what education is needed to be a nurse
While it may seem obvious that you'll need a nursing education to become a nurse, there are few things to know most how to proceed. Nursing is a field with many pathways. The required degree level and other qualifications y'all'll need to break into and accelerate in the profession depend on your career aspirations.
Fortunately, there is a range of options: from the bedside to the boardroom, hospitals to hospices, schools to specialty niches, and opportunities in between.
Some types of nurses and their required level of education include:
- Surgical Assistant Registered Nurse: Associate in nursing (bachelor's in nursing preferred)
- Critical Care Registered Nurse: Bachelor'due south in nursing
- Nurse Case Manager: Bachelor's in nursing
- Clinical Nurse Specialist: Master's in nursing
- Nurse Practitioner: Master's in nursing
Whether y'all have a sure patient population in mind or you know you want to go a nurse practitioner, the cardinal to achieving your goals is to place your interests and aspirations and and so build on your credentials and experiences along the manner.
How to Become a Nurse
Most nurses begin with an associate or available'south degree in nursing. Some will then earn an advanced caste, further specializing their exercise and gaining greater manufacture expertise.
What Qualifications Do You Need to Get a Nurse?
Regardless of which educational pathway is correct for yous, you'll need to pass the National Council Licensure Exam, or NCLEX-RN, to become a licensed registered nurse (RN).
Earning this credential is the minimum qualification needed to get a nurse. To sit for the exam, yous'll need an Associate Caste in Nursing (ADN), nursing diploma or Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN).
The ideal path to achieving a nursing caste should marshal with your professional goals while too building on your feel in the healthcare field. With that in listen, let'due south look at the dissimilar nursing caste options available to you, should you want to become a nurse or grow your nursing career.
And so, What Are the Different Types of Nursing Degrees?
There are several levels of nursing degrees to consider as you map out your career path, from undergraduate options that can assistance you institute your career to avant-garde degrees that tin can get you where yous want to go.
Associate Degree in Nursing or Nursing Diploma
One educational pathway, and maybe the first step to becoming a registered nurse is earning an ADN from a two-year program at a community college or vocational school or a diploma from an approved nursing program.
"While a BSN is the optimal way to become, some 2nd caste or non-traditional students might choose one of these options," said Dr. Peggy Moriarty-Litz, chief nursing administrator at Southern New Hampshire University (SNHU).
An ADN or diploma is also an educational stepping rock for licensed applied nurses (LPNs), the health services professionals who provide basic nursing care under the management of RNs. If an LPN aspires to get an RN, this incremental approach "is a great style to earn some coin while going to school," Moriarty-Litz said. "It also lets LPNs build upon their foundational educational knowledge."
While the nursing profession embraces nurses from all backgrounds and levels, "we encourage them to continue on their pedagogy to earn a baccalaureate degree, a primary's degree and even beyond," said Moriarty-Litz.
To this end, many colleges and universities offer degree programs that build on a student's existing credentials, such as the:
- LPN to BSN
- RN to BSN
- RN to MSN
These bridging degree programs let you develop your professional identity as an RN. At the same fourth dimension, you progress in your career by opening doors to nursing positions in an array of settings, from hospitals and doctor'due south offices to schools and long-term care facilities.
Bachelor of Science in Nursing
"A baccalaureate education is the preferred route for preparing someone to take the licensure examination in nursing," said Moriarty-Litz. A bachelor's degree in nursing can have about iv years to complete and is offered at accredited colleges and universities.
"A nurse prepared at the baccalaureate level is required to have the knowledge, skills and attitudes to deal with the increasing complexity of patient intendance, which is the effect of increased life expectancy, a more various patient population and rapid patient turnover in hospital admissions," Moriarty-Litz said.
In addition to the necessary science education, BSN-prepared nurses acquire soft skills that are, in fact, vital skills in the profession. Co-ordinate to Moriarty-Litz, these skills include:
- Communication: This means existence able to antipodal conspicuously and finer with people (patients and colleagues) from diverse backgrounds and cultures.
- Collaboration: Working every bit part of inter-professional teams, including doctors, pharmacists, medical technicians and caseworkers, has become the standard of nursing and all health professions education, according to the National League for Nursing (NLN PDF source).
- Disquisitional thinking: Problem-solving through interpreting, analyzing and evaluating is accounted an essential skill for nurses by an "Acta Informatica Medica" journal article.
- Organization: "It's important for nurses to exist organized and methodical in how they arroyo their responsibilities, especially since many aspects of nursing care are time-sensitive," Moriarty-Litz said.
Finally, hospitals employing larger numbers of BSN-educated nurses are associated with decreased patient mortality rates, according to research by Dr. Linda H. Aiken and her co-authors.
In other words, nurses property a bachelor's degree will be sought-later in the workforce. Many employers of nurses require or adopt new hires to accept a BSN, according to a 2021 AACN survey. Sometimes employers will provide registered nurses a specific timeframe to earn the degree.
Learn more about what a BSN is and why it pays to advance with one.
