Core Course Variation: Online RN-to-BSN degrees

[RNfaster]

I am looking for a good online RN-to-BSN program. I am surprised at how widely the core courses vary from school to school. For example, some schools include pathophysiology, pharmacology, assessment, ethics, quality and safety, but others do not...

I wonder if folks might offer their opinions and thought related to this... For those that completed RN-to-BSN or BSN --which courses did you find most valuable?

Here's a list of core courses for some of the schools I've started to review:

American Public University

28 core credits: professional transitions in nursing; assessment, evaluation and clinical decision-making; integrated pathophysiology and clinical pharmacology; science of evidence-based practice; transformational leadership and cultures of safety; emerging scholarship and trends in healthcare; caring for today's veterans; community health 1 and 2.

Aspen

30 core credits: writing; issues and trends in professional nursing; concepts and theories in nursing; informatics in healthcare; community health nursing 1 and 2; healthcare policy and economics; essentials of nursing research; health assessment; nursing leadership and mgmt.

Grand Canyon State University

36 core credits: professional dynamics; family-centered health promotion; health assessment; concepts in community and public health; applied statistics for healthcare professionals; intro to nursing research; ethical and spiritual decision making in healthcare; nursing leadership and management; pathophysiology and nursing management of client's health; trends in today's healthcare; capstone and practicum.

Northern Arizona State University

30 core credits: health assessment for RNs with related practicum; basic principles in palliative care; gerontology; intro to nursing as a discipline and profession; research and evidence-based practice; family nursing roles; nursing informatics and healthcare policy; public-health nursing roles; nursing leadership; nursing leadership applications.

Purdue

34 core credits: conceptual and theoretical thinking in nursing; nursing of families and groups; professional ethics; health promotion and education; nursing care of the aged, disabled and chronically ill; pathophysiology; nursing informatics; quality and safety in professional nursing practice; community and public health nursing; nursing leadership and management; capstone.

[Nina Beaman]

The curriculum has to align with their accreditation. I know that Aspen University aligns their curriculum with the American Association of Colleges of Nurses Essentials for the BSN education. Those core courses accomplish that goal. Because you have to be an RN to enter, it is presumed that you have had pharmacology, pathophysiology etc. before becoming an RN and the curriculum infuses awareness of veteran's needs, disaster preparedness etc. within courses rather than making them separate courses.