For those of you who did a bridge from RN to BSN, did you work while in school?
Im super fortunate that I didn't really have to work during my ADN, (I am done in September) and Im wondering if completing the BSN is as challenging as the ADN program.
Have you seen many people struggle with working and in a BSN at the same time? Is it like the ADN, where everyone tells you NOT to work at all?
Input from other programs as well! Did you work during your MSN, or PA, or ARNP or CRNA program?
I worked on a oncology med-surg unit full-time while I went to GMU online. I would take either 2 or 3 classes and finished the program in 5 semesters (1.5 years total). My husband helped a lot of with the kids so I could study.
I'm in my RN-BSN program now taking 9 credits and working 36 hours a week. I also have a 4 year old and really supportive husband and am paying as I go. It is totally doable doing it the way I have been doing it. I'm taking 9 credits every summer too until I finish. I will admit it is difficult sometimes to balance everything, and paying as I go does make money tight sometimes but what I always tell myself is that for me, it's now or never. The bridge program, so far, is nowhere near as stressful as the ADN program. If I were you I would just jump in and do it. I don't think we will ever regret just jumping in and finishing it. I will have mine completely finished in just over a year. What's just a little more commitment? You can do it!
"When I hear about people working full time while also going to school full time ... I figure they are either doing a bad job at both ... or they are going to a very easy school. It is not reasonable to expect yourself to work 40 hours per week and also go to school 40 hours per week."
That's interesting. Have you ever considered the possibility that perhaps you aren't as talented as you think you are since the VAST majority of RN-BSNs work full time while going to school? And I'm dying to know what it is you think qualifies as "deeply intellectual" about a BSN program. It's not theoretical physics. Pretty much ALL BSN programs offer a laughable "research" portion due to the fact that there tends to not even be a tenuous grasp of actual, functional statistical methods from their students. So again, please enlighten us about this "deeply intellectual" class you teach. I'm dying to know what that freshman level college algebra class, 2000 level stats class, and ACT math score of 21 gets your students.
"That just doesn't add up to any sort of schedule you can maintain for very long, and the quality of your work (and life in general) is bound to suffer."
Yeah, that's called "sacrifice." It's what people used to do in order to attain things back in the day when a bunch of entitled brats didn't populate the world.
I was a paramedic for 7 years before I transitioned. I went on at 8am Friday morning and got off 8am Monday morning, went to nursing school and did clinicals 4 days a week and got done with those just in time to go back to work. It sucked, but it's called sacrificing to succeed. I then did an RN-BSN program from a well-respected and accredited institution where I graduated with honors all while working full time and then some. JUST LIKE A TON OF PEOPLE DO EVERY DAY. Now as I prepare to enter a DNP program in the spring I'm aware that with class time and having to take call, working is simply not an option and it will actually get you excused from the program.
I say all of that to say this: quit being a baby and quit casting aspersions on people who are willing to work harder than you. And once again, if you think any BSN program anywhere on the planet Earth qualifies as "academically rigorous" you have a big wake up call in front of you should you decide to move on.
Specializes in burn ICU, SICU, ER, Trauma Rapid Response.
I went on at 8am Friday morning and got off 8am Monday morning,
*** Wow you gave up that schedule!? I left critical care transport when too many nurses with MSN behind their name decided that shifts longer than 12 would no longer be allowed. Of course the people making that decision had NEVER worked a single hour with us and had no clue what we did. I figured that if I was going to have to do 12 like everybody else I might as well make some money and left for WAY more money.
I miss many things about it. However it is nice to not have to listen to the prema-donna paramedics whine about how it wasn't fair that they only made half as much as the RN team leaders.
Dude, llg isn't saying you can't work FT while going to school. She's saying that doing BOTH FT will mean that something in your life will likely suffer, which isn't an unfair point. In your first post you talk about sacrifice so it doesn't even seem like you actually disagree on that point.
Specializes in burn ICU, SICU, ER, Trauma Rapid Response.
It's "primadonna"
*** Whatever.
and those paramedics deserved every bit, if not more, money than any nurse "team leader." I've never seen a nurse "team leader" (whatever the f*ck that means) extricate anyone, intubate anyone, or really do anything on a scene that, frankly, wasn't just getting in the way of progress.
*** Wow, talk about making my point about medics. _I_ was not responsible or the nurse / medic pay scale. I absolutely agree with you that medics deserve a lot more money. I find it amazing that you have never seen a nurse extricate or intubate anyone. All of our nurses where RNs and medics and could and did do everything the medics did. I am guessing your didn't work with pre-hospital RNs much.
Our medics were great and highly competent. My only complaint was the often heard complaining about how they pretty much did the same job but got half the pay of the transport RNs they worked with, and their sometimes fragile egos.
And I did both 911 and MICU transport. And yes I happily gave up that schedule. Our service averaged anywhere from 11-15 911 calls per truck per day plus transfer services. And our paramedic truck constantly got screwed by basics and intermediates who "just weren't comfortable taking that acuity of patient." Translation: "I'm tired. Call the paramedic unit.
*** Ya I know the feeling, except with us is was basic and medic units screwing us. Instead of "call the paramedic unit" it's "call the flight nurses".
I find it amazing that you have never seen a nurse extricate or intubate anyone. All of our nurses where RNs and medics and could and did do everything the medics did. I am guessing your didn't work with pre-hospital RNs much.
