Entry-Level MSN or ABSN?

[bailsbutler]

Hi! I am currently on track to graduate with a non-nursing Bachelor's Degree. I am trying to decide which program would be best in the long run for an eventual CRNA. I have the option to go to an Entry-Level MSN program or the usual ABSN program. Both course sequences are extremely similar but I'm not sure if a CRNA program would not accept me without a BSN and an MSN? Just looking for some advice because I don't know a whole lot about how this works. Thanks!

[ashley1033]

I'm sort of in the same boat. I am 2 semesters away from completing a Bachelor's in English and I was planning on going back to get an Associate's in Nursing, and then do an online RN to MSN bridge program. After that, I was going to apply to a CRNA post-master's certificate program (certificate since I would already have my Master's degree). The problem is that when I contacted the CRNA school about their requirements, you HAVE to have a Bachelor's in Nursing, even if I had my Associate's and Master's degrees in nursing they would turn me away. Best advice is to contact the school in particular and see what exactly their requirements are. Otherwise I would have spent the next couple of years wasting my time and money on a Master's degree that would do nothing for my CRNA schooling.

[theliman]

I did a direct-entry MSN for my nursing degree and there were no issues with CRNA schools. After finishing the MSN, you will have done everything that is part of a BSN, but with additional masters classes. To get into the program, you had to have a bachelor's, so that takes care of some of the non-nursing requirements, and then the MSN includes everything you need for nursing. Not sure about associates -> MSN.

To the OP, I wouldn't think twice about doing direct-entry MSN instead of BSN, I think it only helps, but if you have only a few programs that you will go to, you might as well chat with them if it will reduce stress.