rn to bsn programs a scam...

Nursing Students Online Learning

Published

Any one else feeling that rn to bsn programs are a scam.. recently have looked into 2 online rn to bsn programs from 2 state universities.. one was 20 nursing credits, the other was 27 credits.. after they went thru my transcripts it ended up being that I needed to take a bunch more of generals.. seems like they try to get more money out of you by making you take more generals.. quite few of these were classes I had already taken, they told me that it wasn't high enough level. It really peveed me off... what I thought would be 1 yr on top of the 3 yrs I have already gone for my associate Rn ends up being another 2 to 3 yrs... what a joke.. I almost get the impression they really want to sock it to the associate degree Rn. Then I noticed that the one program I checked into that you are taking classes lpns who are doing the lpn to bsn program. The syllabus from these classes look very similar to what I have already taken.. when asked if you can challenge the course they tell you that there is stuff covered at the BSN level that you didn't get in the associate program..I am like these lpns are gonna take the same nclex I took and the infor in the classes is infor you need to know to pass the nclex. Any one else experience this or am I the only one that feels this way?

Remember than with any BS degree, there are many general classes that need to be taken. This is not only a nursing thing!!! Sure you took a few gen eds toward your Associates, but that is a 2 year degree. With a 4 year degree, obviously there are more. If you want a BS from that school you have to knock out all of their general requirements like any student in any major. The 20-27 nursing credits left are just like the core group for chemistry majors, music majors, or any other subject.

0 Votes
Specializes in Emergency/Cath Lab.

I feel your pain and it was only to get into my BSN program. They said that my 1 full year of anatomy didnt cover enough that the uni I was going to go to covered in a six month class......huh? How the heck does that work. It is all a scam anyways.

0 Votes
Specializes in Ante-Intra-Postpartum, Post Gyne.

When I first started my nursing journey I looked at all the options..straight BSN or ASN then bridge to BSN. It was going to take a whole additional semester...ASN with bridge= 3.5 years, straight BSN 3 years, and this did not included transfer courses (you can get an ASN and still have to take transfer courses)

0 Votes
Specializes in L&D.

I skipped the BSN part, and did a bridge ADN-MSN, since I am planning on becoming a nurse-midwife anyway. I have 3 years under my belt of this program, and only one year left.

0 Votes
Specializes in Acute Care Psych, DNP Student.

The honest truth is that the courses required for ADN programs only meet freshman and sophomore levels of college education. So, if you want to earn a baccalaureate degree, you'll have to take A LOT of classes to earn 300-400 level courses. Sixty or so credits would be fair and expected for this.

When I earned my ADN, I was surprised at the simplicity of the material. This is not addressing the complexity and responsibility of nursing practice in the workplace - just the academic aspect. When I earned my RN-BSN at a state university, I could see the difference with 300-400 level courses. Each level becomes more complex.

Instead of RN-BSN programs being a "scam" requiring too many courses, I see just the opposite. I see many programs bending over backwards to offer RNs extended credit and seamless transfers.

0 Votes

You have to think of it in terms of a Bachelor's vs an Associate's in ANY field, not just nursing. A Bachelor's degree requires more core course work than an Associate's; both in general education and in actual nursing pre-requisites. They couldn't just let you make up the difference in nursing coursework and call it a Bachelor's if you haven't met the university requirements for a Bachelor's degree. Am I making sense?

I have previous Bachelor's and Master's degrees and took extra pre-reqs (under the assumption that I would go into a BSN program) and wound up in a really amazing and competitive ADN program. They will have an online RN-BSN program in place by the time I finish my ADN and I can simply transition flawlessly into the BSN nursing coursework. This is because I already did all of the basic Bachelor's coursework in my FIRST Bachelor's and did the extra BSN pre-reqs before starting my ADN program.

It's not necessarily a rip off. You just have to fill in the gaps between the two basic degrees, not just the gaps between the nursing coursework in those two degrees.

0 Votes
Specializes in EMS, ED, Trauma, CEN, CPEN, TCRN.

I had similar frustration when I was searching for the "perfect" RN-BSN program. I already had three Associates degrees (yeah, really), with a total of 206 credits by the time I had my ADN/RN. I had done a lot of general ed classes in English, Sociology, History, Humanities ... you name it; I even had statistics already from my first trip through college. The schools that wanted me to take a bunch of general ed stuff? Crossed them right off the list. The program I chose in the end only required me to take things I had avoided thus far -- an upper-level sociology course and economics. The rest were nursing courses, and I felt like I actually learned something. There are good programs out there -- it just takes a lot of searching. I seriously drove myself nuts looking for a program! Take your time, find the right one if you want that BSN.

0 Votes
RN-BSN programs are all over the place. In my state alone, I have seen programs that require just 21 credit hours of nursing and another one that requires 50 credit hours of nursing.

I've personally decided to skip RN-BSN all together and direct enter into a 2 year ACNP program when I graduate.

Well, shoot, I totally got screwed, LOL! My LPN-BSN is 120 credit hours and I transferred in with a little over half of the 120!

0 Votes
The honest truth is that the courses required for ADN programs only meet freshman and sophomore levels of college education. So, if you want to earn a baccalaureate degree, you'll have to take A LOT of classes to earn 300-400 level courses. Sixty or so credits would be fair and expected for this.

When I earned my ADN, I was surprised at the simplicity of the material. This is not addressing the complexity and responsibility of nursing practice in the workplace - just the academic aspect. When I earned my RN-BSN at a state university, I could see the difference with 300-400 level courses. Each level becomes more complex.

Instead of RN-BSN programs being a "scam" requiring too many courses, I see just the opposite. I see many programs bending over backwards to offer RNs extended credit and seamless transfers.

Yes, very true!

0 Votes
I skipped the BSN part, and did a bridge ADN-MSN, since I am planning on becoming a nurse-midwife anyway. I have 3 years under my belt of this program, and only one year left.

Wow, good for you!! Are you totally stressed by the classes you are taking? Or are they not as bad as you once thought?

0 Votes
Specializes in CCU.

No, you're not the only one that feels this way. When I was looking for an RN-BSN completion program, I felt many of them were scams, every place had their own set of prereqs, for example...requiring medical terminology after working as an RN or requiring general bio over animal bio, etc. I went to a state university brick and motor school and it took me 3 semesters to finish, it could have easily been 2 but every university requires it's own set of pre-reqs. I went with the most accredited and cheapest option. The universities are businesses first and schools second.

0 Votes

"

wouldn't be so bad if one hadn't already gotten an associate degree from a 2 yr lpn program and then went another yr to get an associate degree for the rn. i have a total of 3 yrs in."

kaplan and phoenix are scams, but state universities are not. in order to get any 4-year college degree, you need a certain number of 300 level elective classes. community colleges do not offer 300 level classes, so that's why the rn-bsn programs are telling you that you need to take non-nursing classes to complete the degree. i am doing an online rn-bsn with my state university and i didn't have to take any non-nursing classes because i had a bachelor's degree in another subject, therefore i had the required amount of 300 level electives on my old transcripts to transfer in.

0 Votes
+ Add a Comment