trishrn0225

It depends on what your career goals are. I have a BS in another field and so went from a AS to a MSN. From a career perspective overall that didn't hurt and I was not seen any differently. Where I was at a disadvantage, however, was that I was missing courses the BSN provided to enable me to obtain a PHN certificate. So, if you have any interest in public health and an explicit requirement is that, I would suggest you ensure your curriculum covers that. Good luck!

Can you define what you mean by "100% online" for the FNP program? Because I'm probably into my third year of research and stopping/starting a variety of different online programs now (including looking at the FNP track with schools such as United States University), and for the FNP I am not sure how it is possible to be 100% online due to the clinical hours you need to complete any FNP program. As a example, United States University has 100% online didactic portion, but you have to complete clinical hours practicum. The only place where I have seen some programs differ is whether they require you to visit their campus for a lab intensive - some do, some don't. But I can't see any way around the clinical hours on-site. As for the stigma - I wouldn't worry about that. I got my first MSN through the University of Phoenix online and have practiced with that for 10 years and no one has questioned it. There was no way I could get an advanced degree through a brick and mortar campus because I work more than 40 hours a week - online education has saved me and I am an advocate for online education for those who prefer it. I would question whether schools are saying you can get a FNP without clinical hours, however. But maybe I'm wrong.

I used to be an academic coach for the RN-BSN program at UTA (like a teaching assistant), being first online instructor that students would access for courses like Professional Nursing, Assessment, etc. Mindgrapes posted above how the courses were laid out and that is accurate, and some students were taking two courses at a time (although I don't know if that was recommended or necessary to complete the program in nine months), and generally folks were going from one course right to the next (they typically start on Mondays so you finish one and then start another right after). Students were from different parts of the country and learning is asynchronous in the courses I taught, so it didn't matter where you lived, as long as you got the assignments done on time and did them correctly - i.e. discussion boards, assignments, quizzes. So, as long as you can carve out time to get that work done on time (and I can't tell you how important it is to pay attention to assignment rubrics and deadlines), you should be fine. I've liked how the courses are laid out, and the professors/staff are good. I hope that helps a little. Good luck!