BSN/DNP Help please

[Ttr728]

Hi everyone I am new to this site so please bare with me :) I am currently starting an accelerated BSN program at West Coast University and I eventually want to become a Nurse practitioner. I am interested in Pediatrics. I will be finishing my BSN in 2015. Does anyone know where that will leave me? Since there are rumors that DNP will be required to be a NP by the year 2015? I feel so uneasy not knowing what my future plans may be. I know that not all schools will have changed to LNP programs by 2015 but by the time I graduate...where will that leave me? I know that there is a MS in Nursing program available at WCU and was wondering if that program can lead into a NP position OR will it be a lost cause since the LNP is in effect. If I enter that MS program right after my BSN where will that leave me? The MS is just a little more than one year so it will be 2016 when I will finish. Thanks in advance everyone :)

[KelRN215, BSN, RN]

If you are not completing your BSN until 2015, you will know when you are done whether or not a DNP is required for Nurse Practitioners.

MSN is currently the degree Nurse Practitioners have. No one knows for sure what the DNP requirement will be... there were rumors about it happening by now when I was in school. It's kind of like how there have been rumors for years that BSN would be the entry level for RNs (a professor in college said that that rumor was around when she graduated nursing school in 1985) but there are still diploma and associates programs out there.

Very few people who work in the field recommend going straight to MSN after you complete your BSN. A PNP who has no experience in pediatrics or working as a nurse would have a heck of a time landing a job. My colleagues who finished their NP programs this year all had a hard time getting PNP jobs and they all had more than 5 years of RN experience in pediatrics.

I don't know what "LNP" is.

[BlueDevil,DNP, DNP, RN]

Just start at the beginning and take it one step at a time. I don't think you are going to have to worry about it.

[WKShadowNP, DNP, APRN]

Egads! I have 17 years in the field and I still feel it is not enough to prepare me. But by the time I finish my dpn I will have 3 or 4 more years.