Help!! Bsn-np? Or Dnp???

Jenae:

Congrats for your decision to become a nurse. The launch of the DNP has caused some confusion--- so let me try and answer these.

For most people, the first nursing degree is a generalist degree. This is the case for Associate Degrees as well as BSN degrees. Graduate education is specialty-based.

Today, Advanced Practice nursing preparation requires a MSN degree (Master's). Most MSNs are 1.5-2 years (fulltime), you would pursue this after your initial nursing degree. Advanced Practice nurses include Nurse Practitioners, Clinical Nurse Specialists, Certified Nurse Midwives, Certified Registered Nurse Anesthesitsts, and Certified Clinical Case Managers (Hamric & Sprouse, 2008).

The Doctor of Nursing Practice is an academic degree, and is the highest level of clinical education in nursing. The American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN) has called for all advanced practice education to be done at the doctoral level by 2015. So if this call holds, if one wants to become a new NP, CNS, CNRA, CNM, or Case Manager you will need to get a DNP degree before you are eligible to sit for certification. Students who are certified before that time will not be required to earn a doctoral degree in order to maintain their licenses.

The NP (Nurse Practitioner) and DNP (Doctor of Nursing Practice) are different things. The NP is a job/role, the DNP is an academic degree.

Since you are just a freshman now who is thinking of becoming a nurse practitioner in the future, a DNP degree will likely be part of your future. There will likely be many more DNP programs in the US by the time you graduate with your bachelor's degree which will have BSN-DNP as well as MSN-DNP tracks.