BSN Programs????

[naviswtngl]

Hi,

I am doing LVN rite now and will graduate in April 2008. I live in CA and I wanted to know about colleges tat have the BSN Programs and are good. they can be private or public. I already have my GE done. I am thinking of transferring. Thanks.

[MikeyJ, RN]

That is a pretty vague question. There are many excellent BSN programs. Are you specifically asking about California? I would start out by looking at your state board of nursing website (here is the link I found for CA: http://www.rn.ca.gov/schools/rnprgms.htm#bsn ). As you can see, there are many of them. I would figure out where in the state you would be willing to relocate to and which areas you would not want to relocate to. That should eliminate some of them. I would then start looking at each schools website, looking at their pre-req's, and perhaps call those school of interest and ask for more information and wait-lists (if any).

Also, the board of nursing website as NCLEX pass rates for each school -- I would look at those as well.

Good luck!

[caliotter3]

I had heard that Mt. St. Mary's in Los Angeles has maintained an excellent reputation through the years, however, the cost is prohibitive for all but the well heeled.

If you research this site, there are some threads where people give negative recommendations about Maric College, another private school.

Frankly, if I had to give you advise, I would say to do some investigating using your own criteria and apply to several programs. Pick the program that offers you a seat. If you get several offers, by that time, you should have in your mind an idea about which you would prefer to attend. Good luck with your choices.

[Daytonite, BSN, RN]

any school that offers a bsn in nursing is good. they are approved by the california board of nursing. what you need to find out is how they differ from each other. because a bsn requires many more credit hours than an associate degree you will need to take many more classes to get this degree than you would for an associate's degree. you'll want to look at what each college requires to get their bachelor's degree. some bsn programs will be for the first degree in nursing; others will be degree completion programs for nurses who already have their rns and are seeking a bachelor's degree. the focus of the course content of these two types of nursing curriculums is different. i went through an bsn completion program where we were all already rns. our program focused heavily on communication and leadership skills. this is very different from a bsn program that takes unlicensed individuals who have never seen a patient, teaches them nursing, graduates them and sends them off to take the nclex to get their rn license. i also went outside of california to get my bsn because 20+ years ago there were only a handful of schools offering bsns in california and all of them were first degrees in nursing.

this is actually the webpage that links you to the list that sistermike gave you.

• http://www.rn.ca.gov/schools/rnprgms.htm - list of rn programs in california from the california board of nursing

it breaks the rn programs down by associate degree, bsn and master's degree. some of the california community colleges are going to a lottery system of admission because the waiting lists have gotten so long. something else you might want to consider as an lvn is that many california community colleges have lvn to rn bridge programs designed specifically for lvns wanting to get their rns.

here are other california websites of interest to potential nursing students as california has an educational initiative to help people become rns.

• http://www.nurse.ca.gov/ - california nurse outreach.
  
• http://www.choosenursing.com/paying/calfinaid.html - financial aid available for nursing students in california

one problem that you may find is that the california state supported universities are tightening up their admission requirements to students who have less than the required credit hours to qualify for junior and senior standing. the california university and california state college regents have been working for some time to develop bridge programs to move students along from the community colleges to the state supported 4-year colleges and universities, so it's possible that you may encounter difficulty as an undergraduate trying to get into a california state college or a university of california school. this, of course, would not apply to a private university.

each of the 4-year college and universities has a website. visit their websites, read the information about admission to their college and nursing program. be aware that beside getting an rn you are also working toward getting a bachelor's degree, so there will be college or university pre-requisites that you will also have to fulfill to get the bachelor's degree as well. in number, these total way more than the community colleges require to get an associate degree. my bsn program would not let us in to our upper division major nursing classes until we had completed all our lower division university requirements for the bachelor's degree. because my nursing program was actually part of the school of arts and sciences this included a lot of credit hours in fine arts, english, math, social sciences, behavioral sciences, foreign language and a very specific requirement that the college had of all students in cultural diversity studies.

[naviswtngl]

thanks for the replies.