One Year BSN program, any advice?

My BS to BSN was 15 short months and I would never, ever recommend this. What you're shaving off is the stuff you already have. In any other proper nursing school setting this is a two-year program. In addition to drinking from the fire hose, I do not believe my clinicals were adequate, based on the amount of catching up I did during my first job.

I'm glad you want to focus on informatics but you'll still have years of patient care in front of you. Best of luck!

Thank you for your input. I will look into this more when deciding on an accelerated BSN program.

I would like to add that I already work in a hospital and I work with Nurses all day long. I have 3 years of exposure to the clinical side of things when I was an LPN from the age of 21-24. Also, many years of Patient Care is not usually needed for most RN in Informatics position. The focus on Informatics is on the management of Nursing Technology, not people.

I did a 15 month ABSN. My analogy is driving down the highway with the accelerator stuck to the floor, weaving in and around traffic. It is a quick trip, but a white knuckle ride. I can't imagine a 12 month program.

You need to be a dedicated and organized person. We had a closed Facebook group for our cohort which allowed us to keep everyone on track for the deadlines for assignments and papers which come up quickly. 27/29 graduated on schedule with two having to repeat a class and finished a year later with the traditional students.

I had applied to a 12 month program at Jeff in Philadelphia, but they only accepted me to their two year program. The one-year program students weren't allowed to have a job while in the program, as the program was so intense. I don't know how they had time to do anything other than study, class, and clinicals. We never saw them around lol.

This seems like a lot of degrees to run through to get into nursing informatics. Is there no other route for you to take that would get you the same or comparable jobs? Using that computer science/IT degree to apply for jobs at Epic or Cerner or one of the smaller companies? Just from a debt perspective, there has to be a better way. 2nd degree BSN programs don't give financial aid like you get with your first degree. The only nurses I know who are in informatics have many years of clinical experience and an MSN - will you need that as well?

On 4/12/2019 at 12:03 PM, JMR85112 said:

I would like to add that I already work in a hospital and I work with Nurses all day long. I have 3 years of exposure to the clinical side of things when I was an LPN from the age of 21-24. Also, many years of Patient Care is not usually needed for most RN in Informatics position. The focus on Informatics is on the management of Nursing Technology, not people.

Your LPN may serve you well, but it's a completely different scope.

Your best bet is to look at the nursing informatics positions in hospitals and see what their criteria is. A brief search here in the NTX reveals that, although you're working with nurses and machines more than actual patients, all of the informatics postings want you to have a year of acute care experience. One listed a master's degree may be substituted in lieu of experience.

On 4/12/2019 at 12:03 PM, JMR85112 said:

Thank you for your input. I will look into this more when deciding on an accelerated BSN program.

I would like to add that I already work in a hospital and I work with Nurses all day long. I have 3 years of exposure to the clinical side of things when I was an LPN from the age of 21-24. Also, many years of Patient Care is not usually needed for most RN in Informatics position. The focus on Informatics is on the management of Nursing Technology, not people.

Yes, but informatics has a high demand and low number of jobs (compared to staff nursing), so most have spent several years as a staff nurse before getting an informatics position. Also, the thought is that the nurse informatics person needs to have experience to know how to make the system useful to the nurses on the floor. We all have encountered computer issues and thought "Why is this like this? It's so inefficient." It's almost always designed by someone who is way too disconnected from the floor.

On 4/17/2019 at 2:07 PM, Swellz said:

I had applied to a 12 month program at Jeff in Philadelphia, but they only accepted me to their two year program. The one-year program students weren't allowed to have a job while in the program, as the program was so intense. I don't know how they had time to do anything other than study, class, and clinicals. We never saw them around lol.

This seems like a lot of degrees to run through to get into nursing informatics. Is there no other route for you to take that would get you the same or comparable jobs? Using that computer science/IT degree to apply for jobs at Epic or Cerner or one of the smaller companies? Just from a debt perspective, there has to be a better way. 2nd degree BSN programs don't give financial aid like you get with your first degree. The only nurses I know who are in informatics have many years of clinical experience and an MSN - will you need that as well?

Many Nurses with a 1-3 years of experience on the floor go into the Informatics realm and do wonderfully.

4 hours ago, NICUmiiki said:

Yes, but informatics has a high demand and low number of jobs (compared to staff nursing), so most have spent several years as a staff nurse before getting an informatics position. Also, the thought is that the nurse informatics person needs to have experience to know how to make the system useful to the nurses on the floor. We all have encountered computer issues and thought "Why is this like this? It's so inefficient." It's almost always designed by someone who is way too disconnected from the floor.

I disagree. Having 1 or 2 years of floor experience is useful in Informatics. I have lead RNs with 1 year of experience and they do wonderfully in the Informatics world. I have worked with RNs with several years of experience and were not cut out for Informatics.

It all matter of their education, skills, knowledge and desire to excel in their work.

On 4/17/2019 at 2:07 PM, Swellz said:

This seems like a lot of degrees to run through to get into nursing informatics. Is there no other route for you to take that would get you the same or comparable jobs? Using that computer science/IT degree to apply for jobs at Epic or Cerner or one of the smaller companies? Just from a debt perspective, there has to be a better way. 2nd degree BSN programs don't give financial aid like you get with your first degree. The only nurses I know who are in informatics have many years of clinical experience and an MSN - will you need that as well?

From a debt perspective, I am not worried since my job pays for it.

Most RN informaticist have a Masters in Informatics or a Tech related degree. But, it is not required right now in the industry.

I could of done a regular RN route in 4 years and then a CompSci Masters in 2-3 years. That would of been 6-7 years total. However, I got a BS in CompSci in 3 years and now will be getting a Nursing degree in 1 year.

7 hours ago, NICUmiiki said:

Yes, but informatics has a high demand and low number of jobs (compared to staff nursing), so most have spent several years as a staff nurse before getting an informatics position. Also, the thought is that the nurse informatics person needs to have experience to know how to make the system useful to the nurses on the floor. We all have encountered computer issues and thought "Why is this like this? It's so inefficient." It's almost always designed by someone who is way too disconnected from the floor.

Are you working Informatics? How much experience do you think a nurse needs before she can become an Informatics specialist? Don't knock people for going a different route.

I didn't mean to say that I think you need X years clinical experience, just that I've only seen nurses get hired in informatics who had many years experience. But, that was also in a highly competitive market, and none of those nurses had a CS or IT background, just clinical nursing. I was always under the impression based on their experiences that you needed an MSN, so this is all interesting to hear.

I was accepted to a 15 month MEPN program which is basically a ABSN at a master's level. I turned it down because I felt I would not be adequately clinically prepared. If you know you want to do informatics, I would recommend an ADN program and then doing a RN to MSN bridge, many allowing you to choose a specialty such as informatics. This is what I am doing. I will likely be choosing the education or public health concen6for my MSN, but I know informatics is offered.