what education do you need to be a nurse
While it may seem obvious that you'll demand a nursing instruction to become a nurse, there are few things to know nearly how to proceed. Nursing is a field with many pathways. The required degree level and other qualifications you lot'll need to interruption into and advance in the profession depend on your career aspirations.
Fortunately, in that location 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 pedagogy include:
- Surgical Assistant Registered Nurse: Associate in nursing (bachelor'south in nursing preferred)
- Critical Care Registered Nurse: Bachelor'southward in nursing
- Nurse Example Manager: Bachelor'southward in nursing
- Clinical Nurse Specialist: Master'south in nursing
- Nurse Practitioner: Primary's in nursing
Whether you lot have a sure patient population in listen or you know y'all desire to become a nurse practitioner, the key to achieving your goals is to identify your interests and aspirations and then build on your credentials and experiences along the fashion.
How to Become a Nurse
Most nurses brainstorm with an acquaintance or available'due south caste in nursing. Some volition then earn an advanced degree, further specializing their practice and gaining greater industry expertise.
What Qualifications Do You Need to Get a Nurse?
Regardless of which educational pathway is right for you, you'll need to pass the National Council Licensure Examination, or NCLEX-RN, to become a licensed registered nurse (RN).
Earning this credential is the minimum qualification needed to become a nurse. To sit for the exam, you'll need an Acquaintance Degree in Nursing (ADN), nursing diploma or Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN).
The ideal path to achieving a nursing degree should marshal with your professional goals while too building on your experience in the healthcare field. With that in mind, let'south wait at the different nursing degree options available to you, should you want to become a nurse or grow your nursing career.
And then, What Are the Dissimilar Types of Nursing Degrees?
There are several levels of nursing degrees to consider as y'all map out your career path, from undergraduate options that tin can help you found your career to advanced degrees that can become you lot where you desire to go.
Associate Degree in Nursing or Nursing Diploma
I educational pathway, and maybe the first step to becoming a registered nurse is earning an ADN from a two-yr program at a community college or vocational schoolhouse or a diploma from an approved nursing programme.
"While a BSN is the optimal style to get, some second degree or non-traditional students might choose one of these options," said Dr. Peggy Moriarty-Litz, chief nursing ambassador at Southern New Hampshire University (SNHU).
An ADN or diploma is also an educational stepping stone for licensed practical nurses (LPNs), the wellness services professionals who provide bones nursing care under the direction of RNs. If an LPN aspires to go an RN, this incremental approach "is a great mode to earn some money while going to school," Moriarty-Litz said. "It besides lets LPNs build upon their foundational educational knowledge."
While the nursing profession embraces nurses from all backgrounds and levels, "nosotros encourage them to go along on their education to earn a baccalaureate degree, a master'south degree and even beyond," said Moriarty-Litz.
To this terminate, many colleges and universities offering degree programs that build on a educatee'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 aforementioned fourth dimension, you lot progress in your career past opening doors to nursing positions in an assortment of settings, from hospitals and medico's offices to schools and long-term care facilities.
Available of Science in Nursing
"A baccalaureate education is the preferred road for preparing someone to have the licensure test in nursing," said Moriarty-Litz. A available's caste in nursing can take about 4 years to consummate and is offered at accredited colleges and universities.
"A nurse prepared at the baccalaureate level is required to accept the knowledge, skills and attitudes to deal with the increasing complexity of patient care, which is the outcome of increased life expectancy, a more diverse patient population and rapid patient turnover in hospital admissions," Moriarty-Litz said.
In addition to the necessary science instruction, BSN-prepared nurses larn soft skills that are, in fact, vital skills in the profession. Co-ordinate to Moriarty-Litz, these skills include:
- Communication: This ways being able to converse clearly and effectively with people (patients and colleagues) from diverse backgrounds and cultures.
- Collaboration: Working as part of inter-professional teams, including doctors, pharmacists, medical technicians and caseworkers, has go the standard of nursing and all health professions pedagogy, co-ordinate to the National League for Nursing (NLN PDF source).
- Critical thinking: Trouble-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 be 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 holding a available'south degree will be sought-after in the workforce. Many employers of nurses require or adopt new hires to have a BSN, according to a 2021 AACN survey. Sometimes employers will provide registered nurses a specific timeframe to earn the degree.
Learn more than about what a BSN is and why information technology pays to accelerate with one.
Advanced Degrees in Nursing
Co-ordinate to the IOM report, nurses with graduate degrees are needed to "presume roles in advanced practise, leadership, didactics and research." The IOM continues:
"While thirteen% of nurses agree a graduate caste, fewer than i% have a doctoral degree. Nurses with doctorates are needed to teach future generations of nurses and to conduct enquiry that becomes the footing for improvements in nursing scientific discipline and practise."
