nursing classes you may need, but I highly recommend Music 1200- for the arts category. Pete 2000 for the cross cultural category. And Business Communications for the four year English you may need. These classes were very easy and can easily get an "A".

Hope this helps. Good luck in your classes!

~Melissa

Melissa,

Did you purchase the PERRLA Complete (or whatever it's called) or just the APA extension for Word?

& thank you so much for the suggestions!

Lindesay...I think you will find that much of the difficulty of the program can be dependent on which teaching assistant is teaching your group.

That's what I'm concerned about - I've heard that there are some brutal TAs for this program. Makes me incredibly nervous. I usually produce good work in my papers, but with only having a few APA projects under my belt, I'm worried about being eaten alive over my work.

Do you know anyone in the fb group? If you do they can put a request in to have admin add you.

I do, and they had posted for me to be added, but I'm still not in the group. That was probably about two weeks ago. I even tried contacting the two admins for the group, but to no avail. Apparently it isn't meant to be haha

Lindesay,

I did buy PERRLA and it is such a huge help! It is not perfect, but it saves me a lot of time! I definitely recommend it if you are nervous about APA. I was nervous about APA too and a friend of mine told be about PERRLA.

As far as the TAs are concerned, I have completed 9 classes and have not had an issue with any of the TAs. Do you work, follow the rubric, do your best with APA, and you will be fine.

That's what I'm concerned about - I've heard that there are some brutal TAs for this program. Makes me incredibly nervous. I usually produce good work in my papers, but with only having a few APA projects under my belt, I'm worried about being eaten alive over my work.

Unless the program has changed, I would not submit an assignment until Friday night at the earliest, if due on Sunday. Our syllabus, rubric and assignment never matched and someone usually asked for clarification midweek. Occasionally, the TA will post additional tips or requirements later in the week for assignments.

I'm not suggesting to wait to do the assignment. I just found that turning it in closer to the deadline saved me a lot of aggravation.

As far as TAs, I had 3 that were pretty brutal but by following directions, conforming to their requests even when they didn't match the syllabus, and by clarifying inconsistencies, I was able to pull As.

Use the edition of the APA book they recommend and Perdue Owl online and you will be fine with APA.

Dont give up that easy just keep trying. They havent added my friend and we are just waiting.

I do, and they had posted for me to be added, but I'm still not in the group. That was probably about two weeks ago. I even tried contacting the two admins for the group, but to no avail. Apparently it isn't meant to be haha

Haha yeah I'm still just waiting. Hoping to be added before the fall semester starts. We shall see!

I have been hearing alot of ppl say that its better to take NRSE 4510 alone just to get acquainted with the program. I have also heard some say that they took stuff like PETE or Music and survived. I think that it just depends on the individual. I also see you stated that you enrolled into 3 sets of 5 week classes at once......I only registered for Fall #2. I really hope that that third session doesnt fill up too fast.