ADN & BSN Question

[TinTin87]

Hello, I apologize ahead of time for the long post.

Right now I am a junior at a University. I am a History and Anthropology double major. I originally picked this major because I was unsure of what I wanted to do as a career. I was told I had to pick a major even if I didn't like it.. considering I was already a junior. I picked what my advisor suggested. As I took history and anthro courses I met many nursing majors. I eventually became friends with some of them. We often discussed their courses and what they were doing. I found myself becoming more interested in the nursing program. I talked to a few more actual nurses, and a friend of mines who works at the hospital was able to get me permission to kind of see what her day is like as a nurse. I fell in love with the pace of everything, and the tasks.

Now my dilemma. My school is really competitive in terms of acceptance into the nursing program. I plan on taking a break from my university and pursing an ADN at the local community college. Based on courses I've already taken at the community college, it would take me 3 semesters to get an ADN. Maybe after getting my ADN, I could do the RN to BSN program at my University later. I wanted some opinions from those who are already in the field or may have had a similar experience.

Thank you in advance!

[akulahawkRN, ADN, RN, EMT-P]

What I would suggest is applying to your University's BSN program and the local ADN program. Find a way to remain an active student in your local University and continue working toward a Bachelors degree, even if it's slowly. Once you earn that degree, you may find that it is much easier to earn other degrees. In my case, I have a Bachelors degree and I'm an ADN-prepared RN. Many of my classmates had to complete some GE requirements in order to graduate or they had to basically work their tails off and complete all the graduation requirements prior to entry to the program. Since I already had a Bachelors the only coursework I was required to complete to earn the ADN was the program coursework itself.

Had I been accepted into a BSN program at that time, I still would have only been required to take the BSN coursework and likely not any other GE coursework, thusly ADN or BSN would still have been but a 4 semester program for me. Even now I would face fewer requirements for me to complete an RN-BSN program because of that Bachelors. In fact, I could have entered into an Entry-Level Masters program or an Accelerated Bachelors program because of that Bachelors I earned so long ago.

Why do I go into such detail? Simply because in the current new grad market, employers are usually going to look primarily at BSN grads first and ADN grads will get whatever is left over, if anything. The one small caveat would be if a particular ADN program is clearly superior in terms of new grad quality, but that would only apply in that local market.

I usually advise people to pursue the BSN if they can afford it and do the ADN if they can't or there's no other option. I fell into that latter category because at the time I applied to programs, entry to BSN programs was limited to only 1st Bachelors Students.