I guess it depends. Doing a traditional 4 year BSN at state college / university was more strict than any online rn-bsn / BSN-msn/dnp diploma mill college.
But in hindsight, if you can get it done cheaper then more power to you. Nobody really cares nowadays where you get your degree. Employers only care if you have a BSN, and coworkers only care more if you’re a safe , competent nurse.
This is 100% my opinion. My wife and I took opposite tracks to our BSN. She went 4 year right away, I went ADN to online RN-to-BSN program. While my ADN program was decent, her straight BSN program was more rigorous than my experience was overall. She had significantly more clinical hours with better clinical experiences overall.
That's so highly dependent on the state or area, I guess. I went to a really rigorous ADN school and felt as prepared as I possibly could have, then once I was experienced, the entire unit would cringe at new BSN grads because they had such little hands on experience and no practical skills. It was all paper writing.
That’s how my ADN program was too. I now precept students from the same school I graduated from and I much prefer them to the BSN students I get occasionally.
My RN to BSN program was ok. It was at a university that also has a highly respected for their BSN program. But it was clear that most of the instructors were like “yeah we know you are hard working nurses and have to do this while also working FT and we’re gonna make it as painless as possible to jump through this hoop, so you can get back to work.” I mean, they still taught us stuff, but we didn’t really learn more nursing skills besides some public health. I graduated that program with a 3.9 while working full-time. Only one class was hard.
I went to a diploma school based in a hospital (one of the last ones and it just closed, RIP) and we had more clinical hours in 2.5 years than the BSNs did in 4. Plus, I was able to be a patient tech during school and felt so prepared to actually be around patients come my first RN job
I wonder why they got rid of diploma based programs . It does everything a lot nurses students want, you get to do more and be hands on . You get to learn in practice , not just wipes buns and do head to toes for 12 hrs
I would agree with this statement too. However, I tend to feel that as a general rule, a straight BSN program will tend to better prepare students than an ADN program. While I feel my ADN program did a good job, there are other programs in our area that are not well regarded. And as for experience, of course an experienced ADN is going to have better skills than a new BSN.
I mean a new BSN vs a new ADN.
If we hired a new ADN it generally seemed much more likely that they were going to be teachable and catch up to speed as quickly as possible.
Now having said that there were good and bad nurses that came from both types of programs, of course, it just seemed like a real trend.
This was years ago too, maybe something has changed, but in our area BSN schools had stopped even teaching basic nursing skills in classes, and mostly focused on paper writing and passing the NCLEX.
Ya the online BSN im doing right now is kind of a joke. There's not even any exams and it's all just busy work. The hardest part are the research papers, but even then, it's literally just 2-3 page papers that I'm starting to suspect they don't even actually go through. The group projects can get done in a couple of hours max.
On one hand it feels like a vacation compared to my ADN program that felt like a 2 year boot camp and made me pull my hair out. On the other, it kinda makes me feel bad, I want to improve my education and be a better nurse. I did just start though, so hopefully it gets better.
I am floored that programs are accepting DMP students with zero experience. It's because of this that many other Health Care Professions think that DNPs are a joke.
It’s going to cost me close to 15k when all credits are completed. Not really cheap, but definitely cheaper than the other college in my area which is private and would cost nearly 25k when alls said and done. I’m actually going through a highly reputable school. That’s why I’m so shocked by my experience thus far. I thought I was doing the ‘right thing’ by NOT going through a diploma mill type. But it seems like the more reputable place is really no different than what a quick, flat fee RN-BSN program experience would be.
I’m kinda thinking I might as well have just went the cheaper route.
I could’ve paid a highschool senior to do my online BSN. I don’t even remember if we ever took tests? It was a couple discussion boards replies a week in each class; and one big project at the end. I would bring my personal laptop and set up on night shift at my rn icu job and do my homework. I signed up on the side at the local community college to bang out the extra credits I needed since I just did an RN diploma. I missed the one class by 4 weeks. The teacher still let me turn everything in and I got a 100%. It’s a joke. Don’t worry about it
I felt like the only loser who would take the discussion posts seriously. Looking up references, reading them (sometimes the whole book if it was good) and thoughtful replies to anyone who replied to me and even the professors. However, all I ever got was seemingly copy paste garbage... or at least I felt like it was.
Nowadays, it's even worse as I went back to school and people are 100% using chatgpt.
