Reputation of Accelerated Nursing Programs

[steph0502]

I would like to know, what is the general opinion of accelerated nursing programs, particularly the second degree programs?

My question my be bettered answered by current nurses. In your opinion, are the new nursing grads that graduated from an accelerated program just as knowledgeable as the new nurses that graduated from a two year traditional program? Do you feel that both new grads have the same skills and knowledge? Or, is there no difference in the type skills you see? I am taking the prerequisites for OU's second degree accelerated program, but I wonder what experienced nurses think of these types of programs.

I thank you in advance for your thoughts

[UMichSCN07]

I graduated from University of Michigan's Second Career program, and I found that most (not all) nurses don't really have an issue with second career/accelerated program nurses. For starters, since (at least for the second career programs) we already have a degree in something else, we're viewed as having more life experience. Also, accelerated programs grads tend to be viewed as committed and hard-working, since we're cramming all the clinicals of a traditional program into 25% of the time (and at UM, the second career program actually has a few more clinical hours than the traditional program due to scheduling).

One thing to note, UM, MSU, OU's programs are all accelerated/second career BSN and it's generally accepted that BSN grads have more theory knowledge vs. clinical knowledge compared to ADN grads, so the ADN's tend to perform better the first year or two, but after that point the BSN's and ADN's are virtually identical.

Mike in Michigan