Getting a NA BS, wanting to do a MSN that requires a RA BS/BA, or maybe RA Masters?

Hey all,

I've got a dilemma I'm facing. I am currently involved in a BS program at a NA university. I am now looking at Vanderbilt University's distance MSN program. Vanderbilt says that I need to have a RA BA or BS to be considered for admission into the program. My question is, should I take on another BA or BS that is RA to fulfill this requirement, or by chance would a Masters from a RA university such as APUS cover it for me. I would think that a RA Masters would hold more weight than an RA Bachelors, right? That's just my thoughts, Looking for the best admissions out come.

Thanks!

 

. . . or you could choose an MSM program that will accept your BS.:yes(1):

 

How far are you into your Bachelor's program? Some RA schools will accept NA credits in transfer, so it may be easier in the long run to transfer and complete a RA Bachelor's degree.

Off the top of my head, I can think of Liberty University that will accept NA credits, and they have extensive DL offerings.

Online Bachelor's Degree Programs | Liberty University Online

 

Are you going to use Vanderbilt to earn your RN? If so, you're going to drop SERIOUS cash. For that reason, you need to finish your undergrad stuff cheap.
I was admitted to that program several years back - there are about a zillion ways to work this problem. No, I didn't attend and I'm not a nurse. But I was considering a career change. Anyhoo...

I would start by asking what your BS is in, who it's through, and maybe try and gain admission into an RA undergad as a transfer student. (not a SECOND degree, just one RA one) A master's won't work because there are no gen eds. APUS is a terrible choice since they only accept 30 alternative credits now. You don't need prestige, you need a degree with proper accreditation.

Let me also ask, what about your sciences? Have you done them yet? Don't take this the wrong way, but a lot of people wash out of 100/200 level nursing programs because of science, never mind becoming an ADVANCED practice nurse. There's a lot of distance between anatomy lab 1 and an MSN.

 

Is your current program a BSN program? Or a BS in something other than nursing?

I ask because I've encountered a few ADN-RNs who have opted for a BS in, say, Health Services. While that's fine, of course. It often will not meet the requirements for admission to an MSN program.

I'm not going to say that no MSN program anywhere will play ball. But, in general, the admission requirement is that you have a BSN. Not be an RN with a BS in Epidemiology. Not be an RN with a BS in Allied Health Professions. An RN with a BSN.

Depending upon how far into your program you are there may be two reasonable approaches:

1. Get out, get over to Excelsior (or wherever) and get yourself an RA BSN
2. Graduate and find an RA MSN program that will accept your NA BSN.

Number two might seem like a Herculean task. However, it may come down to your answer to this question:

Are you working on your degree at Aspen or Ashworth?

To my knowledge, those are the only NA BSN programs out there. Ashworth is purely NA. Aspen is accredited by CCNE. If you're graduating from Aspen then the obvious place I would look would be other CCNE accredited nursing programs at RA schools. Will it work? It hasn't been tested (or, if it has, it hasn't made it to this board). But, at least in theory, it could work.

 

Hey everyone, thanks for the feedback, Vanderbilt is a very expensive school that is true, however it is the only school close by that I have found which offers a MSN to individuals with a degree in other fields, the program is also available via distance learning and part-time if I wanted, which would be helpful because I live about an hour away. Sure I could commute, but that would add a lot to the already expensive bill. Going part-time would help make the program easier I would think because I would not have such a heavy work load.

I am getting my BS in Business Administration from University of the People (very inexpensive), I'm probably about a year to a year and a half away from graduation (depending on how meany classes I take over the next little bit). My sciences will be a combination of credits from both Nashville State Community College and Brigham Young University-Idaho (both RA schools). The main reason I decide to go with University of the People is because of the inexpensiveness of the undergraduate course work (I know that sounds contrary to my looking into this expensive program at Vanderbilt, but it's given me a little time to save up for higher education past the undergrads). I've already got about half of the required sciences pretty much covered from NSCC and BYU-I, I just need to knock the anatomy and physiology classes out.

I'll ask the admissions department over at Vanderbilt about the RA Masters program. I just thought perhaps someone may know whether or not an RA Masters would be able to stand in for a RA BS or BA. I guess my thought process was that two Masters would be better than two Bachelors. Also at this point in my studies, wouldn't getting a Masters take about the same amount of time as switching to another Bachelor program? I mentioned APUS because I know APUS accepts NA BS's into at least some of their Masters programs.

I'll let ya'll know back what I hear from Vanderbilt though. Thank ya'll for your responses.

