Have bad attitude- RN to BSN programs

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Nursing was a second career for me. I have a previous 4 year degree and had a career in that area. Now I'm middle aged, 3 years out of nursing school with ADN, almost 3 years of experience in critical care peds.

I'm being strongly encouraged to get my BSN. They will not fire me if I don't but I won't be able to transfer within the hospital very easily and my prospects should I seek employment elsewhere are probably not great.

I am, with much reluctance, applying for some on-line programs. I am just resentful that I will be writing papers and spending precious time away from my kids, my personal time, and I am a very busy mom with the family activities. Frankly I'm burned out with school. Have a bad attitude about going back.

So if I am to do an online program that takes things slowly, say one class at a time, how many hours will this require per week? How much will it take away from family? I would like to hear from those who are in a similar situation.

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Im sorry you feel that way.

Continuing education is absolutely critical for all (real) medical professions.

Now ill concede that an RN > BSN program is probably not going to cover the most interesting or pertinent information. But an associates degree (of ANY kind) doesn't mean anything these days. Nursing should be no different.

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I'm in an online RN-BSN program (Thomas Edison State College: W. Cary Edwards School of Nursing at Thomas Edison State College). I've been taking 1 class per semester, currently on my fifth course. I'll be done by this time next year. Courses generally follow the same format: 12 weeks, each week has a discussion forum, and a paper due about every 3 weeks. Usually one paper is long, around 10-15 pages and the rest are around 3 to 5 pages. For the discussions you answer a few questions, making sure to cite stuff from your readings. Then you have to reply to at least 3 other students' posts, again citing the readings and professional experience. The discussion forums usually take me about 2 to 3 hours per week. If I were to do ALL of the required reading it'd probably double. Generally I just skim and pull out the main concepts and some relevant quotes. A long paper takes me the better part of two days, including time for research. Shorter papers I can usually get done in a day.

In a nutshell, based on my experience, you're looking at a few hours per week and every 3rd weekend devoted to school for one course. Give yourself more time if you struggle with APA format and finding references in online databases.

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Specializes in Case mgmt., rehab, (CRRN), LTC & psych.

I just enrolled in Western Governors University's online RN-to-BSN program. Tuition is a flat rate of $3250 per six-month term, and you can accelerate your way through the degree. Some people have completed 30+ credits and received the BSN degree in less than one six month term.

I currently put about 20 hours per week into my studies.

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TheCommuter - that is really interesting! How does the clinical portion work?

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Specializes in Pediatric Hematology/Oncology.

It is irritating that you've paid your dues with your ADN and now the game is changing and a lot of people are in your position. Functionally, there is little difference between an ADN and BSN RN when they work in the hospital. I know some of my cohort in our BSN program would much rather have gone the ADN-route save for this seemingly inevitable situation.

However, what are the good sides to this situation? What do you gain aside from being able to transfer more easily within the hospital? Will you eventually get higher pay increases than if you stayed an ADN? Will your position become more secure? What if you need to find a job elsewhere? Won't this help you with your marketability? Will the hospital reimburse you in some manner (i.e. such as in job secuirty, at least at a minimum)? There have to be other pros to the obvious con of time sacrificed.

Maybe if you can take a step back and look at that it may be less of a difficult pill to swallow. I mean, I was very tempted to hold my job in retail. I got paid well and was getting paid increasingly well every year. There was a good middle-ranged amount of time that this could have held out for me (seriously, there is no one more burnt out on school than I am -- I'm post-bac BSN after a BA in psych and a pre-med Biology attempt) but, ultimately, there was going to be an end to how good this could be. Yeah, I hate that I do have to sacrifice a considerable amount of time away from my family for this but I know the rewards will be much greater in the end. It's the only thing that keeps me from losing my mind with how our program runs sometimes, especially knowing that I have 2 more years of this madness.

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Specializes in Med-Surg, Emergency, CEN.

I have been feeling the same way about getting the BSN. I graduated in my mid 30s just a few years ago. I don't mind continuing education, but I do mind the idea of more student loans. I'm almost 40 for crying out loud! I should be paying them off, not applying for new ones! And having less time with my family for classes.

anon456, you are absolutely not alone. I have never wanted to be a career college student, but it seems like we are being pushed to be exactly that.

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I have been feeling the same way about getting the BSN. I graduated in my mid 30s just a few years ago. I don't mind continuing education, but I do mind the idea of more student loans. I'm almost 40 for crying out loud! I should be paying them off, not applying for new ones! And having less time with my family for classes.

anon456, you are absolutely not alone. I have never wanted to be a career college student, but it seems like we are being pushed to be exactly that.

I'm sorry this is happening to us. I have my own kids' college fees coming up soon. And I don't see the point of a BSN for someone like me who has no aspirations to be a manager or go higher up on the chain than what I do now.

But I suppose belly-aching about it doesn't change things.

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Specializes in Pediatrics.

I too was like you. I was burned out with school and did not want to get my BSN, but hospitals want the BSN so that's what I did.

I did Western Governors too. And you can put as much or as little time into as you need. I had 22 credits to do you are supposed to do 12 credits in a 6 month term, but I stretched those 22 credits out into 4 terms, because there were some weeks were I just could not bring myself to study.

But I did make it through. It is very doable, I know there were some people who buckled down and got through their program in 6 months.

The nice thing with Western is there was no discussion of arms that you had to post in. They have them for student support, but they were not required and there was no group work, just paper after paper after paper until you were done.

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Specializes in Outpatient/Clinic, ClinDoc.

I did WGU as well - took me less than 6 months, but I did put a lot of time into studying, probably 30+ each week. I didn't NEED a BSN but it's pretty much going towards required everywhere around where I live (upstate NY) so it was time to do it. I actually found it fun, although it didn't change my nursing practice in any meaningful way. There are no clinicals (most RN to BSN programs do not have clinicals), just a 90 hour community health practicum.

Oh, and I'm in my 40's (sigh) and had been out of school for 20 years!

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Thank you for telling me about WGU. I am looking into it as a possible good fit. I still don't like the idea of needing to do this but it probably just needs to be done. Sigh.

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Specializes in Case mgmt., rehab, (CRRN), LTC & psych.
TheCommuter - that is really interesting! How does the clinical portion work?
There's no clinical requirement for the WGU RN-to-BSN degree completion program. There's only a 90-hour community health practicum which, in essence, is not a true clinical practicum.
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