msa9179

I'm wrapping up policy/advocacy this week. First term done! So far so good. have leadership and the three advanced classes (patho, pharm, assess) then start clinicals 6 months from now.

We may very well be in the same class. I don't know how many class/instructors there are, I would assume several at least. I didn't pay very close attention to how many students are in the class.

I am starting with 6001 and the advocacy/policy class (6050). I have my BSN and I had been in another msn program so my research/evidence based practice and technology classes transferred for the graduate level stuff. So once I finish advocacy, only have leadership left for core classes. Hoping to maybe combine it with patho.

Thanks!

Also, would love to hear any success stories from Walden NP students in Texas. Any trouble with the tx bon?

Also, just still asking around.... Anybody from Texas graduate from Walden NP program? Any problems with getting NP licensure in Texas. Getting ready to start but also hoping to hear from some successful Texas students just for peace of mind.

I'm starting the "adult/gerontology acute care np" route June 1. A little nervous, a little excited..... Hope to keep up with everyone along the way!

I started this thread about 2 years ago and have been following it ever since. Just an update. I actually finished my BSN through WGU over the past 2 years. I am now officially starting at Walden on June 1 2015. Doing the "adult/gerontology acute care nurse practitioner" route. It sounds like the NP program at walden has been successful and I even met a coworker recently who is just starting her clinicals for FNP there.

I have told this story a few times throughout AN, so please forgive me if you have already read it elsewhere, but my nursing education experience might help guide you. I started my nursing education in my late 20's, after I was married and had debt, and time and money was not on my side. As I looked at the local community college system, it would have taken me like 1.5-2 years probably to complete the prerequisites required for admission into the RN/ADN program. Then, I would have to apply and wait on admission to the ADN program (who knows how long that would take), and then the program would take 2 years to get my RN. Instead, I applied to the LVN program, and got in after one semester of waiting, as it required no prerequisites. I was able to work weekends and some nights as a CNA, and my wife was an LVN at the time, so we were able to make ends meet while I got right into school. I was an LVN after only one year, and then was able to get a reasonable paying job in Austin TX at a nursing home (I think I made like $18.50 an hour), and I eventually moved into the hospital setting in a system that still uses some LVN's for MedSurg floors. So, while working as an LVN and earning a modest, but respectable wage, I finished my RN through Excelsior College. That took about 14 months. I then was able to bump up to RN status and pay at the hospital, and eventually did my BSN through WGU. The BSN took me 1.5 years (or 3 of their six-month terms). I am now starting my MSN through WGU, and continue to work as an RN/BSN at the same hospital. Another noteworthy aspect of all of this is that my wife developed health problems and had to basically quit working back when I was still an LVN. Therefore, I worked two jobs (hospital and home health), working mostly full-time at both places (6-7 12-hour night shifts per week) while doing Excelsior for my RN and then WGU for my BSN. Since both are basically self-paced, I was able to work my schooling into my already busy schedule and achieve my educational goals. There is no way I could have done my RN or BSN through a more traditional program. Also, I feel like my experience in working as a CNA, then LVN, and then RN, with all of the continuous schooling, has made me a stronger nurse (versus an RN/BSN straight out of a 4-year program). Now, if you have the time and $$$ to go straight into an RN or BSN program, that is great and I recommend it. However, if your life is anything like mine, and those are not viable options, you can start with the LVN and piece together your education from the bottom to the top, just as I did. Basically, 7 years have passed since I started my LVN program to now. I did take some time off between each new level of school. If I had pushed harder, I could have gone from LVN to BSN in like 3-4 years probably. anyway, I hope this helps. The main idea is that it can be done. And, starting as an LVN is perfectly okay. I wouldn't recommend planning your career as an LVN, but it is a reasonable place to start and get decent work and nursing experience while continuing your education. Please message me if you have any other specific questions or if I can help in any way. Are you in Austin? you mention ACC...... is that Austin Community College? I don't know much about the WGU pre-licensure program, but my understanding is that it is only available in certain areas, and I'm quite sure the clinical hours are immense, so I don't know if "traveling" to do clinicals is an option. You will have to contact WGU to find out those details. If you are in the Austin area, I know there are an assortment of schools around for both ADN/RN and/or LVN, including Austin Community College, Temple College in Temple, Central Texas College in Killeen, and Career Point College in Austin. I think I might have heard that Temple College may have a campus in Taylor also (not sure, don't quote me on that). I would double-check the 20-month LVN program at ACC. That seems a bit long, unless you are taking the summer off or something. I completed my LVN through Cisco Junior College at their campus in Abilene Texas, and it took only 12 months (going to school year-round for the 12-months straight). again, let me know if you have any questions I might be able to help with. Oh, and by the way, The big hospital players in Austin (Seton and St Davids) don't have LVN's as floor nurses (as far as I know). I worked MedSurg as an LVN at Scott & White Hospital in Temple. I now work at their location in Round Rock TX (next to Austin) in the ICU. I don't see any LVN's working the floor in Round Rock, but I know there are tons in Temple still and a lot in the various S&W clinics in the Austin area.

