Accelerated Second Degree For RN ?
Q: I have friend with an masters degree who is interested in pursuing a
career as an RN. He was in the Social Sciences.
What options does he have? I hear there are what is called
"accelerated second degree" programs, which reduce the number of
credits and time required for completion
Can these be taken on part-time basis?
How much do they cost?
A:I've also got a master's in a non-related field (political science) and am
now almost finished with an RN program.
I'm not aware of accelerated programs designed just because you already have
a degree, but certainly any RELEVANT physical science background would be
given credit for those pre-requisites of a nursing curriculum (anatomy and
phys, microbiology, nutrition, pharmacology, etc).
I also have an electronics background/AS degree, but no physical sciences
above. I was surprised (and dismayed) to learn the only credit they would
accept off my transcript for both my BS (Business) and MA (Poly Sci) would
be English and Sociology . . .a whopping 6sh!
So . . . I just "sucked it up" and spent almost a year getting the pre-reqs
out of the way before jumping into the nursing curriculum.
I wish him the best, and am happy I made the switch.
Many schools offer what is called "second degree" programs for persons
who already posess a B.S. degree in another area. These programs allow a
person to enter a nursing program direclty without taking the
"pre-nursing" sequence providing their previous course work meets
certian distribution/course requirements. Depending upon the program one
may also be allowed to have certian non-nursing courses waived also once
accepted into the program.
In general most programs are looking for: Anatomy and Physiology (one
year), Bacteriology or Microbiology, English, Sociology, Physiology,
Math (Algebra or above) and perhaps other core classes depending upon
the college/university requirements for all degree students.
As stated once admitted some programs will accept previous courses for
required non nursing courses such as foreign language, physiology, math,
other sciences et al. The key is to have taken the required course or a
higher level IMHO. In other words if the program requires Bacteriology
and you've taken Microbiology then it should be fine. Sometimes the
other way around will work, that is if you took a lower level course but
can prove it was more difficult/expansive than the course required, it
may be accepted. Some schools are rather liberal on what they accept
others are not, and it becomes a sit down/drag out battle between you
and whatever functionary is evaluating your transcript. It this case it
helps to have the college catalogue from your previous school showing
course descriptions for the classes you took. You may also need the
syllabus too, to convince a reluctant registrar to accept the course.
Some schools also have a time window, that is they will not accept
courses taken over X amount of years ago. The person applying may also
wish to consider how well they've retained course knowledge on a subject
studied 5 or 8 years ago. This is especially true of the science
courses which are crucial to understanding everything from pharmacology
to nursing practice.
Should point out that while these