Accelerated ASN or BSN if planning on going for an MSN to become a CNM?

[NolaRachel]

It's application season and I'm running up against the ASN vs BSN question. I'm lucky to live in a city that offers multiple accelerated programs for someone like me, who already has a bachelors (in theatre) and is coming to nursing as a second career. My undergraduate transcript is pretty bad looking, but I've made straight A's since I returned to school to take prerequisites this past summer (11 classes down, 1 more class in the Spring). I'm hoping my academic turn-around is obvious to admission committee people. As for the programs I'm looking at, the accelerated ASN program runs from July 2011-May 2012 (10 months) and the accelerated BSN runs from August 2011-March 2013 (19 months). I've tried finding NCLEX pass rates to compare the programs, but it seems the state only keeps track by school.

My questions are:

Will the accelerated ASN really be able to prep me for nursing in 10 months? I know how diligent of a student I can be, but I imagine a lot of nursing is on-the-job learning, so the 10 month time frame is concerning.

Will the BSN make me that much more employable? I was speaking a with a family friend who runs an ED and he said that they definitely prefer RN's with a bachelors. I don't know how much of a difference it makes that I already have a BA.

Since I'm planning on going back for an MSN anyway and many offer RN-MSN bridge programs, will it make a different in the long-run, anyway?

Thanks in advance for your help!

[armyrn26]

if you are planning on getting your MSN you should get your BSN. I graduated from an accelerated program (BSN). Nursing school is just a bunch of hoops to jump through. Kind of like all those prereq's you really don't need. Nursing school could be 6 months for the "nursing" part of your degree. Half of it is useless. It is taught mostly by nurses that were trained years ago. I had a teacher that graduated in 1950s.

Nursing is a people business. You have to be able to see change in your patients and use some common sense. Nursing schools make it seem like much more.

I paid $25K for 16 month program and was being taught in a hundred year old building and using equipment that the hospital didn't need anymore.

I would calculate the time and money it would cost to go ASN--->MSN bridge and BSN--->MSN and go from there.

Hope this helps. I love my job and wouldn't do anything else now