Online Nursing Schools vs Traditional Schools

[canwil2082]

To become a nurse was not a childhood dream of mine. It was something that I discovered I had a passion for in my early twenties. I had always loved math and science and figured I would become a scientist one day. I fell in love with nursing due to the study of the human body and the art of nursing itself. I have always had a compassion for people especially the older generation.

My family was unable to support me during my early years while pursuing my current dream of becoming a caring professional nurse. I enrolled in a Licensed Practical Nursing program in 2006. The school was over 60 miles one way from my dad's house. In addition, I had to go to the school five days a week while working three different jobs. I was a lower income student that had to struggle to find a foothold in the college education bracket.

Through much hard work, I passed the first two semesters of my practical nursing program. I was on top of the world at this point. I was approached by the director of the program to be grandfathered into the Registered Nurse (RN) program. They were looking to start a two year RN program and we were the guinea pigs. At first I had my reservations, thankfully at the pressing of the director I changed my mind and proceeded with the program. The program required another year of school and funds that I just did not have access to at the time. Thankfully my grades had obtained me a scholastic scholarship to continue for another year. My enthusiasm for nursing continued to be on the rise.

The end of nursing school for the RN program came so fast. It was May of 2008 and I was being pinned with my RN pin. I passed my boards and went on to have six and a half years of good RN experience. My time in the acute care setting for three years taught me much about the truth of nursing. I changed my track and went into long term care with a new sense of direction.

I was back where I started, but this time I would be in the RN role instead of the CNA. It was in this position for four years that I learned much about leadership. In addition, my time in this setting taught me much about nurse burnout. I never wanted to become that nurse. I thought since I had such high hopes about nursing that I would never fall to that excruciating word. I felt like I had lost the ability to care anymore.

Behind my convincing smile, I was deeply hurt by emotions. I was emotionally overwhelmed and I knew that I needed change. I searched for other jobs, but it felt like I needed something more than additional burnout.

I found a nursing program online that would lead me to a Master's of Science in Nursing Education. I had always loved my time in school. The atmosphere of learning, facilitating, and teaching was what excited me the most. I did an enormous amount of research on the program. I was always leery about an online program due to the stigma of an online degree. However, I did my investigation and discovered that the school was fully accredited by one of the major nurse accreditation agencies. In addition, the program was set to be in alignment with the National League for Nursing standards of nurse educators. The school was recognized by the US Department of Education as well.

I enrolled in the program and graduation was before me. The program was intense, and it helped me grow professionally and personally. In the process of obtaining my degree, I discovered I had the ability to think and analyze. I found a new sense of purpose in nursing. I could see myself teaching future nursing students. I realized that I care about their success and that I wanted to see them succeed.

I wanted to teach because I genuinely care about the students and their success. I found out soon enough the dirty truth about teaching in a traditional brick and mortar college. It hurts me say that even in an environment that is a part of highly intelligent individuals, bullying still takes place. I was told that I would not be hired by a local four year university to teach nursing because my degree was from an unknown online school. After all my hard work, I was destroyed on the inside when I discovered this devastating truth about most four year traditional universities.

The hopes of this letter is to educate the nursing profession about the sad reality of bullying in a center for education. The stigma of an online degree remains, even though the program I graduated from was recognized by the White House for what is right in higher education.

This innovative program allowed me to utilize my work experience. Furthermore, I was able to obtain this accredited degree with much flexibility that was customized to me. I fully believe that this program was the perfect one for me.

It is unfortunate that because some institutions do not consider my degree valuable. I will have a higher chance of failure at obtaining a successful career at these types of institutions. Are we not greater than that?

This reminds of a time when grade school children fight over whose lunch is better, or whose clothes are the best. Even though I fought nail and tooth to rise above my circumstances, I was shot down by those who think their degree is better than mine. My hopes is that my degree will lead me to make a significant difference in the lives of future nursing students no matter where I may land.

[passionflower, BSN, MSN, RN]

In a very short time period ALL schools will have an online component and it may be a substantial portion of the program. This will inevitably happen and what then will be the debate?

[QuietRiot]

In some ways I can understand. Nursing is a hands on profession and, its hard to get that via online. However, with your experience you should not have these issues.

I would think that the ability to teach in the nursing field would weigh heavily on actual experience and, not so much on an educators degree.

[QuietRiot]

@ Elkpark

The difference could very well be the 50k price tag.

[SHGR, MSN, RN, CNS]

Whereas brick and mortar faculty produce a large amount of nursing research that is worthy of publication.

