Riverside's Diploma to BSN? Or Sentara?

I'm not the most expert here to respond but I would suggest that you contact them (Riverside) directly and pose your question. If you are hired on by Riverside after graduation, it is conceivable that they would help you to pursue the BS degree, but there is no guarantee that they will hire any particular graduate or further fund their education. In this day and age, I doubt that many employers would obligate themselves in that manner, but I would get that information from them directly.

I would say that if you do not currently have a degree and are just starting out, that you might want to focus on programs that offer a BSN if that is your goal. Going for a diploma and then continuing on to get a BSN is going to take you longer. From all that I have heard, a bachelors degree is going to be the standard down the road, especially for anyone wanting to advance. It could be worse, the schools for physical therapy are now requiring a doctorate level for a license to practice (my wife is a PT with about 20 years experience so she's exempt).

Sentara's program requires you to come in with 1.5 years of pre-reqs and adds on a half year (full time) to complete. You could also look at the 4 year colleges (ODU, NSU, HU for example) as an alternative. Just about all the 4 year programs are wait listed so you will have to plan out a strategy to get accepted at one or more in a timely manner ( don't put all your eggs in one basket). From what I have read here, Riverside does not have a wait list (I'll know that for sure in about a month I think). Good Luck.

One more note -- tuition benefits have been "in flux" this year because of budget problems at many area hospitals. One Riverside nurse had to drop out of one of our graduate programs because her tuition reimbursement benefit was cut to $0 this year.

Im not sure about Riverside. I work for Sentara and they recently added a BSN program to their curricula. I believe if you promise to work for them after you graduate, they will compensate you for your schooling. if you are a full time employee and you worked for sentara for less than 3years you get 1300 a year for tuition. More than three years full time employee gets 1800 a year toward tuition. Plus, sentara is a college now because of the BSN program, it will look better on your resume moreso than Riverside. Oh, they also do book reimbursement. I hope this was helpful.