This post actually reminded me that I had started a thread elsewhere in AN asking about having and MSN in education vs leadership in order to become a nurse educator. There was a lot of good info shared. The overall answer seemed to be that if you wish to be competitive in getting into a teaching in a more major college system, the education MSN is more necessary, but if you are going to teach at a community college or something (like ADN's and/or LVN's) the leadership MSN is probably sufficient. However, Murse901 makes a good point that the leadership route is probably more versatile in the non-teaching world. here is the link to that thread I mentioned in case anyone is interested in further reading on this subject. https://allnurses.com/nursing-educators-faculty/order-teach-will-955571.html

Hello all, I recently completed my BSN through WGU, and will be starting my MSN there soon. I have not exactly decided yet on a route.....education vs leadership. After extensive soul-searching, I have decided that I may not have the stomach for management (that is, working in management in the real world). However, I have always loved precepting new nurses, participating in their training, and acting as a mentor. So, I've been looking a little at the possibility of getting into teaching. I am wondering if anyone has any insight into the education program, specifically the field experience and capstone. I currently work in an ICU in a hospital, and so I'm wondering about how those things work for the regular nurse. Do you design some sort of education program for your unit/hospital and work with your unit educator? Or do you have to go out and link up with an actual nursing school or something for any part of this? To be honest, I have no idea what I want to do when I "grow up" and so my current plan is to just keep furthering my education in nursing until I figure it out. I like the idea of advanced practice (i.e. nurse practitioner), but doing those clinicals is out of the question for me, due to my current family situation (you will understand if you have read some of my other posts). Anyway, I invite any thoughts or ideas from those in the WGU MSN program,or from those who have the MSN and have approached the job market with it. ....or any other thoughts on masters-level education and what opportunities it opens.....etc. thanks so much.

I believe I started with 43. I think I did like 18 the first term, 12 the second term, and 13 the third term....

yes!, as klone indicated, the exams are few and far between. When you take a class requiring a proctored exam, you do all of the course work and practice exam, etc on your own time, at your convenience. Then, once you have completed the course work and feel prepared, you are basically taking a "final exam" that is proctored via webcam. you schedule this exam in advance, and I just always scheduled mine for like 9:00 a.m., knowing I would be home from work by then, and set up in a part of the house where I would not be disturbed. You log into the testing program and do a few things to check your identity and whatnot, and then take the test on your computer with the webcam watching you. The exams usually took me anywhere from 45 min to 90 min to complete. They usually had between 75-100 multiple choice questions. Again, it is totally not a big deal, and definitely should not be a sticking point in choosing WGU. In fact, I loved doing the proctored exams at home with a web cam. When I did Excelsior College for my LVN to RN, I had to drive a half hour to a testing center for every single test, so this is nothing compared to that. I think I probably took something like 6 exams total in my entire BSN program, and some of those were non-nursing classes I needed, like microbiology.

