Need advice: Master's or BSN/work exp 1st?

[Annabelle57]

Hi y'all!

I'm currently finishing my prerequisites to apply to accelerated programs, hopefully for summer/fall 2005 if everything goes well. I know I want to get my MSN, and I want to be a NNP.

My question is this: as an NNP or a neonatal unit nurse, is it better to go for a Master's Entry Program or get a BSN and some work experience first in a neonatal unit? I know the latter option certainly doesn't hurt, experience-wise, but I wonder if I'll have the opportunities I have now (i.e. no husband, kids, or major obligations) to go full-steam ahead and do it all in 3 years.

In fact, a lot of Master's Entry programs I've seen have excluded the option of NNP from their curriculum unless you've had at least a year of neonatal unit experience - I only have a BA, not a BSN or ADN. Is it because it's a more difficult field academically or stress-wise (or both)?

I'd love to hear your opinions, especially if you are or were in a situation like mine...

Thanks all! :)

[elizabells, BSN, RN]

I'm glad the new requirements are weeding out the less commited. This is exactly what concerned some of us about advanced programs before. Nice to see this....

Not to sound like a nerd, Fergus, but I'm really glad to hear you say that. Some of us pre-kids do actually worry about what experienced nurses think, even if we don't always act like it! The other good thing about this system, I think, is that with the 2 years work exp, if I (or others) see the different roles in the NICU and decide that being a bedside nurse is the perfect thing, and I don't want to be an NNP after all, I can stop the program and continue as a staff nurse. I worry a bit about these programs shoving kids through and ending up with bitter NPs who would just as soon have stayed at the bedside, but don't want to "demote" (fully aware and ironic use of finger quotes there!) themselves, and then they get soured on nursing altogether. So it's good all around, I think.