Accelerated BSN v. MSN

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Hi everyone!

This website has been so helpful in the months since I decided to leave my freelance writing career and go back to school for nursing. Thanks to you all!

Now I have some specific questions that are leaving me just perplexed.

I would like to do either:

an Accelerated BSN (Wayne State in Detroit is my top choice though U of M in Ann Arbor is launching a program next year that also interests me.)

OR

an alternate entry MSN (I've researched U of Tx and Seattle Univ so far, in the latter they gear you towards Nurse Practitioner)

My dilemma. I still have 14 credits of prereqs to do before I can get into the BSN programs...and I currently live in Madrid so I am pretty much stuck doing them online and Wayne won't except online labs. So, that means the chance of me qualifying for the 2004 admission year is very slim. I will be back stateside early next year and could do my prereqs and shoot for the BSN program for 2005.

HOWEVER, if I am going to wait a whole another year I could easily prep myself for the alt entry MSN, the prereqs are just a little more intense, and U of Tx for example will accept online labs (like those given at CCCOnline or the Excelsior exams), so I could do some of it in Madrid. Also I have taught GRE prep for years and could slam through that test.

I think I have a good chance of being accepted in either a BSN or MSN program for 2005. Also I don't have children or other family responsibilities and have saved enough cash to study w/o working.

The big difference I see is in years. I am 37 now, if I do accelerated BSN in 2005, I am out in 2006. If I go for the MSN in 2005, it will be 2008 before I am out.

Finally (I know this is a big build up), here is my question to you, the experts:

Is it worth it for me to go for the MSN?

Will getting an MSN even though I am coming from a non-nursing background impede me from getting jobs?

Will a MSN limit me in any way in nursing? Right now I am drawn to the caring aspect of the field, and the excitement, and the changing nature of the science behind it. I want the chance to work as an RN and then move on in the field if I so choose.

Sorry this is so long. Making the decision to pursue nursing, as soul-searching as it was, seems easy in comparison to figuring out HOW to pursue nursing.

Any advice would be so very much appreciated.

Sincerely,

CandelaLee

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CandelaLee...I was accepted to both an Accelerated BSN program and a Graduate Entry Level Program. I made the decision to do the accelerated Bsn b/c:

1) I wanted to get in, get out and get working

2) I'd be done faster

and 3) I didn't want to get my MSN until I had some experience and actually knew which area was right for me.

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