Ashworth RN to BSN 2018

Miss.LeoRN · Sep 13, 2018

Are you employed or is it your employer requiring the BSN? I only ask because some people have mentioned their employer requiring a BSN accredited by a regionally accredited school, with the program also being CCNE accredited. If that's the case make sure you check what accreditation is required. This was one of the first things I looked up for my employer; for me, all the program needs is CCNE accreditation.

As for Ashworth. I do not know much about the program. I have looked into it though, and from what I can tell it's an accredited distant learning type school; similar to Penn Foster, if you're familiar with that, (I think they are in the same umbrella-type-company with PCDI, not sure). All I mean by this is they are a virtual campus, not associated with a brick and mortar type school who is running an online college. They do not have regional accreditation, which may or may not be important or a big deal. If your employer doesn't require it that's great, but make sure any other institutions you want to go to for a MSN (if that's your path) will accept a BSN from a non-regionally accredited college.

How this degree will hold up. I do not know. I did decide not to go with it. I believe the degrees will be viewed like Penn Foster, or ITT Tech degrees and that might depends on your area, but I know around here they aren't well received. I think people view them as diploma mill degrees. I was afraid people would see the Ashworth degree as a diploma mill degree and I wanted to pursue a MSN later.

Other programs I looked at;

Aspen University, very similar to Ashworth. Same tuition arrangement. But, also not regionally accredited, however they also offer MSN's and they actually have one I am interested in. I can find more about this school than I can Ashworth. It seems more "solid" of an online education than the other and it's doesn't seen to have the negative association of a diploma mill.

WGU; this is the one I ended up choosing. I like the idea of it being self paced. The tuition is reasonable. Enrolling did feel like a bunch of hoop jumping tricks, but once that's done and out of the way I really felt good about the program. I don't even intend to go higher than an MSN, and since they also offer MSNs I felt this was a good choice. I also feel that the degree from WGU is respected enough in my area and by other institutions that if I wanted to apply for an MSN elsewhere I could without problem.

Since you have a Bachelors in another field, you could look for accelerated RN to BSNs in your state. That should be fast and quick without too high of a price tag.

valpal562 · Sep 15, 2018

Thank you for your response! I'm a new grad RN ADN just accepted a position from a hospital I use to work at as an LVN. In addition with a BSN I will get a 5% raise once I complete it, and the hospital also has a 2k tuition reimbursement. I will look into Texas Arlington as well, I had spoke with a few other schools, and looking for the least expensive yet with proper accreditation. :)