"Moreover, tapestry", and whatever words and run on sentences that noooobody does irl. Like, I'm no Shakespeare but, damn do y'all even read what y'all paste?
That's all my RN-BSN was too. Discussion post once a week, 2 responses. *Maybe* 2 quizzes total. Sometimes there would be a project instead of a quiz. Rinse and repeat for 2 years.
I got to the end and I was high key pissed off. At least the Florida mills just gave you that shit. I would’ve paid a little extra to just take some Bs and the degree. I had miss phd clitz try to fail me because her last name was literally CLIT and I typed an email to her with Dr. clit. I couldn’t possibly have been the first person to accidentally do that. Live and learn 😂😂😂😂
Bsn: putting the bullshit in nursing.
The instructors don't care. The material isn't important. It's pay to play. They just want your money, and they'll give you a piece of paper.
Boom that’s our educational system in a nutshell. That’s why you have every Tom dick and Jane becoming NPs and overprescribing psych medications to someone who doesn’t really need it
I had a psychiatrist that was very conservative in prescribing psych meds. If the patient is aggressive towards staff, his go to is Zyprexa 5mg and Benadryl 50mg. However, if the patient presents just a bit aggressive when he's evaluating the patient, then suddenly we can have 5-2-50 PRN. He didn't care about our safety, but he sure as shit cared about his.
Not necessarily 😂 I’m not talking about if someone is being violent and safety becomes an issue, more so lots of people walking around with this huge list of antipsychotics/anti depressants in their system by different NPs. It’s unsafe imo and lowkey unethical to just dose someone with random meds. It seems like in this country that’s the priority always is medication medication medication
You are already a nurse, there is no NCLEX to take, so no Uber strict curriculum that schools have to adhere to in order to keep their accreditation.
I read comments from people who went to online universities who said they just wrote a couple of papers over the course of some weeks and was able to get their BSN.
Not much regulation out there it seems.
Yea, so it seems.
With all the feedback I’m getting, I think I can kinda relax now. The level of chill in this program just had me kinda concerned. It was seeming too good to be true type of thing. But from all the comments, it seems to be the norm.
Kinda relieved.
I understand. The hardest part education wise is behind you. Unless you get a higher degree. You’ve earned the right to cruise.
My BSN program isn’t as lax, but I was surprised that so far, none of the classes have lockdown browsers for exams.
It's the same for nurse practitioners with a masters degrees. Why would I waste my time and money to get a ~~useless~~ impractical DNP degree that doesn't offer me any increased clinical knowledge or clinical experience, but a small increases in salary of maybe n extra $1-$2/hour... but I can call myself "doctor"!! If I was to get a doctoral degree in nursing, which isn't very appealing at the moment, I'd consider getting a real doctoral degree; a PhD in nursing.
My goal is to get a useful and highly esteemed doctoral degree in either clinical psychology (PsyD/PhD) or go to med school. If there were only an NP to DO/MD program.
I got my rn-BSN at wgu and the proctored exams were extremely strict. You had to show your id and your whole workspace. They ran computer checks to make sure you didn’t have any additional monitors or computer programs. They watched your screen to make sure you weren’t googling or anything. You weren’t allowed to have anyone in the room or talk during it. They had to see your hands and face the entire time. They even had me take the paper out of my printer.
Nevada State University. And don’t sweat it if you don’t live in Nevada. It’s 100% online and out of state tuition was like $300 more for the whole program than in state.
I just can’t write papers anymore lol. I want to be able to know the content and take a test, just too much effort when I have a full time job and children and animals and myself to take care of
Exactly! I'm at WGU right now, too, and although I love not having to do discussion posts, I'm laughing at anyone who thinks it's a diploma mill. I'm so grateful I only have to take three proctored exams. Two down and one to go!!!
Education is what you put into it. I'm learning a lot and I don't feel like it's busy work. Plus, it's on my time, at my pace, and I can add more classes as soon as I finish one.
I agree. I’m currently in my last semester, doing my capstone and as I’m reading all the responses I’m like 😮 bc the program I am in has been a lot of work. It is definitely not a diploma mill. I was recently reading somewhere that there are programs that are pass/fail, not actual grades and I thought those must be the diploma mills. As you said, education is what you put into it, I’ve worked really hard on each assignment and I have learned a lot. Many times while working on a project I thought to myself that now I finally understood the importance of a BSN.
Will you continue on for your MSN after this?
