ABSN/Entry Level Masters

"Have heard" from who? You will get a job if you are hard worker and keep at it. I have ABSN and where I want to school you could go straight through to doctorate. I think three people from my class did that. Everyone i stayed in touch with (this was 2006) is working. If you want ivy league or whatever that is fine just make sure you can afford it and the cost of living in places like Maryland, NYC, etc is hella expensive. I went ot school in Northern VA right near DC and it cost me as much to live there as school did. Look at cost of living as well. If you are going for more than the quick BSN you will be living in the area a long time. Also unless you are more hardcore than anyone I know you won't be working when taking 21 hours of nursing school a semester. So...just look at the entire picture. If I did it over I would have gone to like Univ. of Wyoming, Creighton (Omaha), Marquette..etc,,,places with much lower costs of living.

My husband works for a hospital that will not accept direct entry MSN nurses because they do not have their BSN. It does not matter that they sit for the NCLEX, they lack a BSN. I do not know how common that is, but I know that it *can* be an issue. I think you would just have to research the requirements of the hospitals/facilities you are interested in working in before deciding what to do.

So they wont hire someone with an active nursing license? Is that written policy? I have never heard of that because you can have an associates or bsn but really the main thing is active nursing license. I work with multiple nurses with msn and they have no issues. That is bizarre.

Right?? It is a policy that has been put in place by the CNO. Completely bizarre. We have one (extremely well respected) university here that attempted to do a direct entry master's program that just graduated its last group of the students. My understanding (hearsay) is they stopped the program because of some of the hiring issues faced by their grads due to lack of BSN. Again, hearsay. But given this hospital's refusal to hire direct entry MSN's, it makes some sense.

There are several programs that grant both degrees but overall its not a major problem. I have heard of it happening, rarely, but honestly you could just apply to program that grant both degrees, with your academic history I think you'll be fine being accepted as well. If you have the experience volunteering and good letters of recommendation. Columbia, MGH, Northeastern, and Johns Hopkins are all schools that I successfully applied to that grant both degrees and I'm certain there are more!

AH thanks so much for the list of schools that grant both degrees! So helpful! &Thank you everyone else for your input. I guess I'll be doing a lot of research this summer!