Hi everyone i'm new and have a ques. about assoc. in RN to NP. Please help.

[want to do good 86]

Hi everyone, I am new to this site and am hoping someone knows the answer to this question: I am interested in becoming an RN at my local community college. Once i become an RN with an associates degree, i would like to become a NP. I understand that to become a NP, I need to have a bachelors degree, so i can then go from my masters in NP. Are there programs available that can take me from an RN straight to an NP; meaning a program that could take me from my associates, and give me both my bachelors and masters together and grant me my NP?

Thank you!!!

L. :redbeathe

[Elvish, BSN, DNP, RN, NP]

There are numerous schools that offer an RN to MSN program, so you either bypass the BSN completely or earn it while you are actually in the MSN program. Most, if not all, MSN programs require you to have at least a year of experience as a RN before entering. Does this help?

PS - Welcome aboard! :)

[JAMIE__0421]

Hi! I am new to this forum site. Just joined today. I read this post of yours and I am on sort of the same track as you! I want to one day be a neonatal nurse practitioner. I am attending my local community college to earn my associates in nursing to be an RN. Then after I graduate there is a local university where I plan to do their RN-MS program. And the program will allow me to work as an RN full time while earning my masters. The first part of the program is all the classes that a student would complete for their bachelors. Once I complete those I earn my bachelors and continue the rest of the classes to earn my masters. I am also toying with the idea of just going all the way to earn my Phd. but we shall see! good luck to us!

[want to do good 86]

it's me again :) Ok, does that mean if you get your MSN, you automatically become a nurse practitioner? I would like to specialize if i go that route. Can i do that if i go rn-msn??

Thanks!

[JAMIE__0421]

i think there are certain classes avail to those who want to specialize in a particular area. i havent found out all the details to that part yet. but i do know, from what i have been told, that a masters degree is required to be an NP.

[UVA Grad Nursing]

You will need a MSN degree to be certified as a Nurse Practitioner at present. There is talk of raising the entry to Advanced Practice (NP, CNS, CNM, CNRA) to a doctoral level by 2015, but there is not universal agreement that this change will happen in that year.

Although there are RN-MSN(NP) programs out there, talk with your mentors about the right pathway for you. I have seen some ADNs fail out of RN-MSN programs because they were not ready for graduate-level courses in nursing Pathophysiology, Theory, or Research. In most programs, those in RN-MSN programs take the same graduate level classes that BSN students take --- and leave it to yourself to do extra reading to cover all the content in RN-BSN programs.

Just because it is a faster pathway does not make it an appropriate pathway for everyone. I do not mean to be negative -- only realistic.

[Joan Z]

You're not automatically a NP if you complete a MSN program (or even a DNP)--you have to pass a certification exam and then get licensure in the state you're planning to practice in.

It sounds more complicated than it is--plus while you're in the program you'll learn more about the requirements for practice.

[want to do good 86]

Thank you everyone for your advice!

[want to do good 86]

I know this sounds like a dumb question, but why is NP possibly going to be moved up to doctoral level?

[UVA Grad Nursing]

Want to do good:

There is no such thing as a dumb question. The Doctor of Nursing Practice degree would affect the entry point for all Advanced Practice Nurses (NPs, Clinical Nurse Specialists, Certified Nurse Midwives, and Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetists).

There is an excellent thread about this in the Students >> MSN/PHD/DNP folder here.