St. Francis Medical Center School Certifiate leggit?

[Sthere]

Hello

I am from New Jersey and was looking at the nursing program at St. Francis Medical Center School. It's a 2 year program, however a certificate?? I have already completed most of my general education at another college. The website says you receive a certificate from St. Francis and also an Associate of Science from their affliated college, Mercer County Community College. How is this possible if I didn't complete my formal education at MCCC??

Is a 2YR. certificate in Nursing an RN?? Will it be accepted? I already have my BA in a non-related field and have considered maybe down the road pursuing a RN-MSN bridge program. If I do this program will another college not accept it?

[AgentBeast, MSN, RN]

Contact the New Jersey BON to find out whether or not a certificate from that school will allow you to sit for the NCLEX-RN. As far as whether or not other colleges will accept it . . . most RN-BSN programs will offer either transfer credit for nursing courses completed at another college, or for diploma/certificate nurses they will offer either credit by examination or you'll have to complete some sort of "transition into baccalaureate nursing" course after which you will be awarded x number of credit hours for having an RN license. All this is of course contingent upon being able to sit for and pass the NCLEX-RN.

[Ardneth]

Taken directly from their website:

"The School of Nursing is accredited by the New Jersey Board of Nursing (P.O. Box 45010, Newark, NJ 07101; telephone: [phone]), and by the National League for Nursing Accrediting Commission (NLNAC, 3343 Peachtree Rd NE, Suite 500, Atlanta, Georgia 30326; telephone: [phone])."

[red2003xlt, LPN]

In the ye olden days hospitals trained their own RN's.

Sounds like this might one of the last surviving ones

[Sthere]

Yes, it is a school in operation for 100 years! So maybe one of the last ones. Only 36 are accepted into the program each year. My question is, will I be awarded an A.S. degree also if I did not complete my general ed. at the college they have an agreement with???

[AgentBeast, MSN, RN]

Yes, it is a school in operation for 100 years! So maybe one of the last ones. Only 36 are accepted into the program each year. My question is, will I be awarded an A.S. degree also if I did not complete my general ed. at the college they have an agreement with???

You'd have to contact them to find that out.

[MrsJersey]

St. Francis awards you your RN diploma so to speak, your ADN will come from Mercer CC after you complete all of the necessary courses. Even if you already have a BA from some place else, not all of your credits will necessarily transfer or the school may have a few different Gen Eds that may not correspond to what you already have taken. Either way the school is definitly legit (I know one of the instructors), and you should not have a problem with a RN-MSN bridge program. Many of those don't even specify whether or not they want an ADN or BSN so you should be fine.