Career Profile
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Registered Nurse (RN)
Academic Requirements
Registered Nursing is a knowledge-based profession. The RN license is the basic credential in the nursing field. There are three different educational paths to qualifying to sit for the RN licensure examination:
- Diploma earned at a hospital school of nursing
- Associate's Degree in Nursing (ADN)
- Bachelor's Degree in Nursing (BSN)
You can earn a nursing diploma or associate degree in 3 years. Many junior and community colleges offer ADN programs. Currently, 51% of all working RNs hold one of these two very basic degrees. Search for schools that provide training for this career.
If you're going into this field, however, you should be aware that there is a growing national movement to require all nurses to hold a BSN. This is because recent research indicates that patients are safer and have better outcomes when they're under the care of nurses with at least baccalaureate-level education in nursing.
Your career prospects also will be better if you hold a BSN: Many employers believe that bachelor's-level nurses are better prepared for a wide range of practice settings and tend to have strong skills in critical thinking, case management, and health promotion.
Conventional BSN programs take 4 years, but more and more schools are offering accelerated programs for students who already hold a bachelor's in another field; such programs take between 11 and 18 months to complete. Similar programs exist for an accelerated master's degree (MSN), which can be earned in approximately 3 years. In addition, there are a growing number of RN-to-MSN and BSN-to-Ph.D. programs, designed to meet the increasing demand for more highly educated nurses in the workforce.
There also are an increasing number of four-year institutions offering "articulation agreements" with community and junior colleges, to enable nurses with diplomas or associate degrees to seamlessly transition into BSN and MSN programs.
For an overview of the various RN programs, see the American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN) website.
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