Some B&M colleges are research-focused, where faculty may spend a large portion of their time conducting research. In others, the faculty are majority teaching focused. Both have their positives and negatives. Having had professors cut short student time to focus on grant-related matters, I found I preferred a student-focused environment to being taught by a multi-published nurse researcher.

In fact,not all B&M faculty have published (ever). Your professor's doctoral thesis might exist only in a sub-basement somewhere.

[Nibbles1]

an older experienced nurse told me she doesn't believe in getting degree online.

by being getting away with things with online classes, there is less proctoring for taking tests. some online classes are basically open notebook exams! if online classes were so trustworthy, then how come some schools require science classes to be taken in person?

taking classes online and in classroom setting is very different. even though content may be the same, it's a different environment. for example, in a classroom setting you have peers with you, meeting teacher in person, but in online setting you don't.

I went to a b/m school and let me tell you I was with 31 catty women. I learned a lot of relatives diseases instead of the instructor able to teach because of the interruptions. I take a bulk of my classes online and I get more education than being in a room with a bunch of talkers.

[delilah1010]

I know that nursing is different from academic fields in many ways. However, it should not come as a surprise that an on-line degree from a minor college wouldn't be regarded as equivalent from one from a ranked university. For example, my undergraduate degree was in chemistry. My college is ranked in the top 50 or so in the United States. I earned high honors, and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa as an undergrad, and was highly recruited to graduate programs, and attended grad school at a different university ranked about the same as my undergrad program. I would delusional to think that I could become a professor at Cal Tech, for example, having attended University of Florida and Ohio State University. I could likely have taught at a lesser ranked University. With my credentials, however, I probably could have attended grad school at Cal Tech, and then, could have been a contender to teach at the upper-level schools. It's simply a fact of academic life that a degree from Harvard isn't the same as an online degree from Podunk College.

[dishes, BSN, RN]

Some B&M colleges are research-focused, where faculty may spend a large portion of their time conducting research. In others, the faculty are majority teaching focused. Both have their positives and negatives. Having had professors cut short student time to focus on grant-related matters, I found I preferred a student-focused environment to being taught by a multi-published nurse researcher.

In fact,not all B&M faculty have published (ever). Your professor's doctoral thesis might exist only in a sub-basement somewhere.

True, but in canwil was told during job interviews, they were not eligible to be hired, because their education was from an unknown online school, one of the main reasons a school is unknown vs known, is because of multi-publications vs no publications. Online faculty need to produce publications to establish their academic reputation.

[TheCommuter, BSN, RN]

My niece got her BSN from CSU.

From which CSU did she earn her BSN? One of the California State Universities? Colorado State University? Or the online school Columbia Southern University?

[edmia, BSN, RN]

...one of the main reasons a school is unknown vs known, is because of multi-publications vs no publications. Online faculty need to produce publications to establish their academic reputation.

Very true. Faculty at the online graduate program I attend have published research in reputable journals and have even authored textbooks in their specialty. The adjunct faculty is either published or actively involved in nursing research. The knowledge they have is evident.

And they still pick up the phone when you need them, respond to emails any day of the week (like Sunday morning when I'm actually working on a project) and are just all around great teachers.

Sent from my iPhone -- blame all errors on spellcheck

[passionflower, BSN, MSN, RN]

It's simply a fact of academic life that a degree from Harvard isn't the same as an online degree from Podunk College.

No disrespect poster but do you SERIOUSLY think anyone here is debating that?

I think those who have gone to and achieved success in an online environment are simply stating that you can actually learn and grow from them as well.

I guess this is just my experience but I have never been hired based on my transcript. It was always experience that they looked at. Even when looking at the job listings now, experience is what they always ask about and I have never seen an ad asking what school you attended.

Now I know this can happen but I'm not sure this is the norm. Of course this is only based on what I see in the advertisements and on personal job interviews I have attended.

[TheCommuter, BSN, RN]

It's simply a fact of academic life that a degree from Harvard isn't the same as an online degree from Podunk College.

This is very true, but we should be mindful that the majority of Ivy League universities do not even offer nursing as a major. I suspect this is due to nuanced social reasons that I will not mention.

Only three Ivy League schools offer nursing programs. There's the Yale School of Nursing, which offers nursing education at the graduate level only. Then there's Columbia and the University of Pennsylvania.

[BetsySingh]

I will admit that I view online schools with suspicion. Someone I know was having a family member do her assignments! Thankfully she got weeded-out during this particular school's version of clinicals (yes, I was planning to alert the board in her state had she cheated her way to sitting for the board exam.) But I am willing to bet that this happens more than people imagine. Hence, my preference for "real" nursing school. Generally I am all on board with things online, but I just can't get past my suspicions when it comes to online nursing school.