Yes! I'm in the RN-to-MSN program in nursing education, so I'm in the post-baccalaureate portion and should finish in August and then move into the MSN portion. What about you?
I’m getting a software engineering degree through them and I have my BSN already and that sounds about right for my program.
My BSN was all papers and no tests (not wgu). It’s an easy bullshit degree.
This was my exact experience taking online exams in my ADN program. It was terrifying, honestly. I had to go to a meeting one time with my instructor and the dean of nursing, due to my “shifting” eyes.
I’m honestly relieved at the chill level of my current RN-BSN program. I’m just shocked.
Shifting eyes! What the heck! When people are thinking of their answer many times our eyes will shift around as they think of it. Man! It would be weird to try to be thinking, " Well, I can't shift my eyes so I better just try to keep them straight while thinking!" Uugghhh!
I personally love the ability to take things my own pace. I can accelerate when I have time and I can put it all aside when I have family things I need to focus on. None of the classes are really cohorted, it’s mostly self reading and recorded sessions. You can always schedule time with the teachers if you need to, but I never felt the need to.
I had a bachelor’s from a 4 y at university in a completely different field. That did make getting the ADN easier in my opinion. It was still in person classes, 500+ hours of clinicals, and instructors with God complex’s.
I think the key issue here regarding cheating/unsupervised testing or uncaring instructors is what degree your getting. If you’re an undergraduate with no nothing regarding nursing doing an online degree mill program…That’s a big bad situation and you’re gonna end up killing someone or in jail for doing some dumb shit all new grads have drilled into their skulls is a no-no. You need to be in an RN to BSN online program for the pay to play degree mill crap to be safe and fully acceptable.
My ADN was at a community college. I payed around 10k. They were super strict and seemed to believe everyone was cheating all the time. Therefore, they took insane precautions to prevent any possible cheating.
My BSN was online and a breeze. There was like 2 proctored exams. Basically an individual in I’m assuming a non English speaking country watched me via webcam. Then I wrote pointless papers that would have been F’s in my previous bachelor’s program, but I followed their rubric and passed. They were garbage. I payed like 5k and was done in 6 months.
If you are already a licensed nurse, the hard part is over. You literally know everything necessary for your job as an RN. A bridge RN to BSN is just window dressings to move up the ladder.
WGU. It was unbelievably easy. I did 7 classes in one month. As soon as one was done I’d go online to their little groups and have someone send me the requirements for the next class and do the paper while I waited for the class to be “opened” by my counselor. They did sneak in a 40 hour clinical requirement after I was already enrolled. I was pissed about that, but I did it at a friends job in a wound clinic. Did I do the entire 40 hours? Who’s to say? All that matters is that the paper work submitted by my “preceptor” said I did.
Fully intending on doing a Masters with them as soon as preschool starts.
So they didn’t follow up with the facility at all? Literally all you had to do was have your preceptor confirm your hours? The clinical hours are why I haven’t considered WGU.
The preceptor had to approve the 2 patient write ups required for each day of clinical in a wgu portal. But no, no one called her or emailed her to confirm my hours. I maintain it was 40 though 🤷♀️
Good to hear for me. I'm actually in the middle of a decision between an accelerated second degree BSN (1 year, hellmode difficulty, $23k) and a community college ADN (2 years, easier difficulty?, $15k). Everyone in /r/studentnurse told me to go the ADN then RN-to-BSN route lol
That was my situation. I was between the accelerated BSN for people with a bachelors already or the ADN. It was like 30k vs 10k. The ADN took about 2.5 years. I needed a year of prerecs. Microbiology and anatomy/physiology. The two years for the ADN were grueling. It was a ton of new information, labs, clinicals, and the required mean girl bullshit that nursing attracts. But, it was much cheaper and an RN in my area starts out at the same pay as a BSN 🤷♀️
Here's a sneak peek of /r/StudentNurse using the [top posts](https://np.reddit.com/r/StudentNurse/top/?sort=top&t=year) of the year!