The community health practicum is a project that you complete, and requires at least 90 hours of work in the community. These 90 hours are not satisfied by doing "clinical rotations" or something. The 90 hours is spent more on researching the community by direct contact with people and organizations. So, for example, you pick your topic, and spend 90 hours interviewing those in the community who are pertinent to that topic. I did disaster preparedness, and spent the time interviewing numerous members of local government, ems, fire, law enforcement, hospital, school, local nursing homes, etc. I also attended lots of meetings and training sessions for these various entities. You then develop a plan of action to address a community health concern, and write a lengthy paper explaining all you did and your plan, etc. So, again, you can't just spend a total of 90 hours hanging out and helping at the local health department or free clinic. This is more of a hands-on community-based research project, which requires 90 hours of documented interviews, meetings, facility tours, etc.

I just finished my BSN through WGU. I did my RN through Excelsior and took their A&P and Microbiology classes. So, essentially, I was in the same position. Since there is no lab component with Excelsior's A&P and Micro classes, this must be satisfied through WGU. However, in order to be able to take the lab, they also require you take the didactic course with the lab. So, at WGU, there is one microbiology class with one microbiology lab. You have to take the class and the lab. At WGU, there are two A&P classes (I and II), and one lab. Since you have taken A&P at excelsior, they will not require you to take both A&P classes, but you will have to take one A&P class and the one lab. Again, I did this exact thing over the past few months. The A&P class was one of their "performance assessments", where you have to submit work (as opposed to taking a test). however, I think it was more like submitting worksheets where you have filled in the answers after doing online exercises and online lab simulations. honestly, it was not bad at all. The A&P lab requires you to do dissections and things at home. They send you a lab kit, and you have something like 10 or 12 "labs" you do, and then write a 1-2 page paper discussing your results, etc. They are very clear in the instructions, so it is not that bad, just requires dissections at home. They sent me an entire fetal pig, a sheep brain, a sheep heart, and a sheep kidney, if I remember correctly. The microbiology class is satisfied with one of their "objective assessments," which is just taking a test. It is quite similar to Excelsior, in that you just learn microbiology on your own, and take their test. I found it to be pretty doable. The microbiology lab requires, again, at home lab work. They send you supplies, and you do the usual microbiology stuff.....growing bacterial cultures in petri dishes and whatnot. It is pretty time consuming, but doable. Then you write up a 1-2 page paper discussing your results and observations per their instructions. Overall, the whole thing of repeating those classes and labs was a bit of a drag, but I got it done, and it was just one hurdle to get over to finish the program without having to go back and sit in a classroom somewhere to satisfy those lab requirements. Don't be afraid of it. WGU has been great for me overall!

I am a little unsure on this question. I sort of took the long way to get to where I am. I have a bachelors degree in Economics from the University of Texas at Austin, and then went to work in the business world. When I decided to become a nurse, I already was married with bills and debt and responsibilities and things. I opted to go through an LVN program, which took one year and had no prerequisites. In looking at ADN/RN school, I found that it would have taken me a year just to finish the prerequisites needed, and then time spent waiting to get accepted into RN school, and then 2 years of school to become and RN. So, I did the LVN program and then was able to go to work and make a reasonable living as an LVN while working on my RN. I did Excelsior College for my LVN-RN bridge in 2010 and 2011, because that was when my wife started having health problems and was no longer working, and I was already working my two jobs. So, as my earlier story says, I had this home-health job where I did most of my BSN work, and that was also where I did all of my online LVN-RN work through Excelsior. So, overall, I have assembled my educational path around work and personal life in a way that worked for me. However, if you have the time and financial ability and the patience to follow a more traditional path, such as straight into an ADN or BSN program, I definitely recommend that, versus the long path I have taken. As far as WGU goes for initial licensure, I suppose they are accredited and it works, so I can't say anything bad about it. But, just knowing what it takes to be a nurse and learn nursing from scratch, I would personally be more comfortable with a classroom-based program, even if it is LVN/LPN. I guess overall, if I had to do it all over again, I would probably stick with the way I did it, but that is just because of my preference for classroom learning for initial nursing licensure. Of course, you are going to get out of a program what you put in. So, if you do an online program and just squeak through projects and just study to pass tests, you will be in trouble when you get in the real world. If you really participate in learning what they are trying to teach you, I suspect WGU initial licensure is just as good as the next school.