Advanced Degrees in Nursing
According to the IOM report, nurses with graduate degrees are needed to "assume roles in advanced do, leadership, pedagogy and enquiry." The IOM continues:
"While 13% of nurses hold a graduate degree, fewer than 1% take a doctoral degree. Nurses with doctorates are needed to teach future generations of nurses and to conduct inquiry that becomes the basis for improvements in nursing science and practice."
Avant-garde degrees in nursing include:
- Master of Science in Nursing (MSN): Advanced practise nurses similar nurse practitioners (NPs), clinical nurse specialists (CNSs), certified registered nurse anesthetist (CRNAs) and certified nurse-midwives (CNMs) require an MSN degree and are helping to extend the reach of primary care, according to the AACN. You may elect to narrow your focus inside an MSN program – perhaps with an MSN in Healthcare Quality and Safety, Population Health or Nurse Executive Leadership.
- Master's in Nursing Educational activity: For nurses with an aptitude for teaching or mentoring, a master's in nursing education lets you railroad train and educate electric current and future nurses. While the demand for nursing programs is great, many institutions lack prepared nurse educators, co-ordinate to Moriarty-Litz. According to the AACN, eighty,407 qualified nursing schoolhouse applicants were turned away in 2019 due in role to a kinesthesia shortage. An advanced degree in nursing education tin can prepare you to piece of work in educational settings, such as schools of nursing or universities, while clinical educatortracks train you to work as a staff educator in long-term care or acute care settings. "Nursing education is a broad-open field with needs for instructors in contiguous as well equally online educational programs," Moriarty-Litz said.
- Dual Degree Programs: These programs let you specialize by combining an MSN with a second advanced degree, such as a Main of Business Assistants (MBA), Main of Public Wellness (MPH), Master of Health Administration (MHA) and other related master'due south degrees.
- Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) or Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP): The sometime trains scientists and researchers, while the latter targets practitioners. Yet both accelerate nursing practise, wrote Shaké Ketefian and Richard W. Redman in their journal article examining the programs.
If y'all desire to explore the role a graduate nursing program can play in your nursing career, larn more near what an MSN degree is.
Is Nursing School Hard?
Succeeding in a nursing program takes effort and a great deal of determination. If you lot're already practicing in the field as an RN or working in another career, you may consider attention an online nursing schoolhouse that tin offer you greater flexibility than you might get on a traditional college campus.
If you've ever considered the field of nursing, the current nursing shortage indicates that now is the time to alter that consideration into a solid to-do. A lot of factors, from a changing healthcare system to aging Baby Boomers and many Registered Nurses (RNs) nearing retirement, are contributing to a "critical shortage for nurses" in the U.S., co-ordinate to the American Nursing Clan (ANA).
The shortage means RNs are projected to see employment growth of ix% by 2030, faster than the average for all occupations, the U.S. Agency of Labor Statistics (BLS) reports.
How Long is Nursing School?
The length of nursing school depends on the caste yous choose. For example, an ADN is typically considered a 2-year degree, while a BSN usually takes four years. Ultimately, the type of degree you need to go a nurse depends, in part, on the kind of nurse you want to be.
The number of terms your school offers each year, coupled with the number of courses you lot tin can have, can likewise suit your timeline. If you lot have any transfer credits from an unencumbered RN license or previous college experiences, yous may be able to stop faster if you attend a transfer-friendly school.
How Long Does it Take to Become a Registered Nurse?
If you pursue an acquaintance caste in nursing, that's typically a two-year plan that prepares you to sit for the NCLEX test. The timeline all depends on your pacing and the institution in which you lot brainstorm your nursing pedagogy.
Some nurses obtain their RN license before moving on to a bachelor'southward degree. If you choose to become an RN beginning, you can starting time practicing in the field while working toward your next credential – pairing your experience with your education.
How Many Credit Hours Does information technology Have to Get a Nurse?
The program you are pursuing determines the number of credit hours it takes to earn a nursing degree. If you're wondering what a credit 60 minutes is, the U.S. Department of Teaching (DOE) defines information technology as one 60 minutes of form time and two hours of student training time per week over the course of a semester or quarter.
A BSN at SNHU, for example, is 120 credits, but your unencumbered RN license counts toward 45 of those, and you can transfer in upward to 45 more. So, that would leave just 30 boosted credits you would need to complete.
Should you wish to earn an MSN, you'll find that many tracks are 36 credits in length – or most 12 courses. Some colleges offer RN-to-MSN programs for those who desire to accelerate their educational timeline.
Whichever nursing path you choose, you're positioning yourself to make a difference in healthcare and the lives of others while creating a career with incredible opportunities.
Discover more nearly SNHU'due south online RN to BSN Degree: Discover out what courses you'll have, skills you can learn and how to request information most the program.
Sofia Tokar is a freelance copywriter and editor in higher education. Follow her on Twitter @stokar or connect on LinkedIn.
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Source: https://www.snhu.edu/about-us/newsroom/health/what-degree-do-you-need-to-be-a-nurse