Online Rn to Bsn as schools as good as brick and mortar?

[smartnurse1982]

Does anyone think that online Rn to Bsn programs might be considered inferior by nurse recruiters?

I know it should not be that way.

I am hearing horror stories of grads of other professions who have degrees obtained online but can not find jobs.

Lots of recruiters of other professions even admit to it.

I think many people have this perception that online schools are not as vigorous as brick and mortar schools.

Of course,there is so much variety of online schools.

Non profit,schools that are regionally accredited but have no brick and mortar campus(WGU)

For profit schools that are regionally accredited(Chamberlain) with a brick and mortar campus.

Some are non profit with a brick and mortar campus but not accredited(my old Adn school just started an Rn to Bsn program but it is not accredited yet. The Adn was Acen accredited since the late 60's). If i start there in Sept i would be in the 1st Rn to Bsn class to graduate from the school.

Wgu is giving me a vibe of "We accept anyone",

WHy? I know for a FACT i failed the entrance exam,but the recruiter said i passed.

[TiffyRN, BSN, PhD]

I got my BSN from Excelsior College earlier this year. A few months later I applied for a BSN to PhD program at University of Texas Medical Branch (Galveston) and was accepted. UTMB-Galveston is a well-respected B&M institution which like most has been steadily expanding it's online offerings. I believe that if online programs were notoriously in and of themselves poor then we wouldn't see this trend.

[ProgressiveActivist, BSN, RN]

As a graduate of a legitimate university school of nursing I feel it is the student's loss to omit the clinical experiences provided in community health and public health.

I worked in the inner city doing home visits.

I was required to design and implement a community

health education project.

I was required to do a public health evaluation of our city.

I was trained in disaster nursing by our state EMA.

I assisted a School nurse in an elementary school whose students were mainly children of migratory workers.

These experiences completed my education. There are many rn

to bsn programs who still require a community health

practicum and provide clinical instructors as mine did. (The previous poster can google this for her region herself).

It was very hard and hundreds of hours of work I have no regrets.

East coast hospitals are now advertising no rn to bsn and that

is because these programs are just too easy.

Bite the bullet borrow the money. Don't settle for a second rate education.

[A&Ox6, MSN, RN]

Can you show me an RN-BSN program that actually has clinical hours and clinical instructors/preceptors? I'm honestly curious.

I attend an RN to BSN program that is only online. It is affiliated with a large city university system, but this school does not have a brick and mortar nursing department. My program is new (I'm in the first class), but it is really good.

During my first semester, I took 12 credits, and I wouldn't have been able to do so if I had Ben working full time. For our assessment class, our final was conducted with standardized patients. Every week I wrote about six papers.

We also have two clinical requirements. A community rotation that must be completed in a community setting that allows us to work with health promotion for an entire population (not just home health) and a capstone project that requires at least another ninety hours of preceptorship.

The school has as partnership residency with a level one trauma center. Online classes are not automatically easy.

[ProgressiveActivist, BSN, RN]

My university also offered an elective Critical Care, Peri op and oncology practicums to the rn to bsn students and the traditional students.

[hope3456, ASN, RN]

My state university online RN - BSN program had to drop its public health clinical component because they simply could not find enough placements for all the students. So it now has no clinical expectations.

They also started a accelerated BSN program a few years ago and I heard that they are having a difficult time finding enough nurses to precept. They want BSN nurses with at least 3 years acute care experience. There aren't many in this rural area. What a mess.

[sweetdreame, BSN, RN]

My online BSN program was affiliated with a B&M university (that had a face-to-face, entry-level BSN program). I was very satisfied with the program, and have had no issues with recognition. My diploma says the name of the university, it does not say OBTAINED ONLINE! So there really is no way to tell (besides requesting a transcript) that I finished online.

I think it is just like any other program (ADN, BSN, or bridge), you have to do your research!

[nurseprnRN, BSN, RN]

WGU measures competence, not seat time.

Having read the AN posts from WGU "graduate students" doing their "capstone research projects" with poorly-constructed,10-question push-poll opinion surveys on SurveyMonkey with no possible way to get accurate demographics or even to know their respondents are RNs, I find this assertion way, way beyond laughable.

Go to a real school, where you will have face-to-face time with peers, expert qualified faculty, clinicians, and researchers, opportunities to observe and work in real live practice areas, and fewer classmates who are buying their papers. True, some people in any program will buy papers, but in my experience, they will be caught out when they have to sit down with their faculty to discuss them. And they'll really bomb class discussions and clinical time. You want fast and don't have too high standards (and have really deep pockets), go to an online school. You want a quality education in the fullest sense of the word, go to a real school.

