RN or BSN

Nurses General Nursing

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Hi all. I just need a little advice. I have a BA in psychology and have been working in publishing for the past 15 years. I like my job well enough, but I've always been interested in health care and am looking for a way to get into it. I live close to 3 different community colleges that offer the ASN degree, but then I see that there are schools that offer a BSN as well and an accelerated program for those that already have a Bachelors in another field. Unfortunately, those programs require full-time enrollment and I can't afford to quit my job to go to school. So I think the ASN is my only option.

My question is, does it make sense to get the ASN now and then go for the BSN eventually or is the ASN enough? One of the programs is having an open house in a few weeks that I'm going to check out and I want to have some idea of some good questions to ask. I graduated from college in 1988 so it's been a long time since I was in school!

not sure why you would need a BSN when you already have a Bachelors. with the ASN and your BA you can still go on to get your masters from what I've heard. Perhaps someone more knowledgeable will post the right info.

If you want to gain leadership roles in nursing such as becoming a manager, I have been told that you should definitely go on to get your BSN. I'm currently going for my ADN (some call it ASN) and I will definitely be continuing on to get my BSN and MSN. Because of time, go for the ADN since you can't be full-time and then go for your BSN. Take one degree at a time. Good luck with everything = )

Specializes in Family Practice, Urgent Care, Cardiac Ca.

As a Health Psychology Grad and Accelerated BSN student, I have simple advice:

GET. YOUR. BSN!

You'll have way more options for career development, and frankly will look better to most hospitals and care facilities.

Best of Luck!

B

Specializes in Family Practice, Urgent Care, Cardiac Ca.

"not sure why you would need a BSN when you already have a Bachelors. with the ASN and your BA you can still go on to get your masters from what I've heard. Perhaps someone more knowledgeable will post the right info."

Not true. Even if you have a BA in another field, and you wish to go onto a master's or doctoral work, you MUST have a BS in Nursing or BSN.

ok good to know as I am in the same situation with my BA and just got into the ADN program here in Tampa

Thanks everyone! Since I can't do the full-time BSN program (unfortunately) I'll do the ADN first and then get the BSN later. I'm not in a huge rush and I'm assuming that when I do go for the BSN, maybe I won't have to take as many classes since I already have a BA.

Specializes in Labor and Delivery/ Postpartum/ School.

Get your ADN now as thats what you can afford to do. You will not have trouble finding work with an RN from an ADN program.

Many colleges now offer RN to MSN programs.. Enter the program as an RN, you skip the BSN part essentially, and come out of the program with a masters in nursing.

That may be an option to you later down the road if you feel like you want to further your education in nursing.

Good luck!

Specializes in Periop.

Get your ADN. Its cheaper, then take an online BSN program or do an ADN to MSN. Hospital will more than likely pay for it.

I don't know about the Associate Degree Programs in your area, but the local community college ADN program from which I graduated required us to be full-time students. We were told from the outset that it was best for us NOT to try to work and attend nursing school.

NONE of the students who tried to work and attend nursing school passed. THEY ALL FAILED. A two year nursing program is NOT for whimps or for half-hearted students. There is a tremendous volume of information you must learn. It was not unusual for us to cover 300+ pages of text per week. That is a LOT of reading. You will be expected to answer questions from an application and synthesis perspective, NOT a knowledge perspective. Those of us who successfully completed the ADN program and got our RN's on the first NCLEX try, essentailly had NO life outside school for the two years. Reading, studying, attending class, and preparing for clinicals consumed all our waking hours.

Most of the four year colleges here have an RN to MSN program. So, the BSN is not that big of deal if you want to start out with the ADN.

One other suggestion for you. . . Find four or five other non-traditional students (older folks) in your class who are serious about school. Meet together after every class, and go over your notes and what you've high-lighted in your text during lecture. With four or five of you working together, you probably won't miss much. My group would meet at a restaurant or cafe after the lunch rush was over. We'd eat a quick bite, and drag out our books and immediately start rehashing the day's lecture. We made certain to tip our waitresses really well. They kept the sweet tea coming. Our group consistently scored higher than most other students in our class.

I don't know about the Associate Degree Programs in your area, but the local community college ADN program from which I graduated required us to be full-time students. We were told from the outset that it was best for us NOT to try to work and attend nursing school.
I live in NJ. The programs I'm looking at have both full and part-time options. Full-time just is not an option for me.

NONE of the students who tried to work and attend nursing school passed. THEY ALL FAILED. A two year nursing program is NOT for whimps or for half-hearted students. There is a tremendous volume of information you must learn. It was not unusual for us to cover 300+ pages of text per week. That is a LOT of reading. You will be expected to answer questions from an application and synthesis perspective, NOT a knowledge perspective. Those of us who successfully completed the ADN program and got our RN's on the first NCLEX try, essentailly had NO life outside school for the two years. Reading, studying, attending class, and preparing for clinicals consumed all our waking hours.
That sounds tough, but I have friends who are nurses so I have some idea what I'm getting myself into. How many classes did you take each semester? I'm planning to take one or two at a time because I don't want to get overwhelmed. I have a pretty flexible job though. I work from home one day a week and have 5 weeks vacation so I'm thinking I can probably handle it. I also don't have any kids.

Most of the four year colleges here have an RN to MSN program. So, the BSN is not that big of deal if you want to start out with the ADN.
It seems to be the same here. I just found one college that has an MSN program that is almost entirely online. I was surprised to see that!

One other suggestion for you. . . Find four or five other non-traditional students (older folks) in your class who are serious about school. Meet together after every class, and go over your notes and what you've high-lighted in your text during lecture. With four or five of you working together, you probably won't miss much. My group would meet at a restaurant or cafe after the lunch rush was over. We'd eat a quick bite, and drag out our books and immediately start rehashing the day's lecture. We made certain to tip our waitresses really well. They kept the sweet tea coming. Our group consistently scored higher than most other students in our class.
That's a great idea! I really hope I'm not the only 'old' person in the class. I've been concerned about that, but hopefully they'll be at least one other person like me. Since I'll be taking classes at night, I don't know if we'd have time to meet right after class, but maybe the next day or on the weekend. Thanks for the suggestions and advice! Have you graduated from school yet? If so, are you working now?
Specializes in Cardiac Telemetry, ED.

Re: The title of this thread; both those who hold an ADN or a BSN and have passed the NCLEX-RN are RNs.

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