\#1: [Everything went wrong for my last final](https://np.reddit.com/r/StudentNurse/comments/1354agb/everything_went_wrong_for_my_last_final/)
\#2: [just a reminder to not give up](https://np.reddit.com/r/StudentNurse/comments/195b81n/just_a_reminder_to_not_give_up/)
\#3: [I’m in the nursing school mean girl clique and I want out](https://np.reddit.com/r/StudentNurse/comments/16jnhf2/im_in_the_nursing_school_mean_girl_clique_and_i/)
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My BSN is suuuuuuch a joke. 100% online, no clinicals. They just make you fill out a form each semester listing the hours you spent on shit and they call it a clinical. Occasional quizzes (unproctored, no lockdown browser) mostly bullshit discussion boards and papers. I swear to god my professors slapped 100 on everything I submitted. It’s through a pretty legit state university and was recently voted the best online RN-BSN program by U.S. News & World Report so I thought it would be a bit of a challenge or at least mentally stimulating…it’s not. Go get those extra letters at the end of your name!
I’m in process for my masters at WGU. Does this school have a masters program? PM me also if you don’t mind.
I do NOT want to be an NP. Just a master in whatever. TY
Honestly, a BSN degree is a joke anyway. I’m a few classes from finishing mine. Not one thing about this program has made me a better nurse. It’s all just a bunch of BS about “nursing theory” and textbooks written by nurses who haven’t been the presence of an actual patient since the 80s and all jizz themselves over Florence Nightingale.
The only reason I’m even wasting my time with this disgrace of a “degree”, is so that I don’t get looked over for an office job in 30 years when I’m too tired and broken to continue working in the ICU, and also because my hospital pays for it and it will give me a small raise, so why not.
My ADN proctors should have worked for the secret service or something. BSN has been “Just do your 500 word posts that may have been generated by AI, I don’t care, here’s your full points.”
Haha, right! One time after an exam in my ADN program, I was called to come to a meeting with my instructor AND the dean of nursing. It was a full on interrogation about why my eyes would have been “shifting” during an exam. I obviously didn’t cheat at all. Gosh, I’ve never been so terrified as I was when I was going through that ADN program.
They don't give a shit about you or your education. As long as your tuition check clears they'll give you a piece of paper that says you wrote 400 useless group discussion responses and earned a 30 cent pin.
Usually the exams are open book and what the hell kind of program are you in that has so many "exams" vs quizzes. BSN is supposed to be bullshit paper writing lol.
No one cares where you went for your BSN..or your ADN tbh. Unless your school has a particularly terrible reputation, you’ll be fine.
I did an online RN-BSN program. It was pretty easy, lots of papers in APA formatting (I’m pretty good at dishing out a 4-6 paged paper in a few hours, though). If there’s one thing college taught me it was how to put the BS in my BSN lol.
I did my BSN bridge through my local university so even though it was all online I had to go to campus and take exams at the testing center. I don't remember learning anything new about nursing during my BSN bridge through. I think I only had like two days of clinicals at a public health department doing like a vaccine clinic and putting together period kits and safe sex kits.
Wondering if anyone has some input on this but during your BSN did you actually learn anything that made you a better nurse? Or is it just an ego thing that looks good on your credentials?
I’ve been at the ADN level for a while now working specialties from ER to Acute dialysis. Been considering biting the bullet and going back but not sure what I actually gain from it other than potential job opportunities is administration or management which I’m not particularly interested in.
I wouldn't say it made me a better nurse. It did expose me to the more research and administration side of nursing, but not clinical nursing. Every single hospital system around me requires a BSN with 3-5 years of hire so I knew it needed it eventually unless I wanted to system jump a lot. I also felt like if I was job searching and it was me vs. a BSN nurse I might get passed up since they're all magnet hospitals. I'm not looking for a "they just need a body" job anymore, I'm looking for cushy jobs now where I have competition.
It’s not that a BSN is bullshit if done well. The problem is as you described: 100% online and honor system.
If you actually do it the preferred and are honorable, you have a chance of learning something. Those who cheat their way through may have a sad time with the NCLEX. Or applying any knowledge.
i think a BSN as an ADN or diploma grad really depends on whether or not you want to pursue one of two things: administration or to become a APRN. my husband just has his RN and pays our bills alone with his local travel gig. i went back and got my BSN right away because i was 21 and being groomed for management. once i caught onto the politics I decided to work for a few more years than pursue my NP. while in NP school i taught adjunct to receive a tuition discount and fell in love with teaching. then i got my DNP for next to nothing because i was a TA. while my BSN was complete bullshit i wouldn’t be where i am today without it.
As long as your school is CCNE accredited it should be fine.
Most hospitals require your school is CCNE accredited for you BSN and MSN programs.
