Western Governors University Competency Based MSN Program

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Specializes in Administration, QM, Home Care.

I am currently finishing an MSN in Leadership and Management through Western Governors University and LOVE it! It is totally online and is a competency based program. Using your own experience and knowledge to meet the program's requirements is a fantastic opportunity to complete your degree. I have a mentor that I speak to on a biweekly basis and each course has a course mentor available to answer questions. Everyone has been very helpful and professional through my journey to complete my MSN. How many other nurses are in a competency based MSN program? Do you like it? I believe I am learning a lot more than in a more traditional nursing education setting and think competency based post graduate nursing education is the wave of the future. What do you think?

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Specializes in nursing education.

I'm curious about this. Does this mean you can whiz through content you are very familiar with?

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Specializes in Ambulatory Care; L&D.
I'm curious about this. Does this mean you can whiz through content you are very familiar with?

Yes. If you know the content, you can just go to the assignment(s) and complete them. No classes to sit through.

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Specializes in Administration, QM, Home Care.

It has been helpful to have many years of varied clinical and administrative nursing experience to finish assignments, but I must say that all of them have been quite rigorous to pass. Also, it is important to me to put extra effort into each class, so I actually have not whizzed through any of them:) It is truly a great program!

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Specializes in oncology, med surg & corrections.

I'm in the process of getting into the same degree path at WGU- my question is how long has it taken you? At first was a little bummed that they wouldn't accept my credits from another school, but being given the option to take the final, when I'm ready- sounds excellent! Do you believe this type of learning provides you with a degree that employers are looking for? Thank you so much for your reply and CONGRATS to you on your accomplishment!!!

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I know this thred is a little old but I thought I'd give it a show. The WGU approach is so appealing but I was wondering how employers react to no GPA. Is it hard or even possible to get into other schools? For example, say I want to go to a traditional pH D program after I finish at WGU, would it be possible to be considered

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Specializes in Ambulatory Care; L&D.

They are CCNE accredited. It will depend on the school you are applying to though. I have not had a problem using my BSN from there to get into two different master programs, but due to cost and time, I went back to WGU. I just finished my MSN two weeks ago so I haven't had a chance t o try it out yet. Most employers don't require a GPA from what I've seen.

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Thanks for replying. Congrats on finishing up your degree. I'm glad it wasn't a problem to apply to Masters programs for you. Are you happy with your program? I just applied to the RN to MSN Leadership and Management.

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I see a lot of comments on here about employers and GPA. I can only speak from personal experience, but I have NEVER had an employer ask about my GPA (which is a shame, because I graduated with my BSN 4.0 and MSN 3.9). I currently work full-time as nursing faculty at an online university; adjunct for a large company doing NCLEX prep (both in person and online); and I just finished some freelance work editing a new nursing Med-Surg textbook. Obviously, getting a job with an online degree hasn't been a problem. I graduated from Chamberlain a few years back with my MSN. I had a good experience, but it would have saved me a lot of time and money had I known about WGU. I think I paid around $24,000 (with my employer discount) and it took 2.5 years. I could have finished at WGU in 1.5 years at a cost of around $12,000. Oh well, you can't go back!

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i'm so contemplating whether to do the rn to bsn track first or just go straight through rn to msn with WGU! i graduate less than 51 days for my ADN so I better make a decision quick! I really don't want to miss the milestone getting my BSN since WGU doesn't award it your in the rn to msn program. well, thats what the represenative told me over the phone. I may not be ready for masters degree nursing courses so maybe I should just go with BSN first. I'm so glad I found WGU!

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i'm so contemplating whether to do the rn to bsn track first or just go straight through rn to msn with WGU! i graduate less than 51 days for my ADN so I better make a decision quick! I really don't want to miss the milestone getting my BSN since WGU doesn't award it your in the rn to msn program. well, thats what the represenative told me over the phone. I may not be ready for masters degree nursing courses so maybe I should just go with BSN first. I'm so glad I found WGU!

You do receive your BSN once you complete 120 CU's. Then you continue toward your MSN. My advice? Just do the BSN because you can finish so quickly. You can always go back for the MSN. The RN-MSN can take quite a while when you add in pre-req's and those "bridge" courses.

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