Options for Non-Nursing Degree Holders

[MaiaS]

Hi all,

I want to return to school in order to become a nurse, but am unclear on which route is best. I currently hold a BA in Psychology. I was not super motivated, (and by this I mean I was doing the bare minimum to scrape by with the mentality of 'C's get degrees'), during my undergrad years and am stuck with about a 2.5 GPA. I've already retaken as many classes as my university allows, and I did ace those. I'm confident in my ability to score highly on any required entrance exam. I also got all As and Bs on the pre-requisites commonly required by the programs. My hope is that admissions will work with me on this. My end goal is to be a PMHNP. I am not as concerned with how long it will take to get there as I am with the cost. I've explored the option of a BSN as a second bachelor's degree, noticing that the cost per credit tends to be lower. I've also thought, "I already have a bachelor's degree, so why wouldn't I just enter into a Master's program?" Well, here comes the GPA issue again. While there are some programs I found that would consider me, they aren't necessarily offering what I want to specialize in. At that point, I re-route back to the second bachelor's. Especially since it's not like I can 'shortcut' through that necessary education in the master's program anyways - I'll still have to spend time and money on that portion of learning before I can continue. May as well earn a higher GPA in my second degree and then apply to programs for my specialty of interest, right? As for the associates, community college is cheap and having RN licensure as well as some experience under my belt may open my eligibility for more programs?

Thank you in advance for your advice!

[mulaniani]

Hey, yes I have a BS aim psych and am looking into a combined MSN/DNP program. It is VERY expensive, but you have to make the decisions and do your research. There are scholarships and even some ppl in the class before me are not paying tuition because they’ve made deals to work in the hospital for x amount of years after. There are a ton of options it’s just may come down to location and cost.

[Luchador, CNA, EMT-B]

On 7/3/2019 at 1:23 PM, MaiaS said:

Hi all,

I want to return to school in order to become a nurse, but am unclear on which route is best. I currently hold a BA in Psychology. I was not super motivated, (and by this I mean I was doing the bare minimum to scrape by with the mentality of 'C's get degrees'), during my undergrad years and am stuck with about a 2.5 GPA. I've already retaken as many classes as my university allows, and I did ace those. I'm confident in my ability to score highly on any required entrance exam. I also got all As and Bs on the pre-requisites commonly required by the programs. My hope is that admissions will work with me on this. My end goal is to be a PMHNP. I am not as concerned with how long it will take to get there as I am with the cost. I've explored the option of a BSN as a second bachelor's degree, noticing that the cost per credit tends to be lower. I've also thought, "I already have a bachelor's degree, so why wouldn't I just enter into a Master's program?" Well, here comes the GPA issue again. While there are some programs I found that would consider me, they aren't necessarily offering what I want to specialize in. At that point, I re-route back to the second bachelor's. Especially since it's not like I can 'shortcut' through that necessary education in the master's program anyways - I'll still have to spend time and money on that portion of learning before I can continue. May as well earn a higher GPA in my second degree and then apply to programs for my specialty of interest, right? As for the associates, community college is cheap and having RN licensure as well as some experience under my belt may open my eligibility for more programs?

Thank you in advance for your advice!

Hello! You should look at options in your area because the variability in programs is huge. I have a master's in English, yet the "accelerated" BSN in my area would have taken longer than the ADN because of the additional pre-reqs and chem and o-chem. So I went the ADN route and figure I will pick up my bsn online with $$ from employer (ideally).

Taking out more student loans wasn't an option for me. There are nurse corps repayment options and such if that is an option for you.

[DjanaO.]

On 7/4/2019 at 9:57 AM, tropsnegRN said:

And also, I can’t speak for other programs, schools, or states - but from what I have seen, it appeared to be “easier” on me to work while getting my ADN. People that I work with that are getting their BSN from a local university seem to have a lot of extra fluff they have to do. The core is the same, but they have had to do silly time consuming prep for their clinicals. Like one of my friends had to prepare an entire binder that literally condensed their nursing textbook, pharm book, and drug book all into one that they had to lug around to clinical - whereas, my class just brought our books and generally one would bring the medsurg book, one would bring the drug book, etc. and we would share. She spent HOURS working on that binder afraid she would miss something and I just felt like that was unnecessary.

Also having already had my bachelors, I only lacked anatomy and microbiology prior to nursing school, so I took those and then straight to just nursing courses. Since I’ve already got a bachelors, many of the RN-BSN programs don’t require me to take other classes I may not have had such as stats, nutrition, ethics, etc.

Great Information! I have my Associates in Human Services and I also have so many credits I may only have to take A & P ( Because mine are now 7 years old) and micro plus chemistry then right into the Nursing courses for my ADN. Did it take you the full two years?

[callinshotz, RN]

Just curious. I am in Dallas. Does anyone know if you can get hired with an rn and non nursing bachelors degree in a hospital? I have a bachelors in healthcare Studies which is just a pre-med degree. I was looking at the rn to msn degree program at TWU but they don’t award a bsn to students who already hold a bachelors degree.

[Hoosier_RN, MSN]

Unfortunately, a bachelors in another field doesn't equal BSN if the facility that you wish to be hired at requires or prefers it