RN versus BSN career advice

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I am a pre-clinical nursing student at a great community college in Baltimore. I have been volleying on which nursing school route to take to accomplish my career goals.

A few years after receiving my RN, I believe that I want to continue for my masters. I have been receiving conflicting information as to if you need a BSN ( rather than a bachelors in any subject along with an RN) to continue with school.

Currently I have a bachelors in Business. I have completed all my prerequisites to get into the Community College's nursing program for the spring 2005. After taking two more classes this summer, I will have also completed all my prerequisites to get into the University's 2nd bachelor's program for the spring 2005. I have been planning to apply to both.

I really like it at the community college and I believe that the nursing program is probably better at Community College than this particular University., but I will receive just my RN. The price tag at Community College is also a big plus. At University, I will receive my BSN in just two years and will spend a lot more money per credit plus I will have to take about 35 credits more in that same two year period.

So my question is, does it matter if I get my BSN if I already have my bachelor's?

I have already taken so many additional prerequisite classes to get into University and I don't want to continue taking additional classes if I can get my Masters with just a BA and RN verses a BSN.

I would really appreciate any advice.

I have the same question. I have a BA in economics and am almost finished with nursing prerequisites. I can get into a master's program with a BA and an ADN so is a BSN necessary? Also, if I decide not to go for the masters will a BA and ADN qualify me for jobs requiring BSN?

One more question - why do most nurses discourage me from going the nurse practitioner route? I keep hearing about less money and more responsibility......any advise?

All universities are different, and I would suggest that you go and sit down with an advisor. They will tell you what is acceptable and whats not. I know at the university I went to, they would let you get into the masters program with a social science (Psych or Sociology) major FROM THEIR COLLEGE and an Rn from somewhere else. But your BS had to come from them. Like I said.. all colleges\universities are different, so speak to someone there.

Alissa :)

I think the answer here would depend on which classes you can transfer from the ADN to the BSN. Here they give us a ton of nursing units for the ADN program, so we don't lose by going that route. And it is much, much cheaper (thousands of dollars) to get the ADN and transfer. I have been told that other places don't give you these credits, so you may want to check.

I agree with Alissa, the only way to get a real answer is to go to the universities you're interested in transferring to and have an advisor audit your transcript. Some universities may not take all your CC credits, and others might. A BSN degree might be important if you're planning to go into nursing administration. Otherwise, some universities have "bridge" programs that will let you fast track through certain classes if you already have a bachelors degree in another major.

I am a pre-clinical nursing student at a great community college in Baltimore. I have been volleying on which nursing school route to take to accomplish my career goals.

A few years after receiving my RN, I believe that I want to continue for my masters. I have been receiving conflicting information as to if you need a BSN ( rather than a bachelors in any subject along with an RN) to continue with school.

Currently I have a bachelors in Business. I have completed all my prerequisites to get into the Community College's nursing program for the spring 2005. After taking two more classes this summer, I will have also completed all my prerequisites to get into the University's 2nd bachelor's program for the spring 2005. I have been planning to apply to both.

I really like it at the community college and I believe that the nursing program is probably better at Community College than this particular University., but I will receive just my RN. The price tag at Community College is also a big plus. At University, I will receive my BSN in just two years and will spend a lot more money per credit plus I will have to take about 35 credits more in that same two year period.

So my question is, does it matter if I get my BSN if I already have my bachelor's?

I have already taken so many additional prerequisite classes to get into University and I don't want to continue taking additional classes if I can get my Masters with just a BA and RN verses a BSN.

I would really appreciate any advice.

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