Once you have your career plan mapped out and you have chosen the nurse profession, the next step would be to choose the right nursing degree programs. Nursing today has evolved to become broader and more specialized, with almost as many branches and areas of expertise as medicine. You can see nurses in a number of clinical settings: hospitals, out-patient departments, hospitals, and many other areas.
You can choose from a number of options, Bachelor of Science, Licensed Practical Nursing, or Masters of Science to name a few. Licensed Practical course takes only a year to complete. This fast-paced program provides training on vital signs taking, wound dressing, sample collection for, as well as the fundamentals of, laboratory testing.
Taking up a Bachelors degree is more effective if you want to pursue as a registered nurse. Many of the institutions or Universities combined these nursing degree programs, they call it the BSN-to-RN course. It will take up to four years before you graduate as a Bachelors degree, after graduating, you will then take the board exam to become a registered nurse.
The Bachelor of Science in Nursing program prepares you to become a registered nurse. In some institutions, the two nursing degree programs are combined. You can take up the Bachelors degree before proceeding to become a registered nurse. This is known as the BSN to RN program and students that choose this program undergo specialized trainings.
These trainings are different from those of Licensed Practical course because they are more advanced and comprehensive. They are exposed and rotated to different areas in the hospital, advancing their skills and knowledge in the field. In general, Bachelor of Science program students perform a wider set of functions and have greater responsibilities. Graduates of this program are also qualified to work in specialized areas or further their education and pursue a field of specialization through the Masters of Science program.
The specialized trainings will improve your skills in one particular field of medicine. For example, a pediatric nurse will focus on children patients. For obstetrics nurse, the focal point is pregnant women.
Taking Masters studies will be more focused on specialization of enhanced skills and knowledge. They are more focused on their chosen field like management, as a researcher, psychiatric, community health, medical and surgical, maternal and child health, and many more. Most of the graduates become heads of the hospital, some are assigned as a floor supervisor, continuing nurse educator, area supervisor, chief nurse, and many more. Knowing all these, which nursing degree programs would you want?
Get inside info on how to choose the right nursing degree programs now in our guide to all you need to know about where to find a top nursing degree online .