SO confused about which path to take...help!

choc0late · Mar 20, 2009

Hi, my personal opinion is if you have the time and availability go all the way baby! Go after the MSN! :nurse: As far as Gen ed's, in my college, yes, they do count nd are included in the BSN program. Just take a peek at the course schedule at your school or maybe talk with an adviser? But, hey. shoot for that master's! Go go go!!!!!!!! :yeah:

jnguyen115 · Mar 20, 2009

Hi, my personal opinion is if you have the time and availability go all the way baby! Go after the MSN! As far as Gen ed's, in my college, yes, they do count nd are included in the BSN program. Just take a peek at the course schedule at your school or maybe talk with an adviser? But, hey. shoot for that master's! Go go go!!!!!!!!

Hi Chocolate,

Thanks for your reply! It makes me feel much better that the Gen Ed's count, hopefully they will count for me too! And, Yes I do want to do a Master's program, it is just a matter of which one. If I get my BA in Comm then The Master's for Nursing will only take me to an RN. If I get my BSN in nursing and work for a bit, then do the master's program, then I will become an NP (which is what I ultimately want to do). I just wasn't sure if there was an entry level master's program that takes u directly to NP

OnMyWay2MSN · Mar 20, 2009

Hi JNguyen,

I just got into a MSN accelerated program (in san diego) half of my prior credits from a BS in Management covered pre-reqs...statistics, comm, sociology, psychology...it took me about 1.5 years to comlete my science ones chem, microbiology, anatomy and physiology..mostly because here in San Diego the science classes are always full....my advice go for BSN or MSN accelerated...i would stay away from ADN (or ASN) programs and especially programs like Kaplan or anything that shows commercials during the Maury show (kidding!) I only say that because if you want to be a NP, you would have to do ADN - BSN - then to MSN so it just would take that much longer. I'm all about knocking it out right away, down the road who knows what you will be up to. If you can knock out any of the science ones now would be good. ALso make sure you dont need to take any pre-req for the sciences, like I had to take Chem, before I could take Microbiology, even though it was not a school pre-req.

Now i know only about CA schools, so the only program I know here that has NP is UCSF, but that school is crazy competitive, most of the programs are, but that one is tops at least here in CA. I'm going to University of San Diego (in fall) and we get out with MSN, their main focus though is Clinical Nurse Leader, but the school seems outstanding!

Wherever you go, best of luck to you! Would be good to if this is your path to look at start volunteering in a hospital setting, all VA Hospitals are good bets if you need somewhere to go, that's where I went.

Patrick

jnguyen115 · Mar 20, 2009

Hi JNguyen,
I just got into a MSN accelerated program (in san diego) half of my prior credits from a BS in Management covered pre-reqs...statistics, comm, sociology, psychology...it took me about 1.5 years to comlete my science ones chem, microbiology, anatomy and physiology..mostly because here in San Diego the science classes are always full....my advice go for BSN or MSN accelerated...i would stay away from ADN (or ASN) programs and especially programs like Kaplan or anything that shows commercials during the Maury show (kidding!) I only say that because if you want to be a NP, you would have to do ADN - BSN - then to MSN so it just would take that much longer. I'm all about knocking it out right away, down the road who knows what you will be up to. If you can knock out any of the science ones now would be good. ALso make sure you dont need to take any pre-req for the sciences, like I had to take Chem, before I could take Microbiology, even though it was not a school pre-req.
Now i know only about CA schools, so the only program I know here that has NP is UCSF, but that school is crazy competitive, most of the programs are, but that one is tops at least here in CA. I'm going to University of San Diego (in fall) and we get out with MSN, their main focus though is Clinical Nurse Leader, but the school seems outstanding!
Wherever you go, best of luck to you! Would be good to if this is your path to look at start volunteering in a hospital setting, all VA Hospitals are good bets if you need somewhere to go, that's where I went.
Patrick

Hi Patrick,

Cal State Fullerton (where I ultimately want to go to Nursing school) has an Master's program that lets you choose a concentration (one of them being women's health care) however you would need a current RN license AND they require 6 months of clinical experience.

The other master's program is for people with a Bachelor's in another major, so if I wanted to go to NP and I already had a Bachelor's, I would have to go through two master's program?

sunray12 · Mar 21, 2009

Hi Patrick,
Cal State Fullerton (where I ultimately want to go to Nursing school) has an Master's program that lets you choose a concentration (one of them being women's health care) however you would need a current RN license AND they require 6 months of clinical experience.
The other master's program is for people with a Bachelor's in another major, so if I wanted to go to NP and I already had a Bachelor's, I would have to go through two master's program?

If you already have a MSN, then your NP will probably be an add-on specialty certificate. (You should check out the NP board under the specialty tab for further information).