[mya612, BSN, RN]

Why are we arguing about different methods of learning? Everyone learns differently, and fortunately we are at a place in time that allows for different methods of learning. To assume that a degree is "second rate" as some posters have alluded to because it's not from a "brick and mortar" school is a bit snobbish. Furthermore, a person shouldn't go by hearsay when determining if a program has any merit or not. I have an MBA in Health Care Management from WGU and I can honestly say that it was an extremely rigorous program. I had case studies that needed to be completed - some as long as 41 pages, all using APA format and rubric, and there were objective assessments (Qualitative and Quantitative Methods stand out as being the most difficult for me because they incorporated Master's-level accounting and statistics but were very self-directed, therefore, you better know your math). I can honestly say that I worked hard for my degree and I learned a lot. It is presumptive to assume things about a program that one has no personal experience of. People that fly through WGU either have a significant amount of free time, are extremely intelligent and very good at writing, or, cheat (that's the worse-case, unethical scenario). Others, like myself, usually need the estimated time for completion to fulfill all of the requirements, which can be rigorous.

We are suppose to be a site called "ALL NURSES" but it seems as though we still have those that want to establish a pecking order - ADN is better than LPN, BSN is better than ADN, I went to a "brick and mortar" school while the person over there got their lowly degree "online" so I'm better than them, blah, blah, blah.......

To GrnTea: I'm glad you got a lot out of a "real school" where you had "face-to-face" time with peers and faculty. That may be the best learning environment FOR YOU.

I however, prefer to not have someone read a PowerPoint presentation to me, or have to deal with classmates that talk all through lecture and then ask questions about material that was covered in the lecture that they missed because THEY WERE TALKING, or an Instructor who doesn't like you because you remind her/him of some person they didn't like when THEY were in school, or having to fit going to class in with work and family obligations. I LIKE learning independently and as long as there are reasonably priced online programs and I have internet access and a computer, then that's how I plan to further MY education. I learn better without all of the distractions and potential hidden agendas of a traditional classroom environment.

I hate that this was so long winded, but I think it would behoove us all to respect the various learning styles that are out there and what each learning style has to bring to the table. Thank you.

[mya612, BSN, RN]

Oh, and BTW, I know someone who went to a "real" school for their MSN (FNP) and needed me to help them structure their paper for their capstone which passed first review - me with my degree from a "lowly" online school like WGU.

[ProgressiveActivist, BSN, RN]

Several posters on AN have said they finished the adn to bsn coursework at WGU in six months. That makes it a diploma mill.

[nurseprnRN, BSN, RN]

To GrnTea: I'm glad you got a lot out of a "real school" where you had "face-to-face" time with peers and faculty. That may be the best learning environment FOR YOU.

I however, prefer to not have someone read a PowerPoint presentation to me, or have to deal with classmates that talk all through lecture and then ask questions about material that was covered in the lecture that they missed because THEY WERE TALKING, or an Instructor who doesn't like you because you remind her/him of some person they didn't like when THEY were in school, or having to fit going to class in with work and family obligations. I LIKE learning independently and as long as there are reasonably priced online programs and I have internet access and a computer, then that's how I plan to further MY education. I learn better without all of the distractions and potential hidden agendas of a traditional classroom environment.

Neither my BS nor my MN (at real schools) was remotely like any of that. And I was clearly not the only one who did well with the broader opportunities available with them. :)

It was, of course, before the Internet dumped anything you wanted (and a lot you didn't) into your eyeballs for the asking, and I am sure I would have made great use of Net resources in those years if I had had them. But the thing is, you can only have the option to do both and have them enrich you synergistically if you DO both.

Of course you get out of anything what you put into it. I firmly believe that you get many more opportunities to "put" and "get" in an enriched in-person environment.

[mya612, BSN, RN]

Neither my BS nor my MN (at real schools) was remotely like any of that. And I was clearly not the only one who did well with the broader opportunities available with them. :)

It was, of course, before the Internet dumped anything you wanted (and a lot you didn't) into your eyeballs for the asking, and I am sure I would have made great use of Net resources in those years if I had had them. But the thing is, you can only have the option to do both and have them enrich you synergistically if you DO both.

Of course you get out of anything what you put into it. I firmly believe that you get many more opportunities to "put" and "get" in an enriched in-person environment.

Again, that was YOUR experience and this is YOUR opinion...it isn't right nor wrong, it just is. with that being said, the positive experiences and the breadth of knowledge learned in an online environment shouldn't be negated and considered less than the experiences and knowledge acquired in a brick and mortar school.