Advance Your Nursing Career with a LPN to BSN, RN to BSN, RN to MSN and more.
If you already have a nursing license, you can advance your career to the next level with one of the numerous online RN to BSN or MSN (Master of Science in Nursing) college degrees. If you have your LPN or LVN, you can enroll in an LPN to RN transition program or in an LPN to RN bridge program.
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Indiana State University has a new LPN to BSN degree that you can earn completely online. Additionally, it is the only RN to BSN training program in the country that allows both LPNs and LVNs to earn an accredited Bachelor of Science degree without attending a single classroom. Indiana State is a highly respected and accredited university.
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Kaplan University
If you are a registered nurse seeking to advance your career with broader professional responsibilities, check out Kaplan University’s RN to BS in Nursing. This Bachelor of Science in Nursing completion program will help you access new opportunities in nursing and nursing management.
For program disclosure information, click here.
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Utica College of upstate New York is currently accepting licensed, registered nurses who want to earn a Bachelor’s Degree in Nursing. The RN to BS program offers academic credit for work experience or national certification. In most cases you can study without interrupting your current nursing career. Utica College is a “brick and mortar” college that was once part of Syracuse University, but is now independent. In recent years, they have added numerous online courses to their catalog of highly respected degree programs.
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At Grand Canyon University you can earn both an MBA and MS in Nursing with a specialty in Nursing Leadership in Health Care Systems. This is a dual degree that will prepare you for management and leadership in the health care industry. The curriculum combines business courses such as accounting, finance, marketing, and management with health care research, ethics, and policy and finance in the health care system.
When researching online programs for the one that fits your needs, you will want to complete the inquiry forms for several, since some programs only service students in particular states and others have some requirements that need to be completed on campus.
According to the nursing department chairperson at one of the Vermont University campuses, anyone who is considering a nursing career should plan on earning a 4 year or BSN in nursing as it will soon be an expectation that even RNs must have a bachelor’s degree. If you already are an LPN, you will need to search for a school that has a bridge program. The bridge program is simply a program that allows a student to enroll for the “next” step in the career sequence, giving him/her credit for the license that has already been earned. Without the bridge program, you could easily end up in an RN program that would ignore the LPN you already have, requiring you to repeat the earlier course work. Thus, you might think that you only need 18 months to two years to complete the requirements for an RN license and suddenly find out that you will be taking 4 years of classes. Many colleges that offer RN programs do not have bridge programs.
You want to carefully research the cost of the online program you choose. Plenty of good ones exist, but some are more expensive than a campus based program. Also, consider it a red flag if the advisor tells you that government financial aid programs are not available for online students at their school. Most certified programs participate in the student grant programs such as TAP and PELL.
Most online nursing programs require you to already have some sort of nursing license such as your LPN or RN. It is fairly easy to find programs that take you from the RN to the BSN or MSN, and much easier to find schools that will give you credit for the RN than it is to find ones that will recognize your LPN. Regardless of the initial challenges, however, the education will be well worth while as health care is one of the few career fields with reasonable job security and a projected growth far into the future.
