Accelerated BSN or entry level MSN

[t1met0eat]

Hi everyone,

I'm graduating this year with a BS at a 4-year college and applying to nursing school right now. I was just wondering if I could get some advice on whether I should apply to the accelerated BSN or entry level MSN programs.

[FirmlyAnchored]

Assuming you have all your pre-req's, Teas/Net test, letter of recommendations and essay questions completed then apply to both...

[AccelCNL, MSN, RN]

It really depends on what you want to do. If you know which part of nursing you wish to specialize in then by all means apply to the entry-level programs.

However, if you do not wish to yet focus on a particular area then apply to the BSN programs.

I mean you can apply to both but if you really do not know which area you want to specialize in then apply to the BSN programs.

[elkpark]

It really depends on what you want to do. If you know which part of nursing you wish to specialize in then by all means apply to the entry-level programs.

However, many, many people start out in nursing school or in their careers sure that they know in which area they want to specialize, only to find, after they've gained some experience and seen more of the larger nursing "world," that they're more interested in some different area entirely ... I've known a few people (and I'm sure that the few people I've known personally are not the only people in this situation :)) who've gotten into nursing via a direct-entry MSN program, or rushed right off to graduate school as soon as they finished nursing school, who put a lot of time, effort, and expense into getting the graduate specialization only to discover after the fact that they don't really enjoy doing what the degree prepared them to do -- so now they're stuck with a degree (and the student loans to pay for it!) and career path they don't particularly want, and are trying to figure out what degree they need to get next to be able to do what they want to do.

One of my (many) concerns about the direct-entry programs is that most people have no idea of the wide range of career paths and possibilities available in nursing until after they've been in nursing for a while. Graduate degrees in nursing lock you into a particular role and career path much more than undergraduate, "basic" nursing degrees do -- at the generalist level, you can change specialties as often as you can talk someone into hiring you into a new job :), but that's usually not the case at the graduate level. I believe it's worth putting some time and effort into being confident that you're making a choice (about a graduate concentration) that will suit your interests over the long term and get you where you actually want to go.