 

I logged in hoping to see an answer.
I read the OP's post differently, I assumed he/she was doing the non-nursing entry option. There are many tracks, but program takes you from zero to advanced practice in one program - no BSN.
Just injecting my opinion, which isn't worth much as a non-nurse, but I had a bachelor's degree when I applied, and I also had a ton of my lab sciences done. I earned solid A's in those, and had a lot of community health volunteer hours. BUT, people flunk out of nursing school ALL THE TIME. It's hard. One of the reasons I DIDN'T pull the trigger on V's program was because you aren't even eligible for your RN until your 3rd semester, and Vanderbilt is OVER $1000/credit. In short, you're paying through the nose for something you could do in 4 semesters at your community college.... and then apply to an accelerated or merged BSN/MSN program somewhere, even back at Vanderbilt. The risk-reward *to me* seemed so exceptionally foolish, that I opted out.
https://nursing.vanderbilt.edu/msn/prespecialty/index.php

 

My advice is, naturally, somewhat limited as well. I have experience with nursing programs only because I used to hire nurses. I don't any more. I haven't in a while.

One observation I made during recruiting efforts at Community Colleges (both for nurses and non-nurses) is that community college nursing programs are, in many ways, not the easy grab that they appear to be.

In speaking with the administrators of two of those CC programs it is exceedingly rare, though not impossible, to complete the ADN/AAS-RN in two years (four semesters). The reason is course sequencing. You need a course in the Spring. Unfortunately, many people need that same course. And it is a pre-req for a course you need in the Fall. If Course A is only offered in the Spring and Course B is only offered in the Fall then you can easily find yourself pushing into, at least, a third year. The average graduation time for one of the schools I visited was 3-4 years. So, you might spend 4 years earning a licensure qualifying associate's degree rather than the BSN during that same time.

Keep in mind that many students don't drop out hoping to reapply for enrollment down the road. They fill up their schedules with electives to maintain FT enrollment and hope for the best at the next go around.

I'm not saying one should avoid or embrace the CC Nursing program. But, prior to learning some of this, I honestly did wonder why anyone would pay for a traditional BSN. It seemed much more reasonable to get the Associate's, get to work and earn the BSN part-time. From my old sort of home town, Misericordia University historically offered a weekends only BSN program for folks who did exactly that.

Of course now I wonder if the path is really so clear...

 

I've been told that hospitals (I know, only one potential employer for a nurse) are generally pretty good at paying for professional coursework as a part of their standard benefits package.

 

Kizmet- everything I've heard/read/been told supports that as well. It's pretty much assumed that your employer will pay for your BSN.

Neuhaus- there is a trend among community colleges regarding prereqs for programs like nursing. You'll see it in fields that have trended toward higher education for entry. Nursing, as you probably know, used to be a diploma program through hospitals (that's how my mom earned her RN) and the nurses studied their sciences while working, a sort of apprenticeship-type relationship. But, with the BSN being the new associates for nurses (and the HUGE push nation wide for Magnet status) everyone wants you to get your BSN! So, the demand is growing, and along side it the push for BSN, and CC nursing programs meet that need by providing the gen eds- the only problem, is that nursing is more like a typical AAS or AOS, full of meat and not much room for gen eds. So, to back-fill, they are loading these candidates up with pre-nursing and gen ed courses!

The courses I took to APPLY to nursing school (along side the sciences I took to apply to med school but that were not required for med school admissions) were not part of my bachelors were: Intro Bio, Intro Chem, Microbiology, Anatomy & Physiology 1 & 2 - all with labs, and then of course statistics. The issue of course is science sequencing. Sequencing is a tremendous problem. You can't take Organic Chemistry 2 until you take 1, which you can't do until you've passed Chem 2, which of course requires completion of Chem 1, and in my case I was too nervous to start there so I took Intro Chem (which is what the nursing programs wanted anyway lol). You end up going down this rabbit hole and that's before you ever touch a patient. Oh- and I forgot, 2 schools required me to prove I had a CNA certificate, so I had to earn that too. LOL Again, I already had a bachelor's degree when I started thinking about nursing, and sure, you can find a school with just 1 or 2 pre reqs, but considering the COMPETITION to get in?? You better plan on applying to multiple schools - which means a list of prereqs a mile long just so you qualify to start.
I was told by MULTIPLE schools that if you didn't get an "A" on the first attempt, you'd need to retake it if you wanted to be competitive for admissions.

There are multiple places to fail before you can "be a nurse" at the most basic level - I get the draw for 1 degree ---> advanced practice (translation, not cleaning up puke). But my reservation with the Vanderbilt program was mainly that "all the stuff" before the RN was sooo expensive.