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I am one of those Paramedic/RNs and I certainly didn't learn how to manage a scene, RSI someone, extricate an entrapped patient, or manage prehospital life threatening situations in nursing school. So I fail to see how a nurse operating within a prehospital environment deserves anymore money than a paramedic. There are plenty of ADN flight nurses and any paramedic at our company held the same Associates degree except it said - Emergency Medical Services-Municipal Fire Protection at the end of it instead of "Nursing." And it's pretty funny that medics are getting the tip of your sword regarding personality when nursing is populated with some of the biggest backstabbing, crybaby, gossip vomiting, passive aggressive people around.
I doubt any of those people blamed you for their pay scale, but when there is no logical reason for a nurse to make more than a medic in a prehospital environment I can certainly understand their frustration. However, the EMS community has no one but ourselves to blame for pay scales and reimbursement rates. If they'd quit responding until Medicare/Medicaid decided to quit reimbursing roughly 5 cents on the dollar of ambulance bills, perhaps the industry could afford to pay more. I also find it funny that communities want to sub-contract out their emergency services to the lowest private bidders but are just shocked when they wind up receiving sub-par emergency services. The whole system needs to be blown up and done over.
I was thinking I would probably do part time, I'm not sure I could work full time and school full time...
As far as people 'sliding' thru school, I'm seeing plenty of it now. Students getting caught blatantly cheating, not turning in work, sleeping in class, late everyday, do NOthing at clinicals... and they're still getting passed along and all we have left is preceptorship before graduation in September.
Back to the original question... it sounds like a class or 2 at a time, in addition to working full time should be doable. Thanks for the info :)
Specializes in burn ICU, SICU, ER, Trauma Rapid Response.
I
am one of those Paramedic/RNs and I certainly didn't learn how to manage a scene, RSI someone, extricate an entrapped patient, or manage prehospital life threatening situations in nursing school.
*** Nope, I imagine that no nurse ever did. However a few have learned to do those things as nurses. Lots of nurses intubate as part of their jobs.
So I fail to see how a nurse operating within a prehospital environment deserves anymore money than a paramedic. There are plenty of ADN flight nurses and any paramedic at our company held the same Associates degree except it said - Emergency Medical Services-Municipal Fire Protection at the end of it instead of "Nursing."
*** All of the nurses on our service are associates degree RN, or ADN RN who later did an RN to BSN. I agree that they don't deserve more money. However who deserves what has nothing to do with how compensation is awarded.
And it's pretty funny that medics are getting the tip of your sword regarding personality when nursing is populated with some of the biggest backstabbing, crybaby, gossip vomiting, passive aggressive people around.
*** Heck ya it is! FWIW I find ER nurses to be just as big of primadonnas as medics. I expect it from RNs, and not medics. Mainly cause of the gender differences.
I doubt any of those people blamed you for their pay scale, but when there is no logical reason for a nurse to make more than a medic in a prehospital environment I can certainly understand their frustration.
*** I think it would be better to bring medic pay up to RNs doing pretty much the same job on a crew. However saying medics deserve to make the same as RN (I agree) is a very different thing than saying there is no logical reason for medics to make less. There are perfectly logical reasons.
H
owever, the EMS community has no one but ourselves to blame for pay scales and reimbursement rates. If they'd quit responding until Medicare/Medicaid decided to quit reimbursing roughly 5 cents on the dollar of ambulance bills, perhaps the industry could afford to pay more.
*** Maybe. Another problem you have is romance. Face it movies are made about paramedics and it's a glamorous job that one can be come qualified for in a short amount of time. It attracts too many people.
Nursing is on the same path and it is catching up with us.
I also find it funny that communities want to sub-contract out their emergency services to the lowest private bidders but are just shocked when they wind up receiving sub-par emergency services. The whole system needs to be blown up and done over.
*** Yes shocking that the lowest bidder isn't the best performer.
When I did my RN-BSN I worked 3 12 hr nights a week had 4 kids and was pregnant. Yes...it is doable. I had a 3.7 or 3.8 GPA. I went with an online program because couldn't commit to being in class on specific nights...my work schedule was the issue there. So online for me![/quote']
What online program did u do? I'm looking at u of Texas Arlington...
I did Chamberlain College of Nursing. I was very happy with the school and how things went. Everything was predictable...which was nice. I'm now in grad school at Drexel University (so you can get into grad school after a BSN with Chamberlain) and I miss the predictability of Chamberlain. Chamberlain was set up in a way where expectations for each class were very similar...due dates for discussion boards, the times things were due. Now I'm at Drexel and sometimes something is due on Friday or Saturday or Sunday and it may be noon or midnight or 8 pm. So ever class is very different with very different rules. I liked that Chamberlain was...predictable. It really helped plan my life while doing school and working and having a family.
My husband is working on his RN and plans to do Chamberlain for his BSN and possibly his MSN too!
Sounds like you had a really good experience! I also looked at chamberlain but I found through different links that I cannot attend the school because I live in Washington state. Too bad!! I am debating between wsu-Vancouver and UT-Arlington. Save about 6-7k going to UTA and they have no clinicals. Anyway sorry to ramble on and thanks for sharing your experience!!
Workitinurfava, BSN, RN
1,160 Posts
I worked on a oncology med-surg unit full-time while I went to GMU online. I would take either 2 or 3 classes and finished the program in 5 semesters (1.5 years total). My husband helped a lot of with the kids so I could study.