WGU does have an initial-licensure program, which I assume is a BSN program, as opposed to an ADN program. However, I do not have any knowledge or experience in this area. I initially became an LVN through the traditional classroom setting, and later bridged to RN via Excelsior College, and then finished my RN to BSN work at WGU. As others have mentioned, the process of starting from scratch and getting a nursing license requires extensive and exhaustive clinical hours in a variety of healthcare settings. I know they only offer the initial licensure program in certain areas of the country, in order to be able to do local clinical rotations somewhere. But, that is about the extent of my knowledge. I would encourage you to contact them. They have always been very receptive and helpful with any questions or concerns I had before I applied, and along the way.

Well, probably won't be able to cut back anytime really soon, but I suppose it will come eventually. It is unclear when (or if) my wife, who is also a nurse, will ever work again. She had a major brain surgery at age 30 in 2012, followed closely by a pretty severe stroke while recovering, and then another major brain surgery about 2 months ago. This all left her both physically and cognitively disabled. She had a chiari malformation, if anyone is familiar with that. At the time of the first surgery and stroke in 2012, she was 30 and I was 32, and one of our kids was 2 years old, and the other was only 4 months old. Her mom dropped her job, apartment, independence, etc to move in with us and take care of her and the kids so I could work. Otherwise, don't know what we would have done. Meanwhile, I certainly feel quite blessed to have been working in a profession where I have been able to work in 2 full-time jobs the way I have (full time RN salary times 2!). I am thinking pretty seriously about jumping right into the WGU MSN program and continuing on the way I have been doing. So, maybe with time, promotion at work, etc, I will get to cut back some. But, in the meantime, we feel very blessed to have held it all together and for me to be able to continue further my education and career! thanks everyone for all the kind words and support. I don't post much on allnurses, but I am always on here reading for information and motivation. This has been a great support community for me!

Yeah, the program costs something like $3,250 per 6 month term, if I remember correctly, plus a few startup fees and things (that were not excessive), so I think my total came in the neighborhood of $10K, which I think is quite competitive as far as tuition goes for a RN-BSN program. Also, again, since it is self-paced, you can finish in a shorter time and pay for fewer terms. There are apparently, in some rare cases, people who have advertised to have finished in six months. So, I guess those folks would have only paid less than $4k for the whole degree!

Thanks for your reply! That makes sense. My assumption is that a larger prestigious university would want their educators to have specific credentials and, possibly, to have degrees from larger prestigious schools. And, the local community colleges that do LVN/LPN and ADN programs are probably willing to take whatever they can get. I genuinely see teaching as a strong possibility in my future, so I just wanted to make sure that I didn't destroy any chance at a reasonable teaching job (like at a community college or smaller university) by getting an MSN in leadership/management (if that is the educational path I choose). I didn't think there were any solid rules about it, but just wanted to make sure as I am making these education-path decisions. thanks again!