Avant-garde degrees in nursing include:
- Main of Science in Nursing (MSN): Advanced exercise nurses like nurse practitioners (NPs), clinical nurse specialists (CNSs), certified registered nurse anesthetist (CRNAs) and certified nurse-midwives (CNMs) crave an MSN degree and are helping to extend the achieve of primary care, co-ordinate to the AACN. You lot may elect to narrow your focus within an MSN programme – perhaps with an MSN in Healthcare Quality and Safety, Population Health or Nurse Executive Leadership.
- Main's in Nursing Education: For nurses with an aptitude for educational activity or mentoring, a master'due south in nursing education lets you lot train and educate electric current and future nurses. While the need for nursing programs is great, many institutions lack prepared nurse educators, according to Moriarty-Litz. According to the AACN, 80,407 qualified nursing school applicants were turned away in 2019 due in part to a faculty shortage. An advanced caste in nursing education can prepare you lot to work in educational settings, such as schools of nursing or universities, while clinical educatortracks train you to work equally a staff educator in long-term care or acute intendance settings. "Nursing education is a wide-open field with needs for instructors in face-to-face as well as online educational programs," Moriarty-Litz said.
- Dual Caste Programs: These programs let you specialize past combining an MSN with a second advanced degree, such equally a Master of Business Assistants (MBA), Main of Public Health (MPH), Primary of Health Administration (MHA) and other related master'southward degrees.
- Doc of Philosophy (PhD) or Doctor of Nursing Exercise (DNP): The sometime trains scientists and researchers, while the latter targets practitioners. Yet both advance nursing do, wrote Shaké Ketefian and Richard Due west. Redman in their journal article examining the programs.
If you want to explore the role a graduate nursing plan can play in your nursing career, learn more about what an MSN degree is.
Is Nursing School Hard?
Succeeding in a nursing program takes effort and a neat deal of determination. If you're already practicing in the field as an RN or working in another career, y'all may consider attending an online nursing school that can offering you greater flexibility than you might become on a traditional higher campus.
If y'all've e'er considered the field of nursing, the current nursing shortage indicates that at present is the time to change that consideration into a solid to-do. A lot of factors, from a changing healthcare system to crumbling Baby Boomers and many Registered Nurses (RNs) nearing retirement, are contributing to a "disquisitional shortage for nurses" in the U.S., according to the American Nursing Clan (ANA).
The shortage means RNs are projected to come across employment growth of 9% by 2030, faster than the average for all occupations, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reports.
How Long is Nursing School?
The length of nursing schoolhouse depends on the degree y'all choose. For case, an ADN is typically considered a ii-year degree, while a BSN usually takes four years. Ultimately, the type of degree you need to become a nurse depends, in part, on the kind of nurse you want to be.
The number of terms your school offers each yr, coupled with the number of courses you tin take, can also adjust your timeline. If y'all have any transfer credits from an unencumbered RN license or previous higher experiences, yous may be able to stop faster if yous attend a transfer-friendly school.
How Long Does it Take to Get a Registered Nurse?
If you pursue an associate caste in nursing, that'south typically a two-year program that prepares you to sit for the NCLEX exam. The timeline all depends on your pacing and the establishment in which you begin your nursing education.
Some nurses obtain their RN license earlier moving on to a available's degree. If you choose to become an RN first, yous can start practicing in the field while working toward your next credential – pairing your experience with your education.
How Many Credit Hours Does it Take to Go a Nurse?
The programme you are pursuing determines the number of credit hours it takes to earn a nursing degree. If y'all're wondering what a credit 60 minutes is, the U.S. Section of Didactics (DOE) defines it as ane hour of class time and 2 hours of student preparation time per calendar week over the course of a semester or quarter.
A BSN at SNHU, for case, is 120 credits, but your unencumbered RN license counts toward 45 of those, and you can transfer in up to 45 more than. And then, that would go out just 30 additional credits you would demand to complete.
Should you wish to earn an MSN, you'll notice that many tracks are 36 credits in length – or about 12 courses. Some colleges offering RN-to-MSN programs for those who desire to advance their educational timeline.
Whichever nursing path yous cull, you're positioning yourself to brand a divergence in healthcare and the lives of others while creating a career with incredible opportunities.
Discover more nearly SNHU's online RN to BSN Degree: Observe out what courses you'll take, skills yous can larn and how to request information well-nigh the program.
Sofia Tokar is a freelance copywriter and editor in higher instruction. Follow her on Twitter @stokar or connect on LinkedIn.
Source: https://www.snhu.edu/about-us/newsroom/health/what-degree-do-you-need-to-be-a-nurse
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