ABSN vs MSN-E

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I recently graduated from a 4-year university with a B.S in Neuroscience. I was thinking about a career as a NP or L&D RN. I have volunteer experience, EMT certification (no EMT job however), and hospital internship experience. However, I did not do as great as I would like in my science classes in college. I have a 2.8 cumulative, but 3.0 gpa last 80 units. I'm currently doing my prerequisite classes I have not taken yet (anatomy, physio, nutrition, etc) at a CC before I apply to grad school. I'm scared about my gpa and I am also not sure whether I should choose ABSN or MSN-E. Would I have a chance even with my low gpa, but I do plan on doing well in the prereq courses?

Also, I was thinking NP but I have not shadowed one and I do not know any connections to one. How would I go about searching an NP to shadow?

Thank you!

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Specializes in Cardiac, Home Health, Primary Care.

Is MSN-E a MSN-education?? And did you mean to separate A and BSN to just say "a BSN?"

Just curious because I'm not familiar with the MSN-E and ABSN degree.....

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Specializes in NICU, Trauma, Oncology.

You have other alternatives - ADN and traditional BSN. They may be less competitive than the ABSN or DEMSN programs.

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Specializes in NICU, Trauma, Oncology.
Is MSN-E a MSN-education?? And did you mean to separate A and BSN to just say "a BSN?"

Just curious because I'm not familiar with the MSN-E and ABSN degree.....

ABSN = accelerated BSN (for non nursing bachelor degrees)

MSN-E = direct entry MSN for non nursing majors. Typically these are in leadership or education type areas, not NP. But the candidate still attains the RN. One thing that the OP should look at is if she doesn't compete the full MSN whether she would be eligible for a BSN.

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Specializes in Cardiac, Home Health, Primary Care.
ABSN = accelerated BSN (for non nursing bachelor degrees)

MSN-E = direct entry MSN for non nursing majors. Typically these are in leadership or education type areas, not NP. But the candidate still attains the RN. One thing that the OP should look at is if she doesn't compete the full MSN whether she would be eligible for a BSN.

Now that you say it I knew ABSN (but usually in the context of ABSN vs BSN vs ADN vs whatever).

I have not seen direct entry MSN written as MSN-E.

Learn something new every day!

Now that I'm up to par on the lingo...

I agree with OnOn2 RN that ADN or diploma RN may be more achievable. I'm not sure I'd recommend a direct entry MSN for anybody who doesn't KNOW 100% FOR SURE that nursing is where they want to be.

You might also consider PA school if you think you'd want to be a care provider....

If you have some time it might be good to see if you can retake some of the classes you did lower in to boost your GPA...then you'd be more marketable to schools.

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Specializes in Critical Care, Education.

I echo the recommendation in light of OP's less than stellar GPA & desire for a very rapid process.

Accelerated programs generally utilize cumulative GPA for admissions, because they have to be absolutely sure that students have the learning skills needed to deal with the intense curriculum. With OP's baseline GPA, it would be very challenging to make the cut.

It would be wise to carefully investigate the hiring climate for entry-level MSNs prior to committing to a program. The "Clinical Nurse Leader" degree associated with these programs is nonsense because you can't lead anything in which you are not yet competent. E-MSNs are no more qualified for entry level jobs than new grads from BSN & ADN programs. In my organization, managers are actively avoiding them due to past experiences.

My organization employs a lot of NPs in all types of settings. Every one of those positions requires significant levels of experience and clinical competence because of the autonomy associated with their roles. Admission to well-respected NP programs requires specific types of clinical experience. OP may be able to find an opportunity to shadow an NP, I don't know if would be much value - without a basic understanding of nursing practice, it would only provide a very superficial idea of the work involved.

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Specializes in Critical care.

I'm a 2nd degree ABSN nurse. All my instructors emphasized the fact that we should get experience before continuing on in any type of masters/doctorate programs. Just because programs will accept you doesn't make it a good idea to enroll in one. To further elaborate on this one of my clinical instructors who is a practicing NP told us that she had a classmate in her NP program who had completed an ABSN program and then directly enrolled in the NP program. This classmate was very strong academically, but clinically was very weak. Not having any clinical experience as an RN haunted her after finishing the NP program- she wasn't able to find a job when everyone else did. Something else that was stressed to us was that what sets an NP aside from a PA is the clinical experience. Just because you are able to enroll directly into a masters program doesn't mean you should.

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Specializes in 15 years in ICU, 22 years in PACU.

What were you planning on doing with a B.S in Neuroscience? I'm curious as to where your interest lies.

L & D, NP, EMT, MSN-E. A bit scattered thinking. Can't tell what direction you are trying to go.

"..... but I do plan on doing well in the prereq courses" Did you plan on doing poorly with your previous classes?

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An ELM is an Entry Level Masters aka ELMSN which is the entry level masters in nursing. The original poster wrote the acronym incorrectly.

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