I finished my RN to BSN program at WGU this week! WGU was not necessarily my first choice when I started, but it turned out to be great. Due to medical complications in my immediate family, I have maintained 2 full-time nursing jobs (12 hour night shifts, 6-7 nights per week, usually 7 nights per week) in order to support my wife and the kids (3 and 5), along with my mother-in-law who lives with us to take care of my wife and the kids while I work non-stop. I did not really see how I was going to manage to do a BSN program with that kind of work schedule. I even started a program at a different school that had a more traditional online setup, with deadlines for assignments and whatnot. I couldn't hold it together with that program, as the deadlines were just eating me up. So, I moved to WGU, knowing it would be more self-paced. Looking back now, I don't think I could have made the BSN without WGU. One of my jobs is in an ICU, so that keeps me plenty busy 3-4 nights a week. My second job is home health, where I am at the bedside of a single patient for 12-hour shifts. The family of the patient has been very liberal with me in allowing me to do homework and stuff while on the job during downtime, as I have always made sure to take really good care of their son. Since I spend most of those nights sitting at his bedside, doing the occasional tube feed or nebulizer treatment, or "cleanup," I have lots of down time. I did the vast majority of my school work on my laptop at that job. Some weeks I was really busy and didn't get much school work done. Other weeks were smooth, and I banged out papers pretty fast. The only hitch was the community health practicum, which requires 90 hours of work out in the community. So, I had to dip into my vacation time at the hospital and take time off to get this done. Otherwise, I was able to work the entirety of the coursework for the whole program around my schedule, at my convenience, and according to my own self-set deadlines. I found the program to be both challenging and academically appropriate, but also reasonable and doable. As they advertise, I was able to breeze through some areas where I already had a good working knowledge, while some areas required pretty extensive research and work. The program took me a year and a half (3 of their 6-month terms). I could have done it a lot faster if not for my complicated personal life and endless work schedule. But, WGU provided me with the type of school program that worked for me in my unique situation, and allowed me to further my education. I guess the moral of the story is that, if I can do it, anybody can do it! So, I will be happy to answer any questions about WGU and my experience if it will be of assistance to others. This degree represents a major accomplishment to me personally, not just getting the degree, but also the personal and professional hurdles I had to clear to get it done. Sorry, I know that is sappy and dramatic. Anyway, thanks for listening. Again, let me know if I can help in any way on answering WGU questions.

The taskstream gods smiled upon me. passed! done!! graduation application submitted!!!

I am an experienced RN, but just finally finished my BSN. I'm considering hopping into a masters program, and the particular school I am looking at offers a leadership/management route and an education route. I currently have no idea what I want to do when I "grow up." I'm an ICU charge nurse, and loving critical care bedside nursing. however, I figure one of these days I will be looking to stop hurting my back and cleaning up the unspeakable bodily fluids. I want to further my education to give me abundant opportunities one of these days when I choose to exit the bedside rodeo and work my way up the leadership ranks, or possibly teach, or whatever. So, long story short..... If I did choose to teach one of these days, but had a masters degree with a leadership/management focus, as opposed to an education focus, would that limit my ability to get a decent teaching/faculty type job in nursing? Or, do many schools just like for you to have the masters degree, and are not worried about specialization? I have not read this area on allnurses much, so this question may have been answered before. if so, I apologize. thanks!

Again, thanks so much for the information. I'm really trying to weigh out whether to jump back into school or take some time off. It sounds like the WGU MSN is probably doable for me, even with my busy schedule. I might be wise to just get going while I have momentum on my side and I am accustomed to writing tons of papers and stuff. By the way, are you doing leadership? I am thinking of going the leadership route if I do it, versus the education route. I work ICU now, and still have no idea what I want to do when I grow up......manage? teach?

yes, thanks to the queue thing now, I too have become a taskstream stalker. It wasn't so bad when I still had additional classes or tasks to continue on with, as that would draw my attention away from just refreshing taskstream over and over. HOWEVER, I submitted my FINAL task to finish my BSN on 10/20/14 at 1:41 a.m. and I started at number 84. I have been refreshing task stream over and over for the last 48 hours now. And, I thought they would have it done tonight, as they got me down to number 4, and then the grading just stopped for the day apparently. I guess I will have to wait til tomorrow to see if I graduate. its almost compulsive thing now.