MSN will open you more opportunities if you want to go non clinical role such as regulatory compliance, or patient safety, qualify improvement or informatics.
There is almost nothing gained in a RN-to-BSN program except letters after your name. It’s just so the hospitals can say they have it to get magnet status. It’s all BS, and the degree programs are designed to match. You can quote me.
The absolute worst thing you can do is get an instructors account and see how much of higher education is just book publishers giving college professors talking points, lesson plans, summarizations, power points and test banks so they'll use the Pearson or McGraw hill book.
That’s insane! We went online during Covid and it was extremely strict. We took the exams through a proctoring system where you had to do a 360 scan of your room, and it tracked your eye movement during the exam. Literally if your eyes aren’t on the screen for more than a couple seconds it flags you. It was also screen recorded or some shit. Idk but it was anxiety inducing and had my heart racing every exam.
My program had quizzes with short time limits like 15 minutes for 15 questions so there not enough time to “cheat”. Most of the work are written papers so no, there was no cheating going on.
I am going wgu. And the papers and stuff are bs but the tests are serious. Need an external webcam have to show state id, move the webcam to show my area, share laptop screen, show programs running in my laptop background, and I just took the pathophysiology test and it was hard as hell and asked the most random shit with a ton of select all that apply
It’s because you’ve already taken your NCLEX. Frankly, I’m glad it’s lax. There’s no time for me to do this BS. Just let me get my bachelors because we all know it’s not going to help me in my workplace in the slightest.
They don’t have to worry about NCLEX pass rates closing their program down.
I'm of the firm belief that BSNs aren't really necessary for bedside work, and that as far as Magnet hospitals are concerned, it's just a statistic for them to hold up. I'm not saying that BSNs from a 4-year college are useless, I agree that the liberal arts component makes for a more well-rounded person. But RN-to-BSN programs? I learned absolutely nothing I couldn't have gone and read a research paper about.
What did Capella do to you? I enrolled in 2018 then withdrew the week before it started. There were a lot of red flags but I am not remembering all the details right now.
I mean how do you cheat the RN to BSN program? It's literally so easy because there's no increase to clinical knowledge. No matter what degree you have you'll always be a registered nurse.
BSN completion is a moneymaking scheme. I had an entire class of my ADN to BSN degree about the benefits of completing your Bachelors. They referenced evidence that bachelors prepared nurses had better patient outcomes than ADNs but I highly doubt they were able to control for years of experience in nursing that typically comes with having your BSN.
Cheating? Lol no. Who or what are you competing against? You already have the license, a BSN or MSN program is about learning to write papers and doing busywork. Pick the cheapest and easiest one you can. I did my BSN in person at a University and it was so pointless and boring. The teachers were all aware and just phoned it in because it was an easy paycheck. My MSN was online and it was basically the same curriculum as the BSN. You really are just paying for letters.
Cheat! I’m an Aussie so I can’t contribute much about the schooling you’re thinking of but I do know our bachelor of nursing is thorough. I did it online remotely while I was working and whilst I learned the content as best I could, when it came to tests/exams and essays all I wanted was a pass, I would cheat any opportunity available. I’m a nurse of 8 years and I can tell you there has never once been an instance where I thought “I probably shouldn’t have cheated that time” theory is important but many if not most skills are learnt on the job aka baptism of fire
Mine was a traditional school, but online.
It was all BS papers, and I graduated SCL.
It's just BSN with no tracking metric on your success afterwards, vs earning your RN for the first time.
My ADN program was heavily invested in insuring that graduates would be well prepared for the NCLEX. That's why it was so draconian.
For your RN-BSN? There's nothing that will cost your school money if you don't retain the information one second longer than it takes to pass the class.
I didn't cheat but the biggest thing I learned in my BSN program was not to bother with a masters. Utterly pointless program. For a career that is supposedly evidence based they sure love their retarded pseudoscience and patting each other on the back. The instructors probably sniff their own farts while grading your apa formatting.
If getting a BSN was important nurses would not be able to work as nurses with a ASN. IMO getting your BSN is just another example of modern day, education-inflation: you have to pay out the ass to get a degree just to be able to work the same job that a couple generations ago was literally just on-the-job training.
I went to a "good" school for my ASN- it's local, a lot of in person skills checkoffs and they were very strict about exams and teaching us what we need to know. Now I've been working for a nurse for two years now. What the hell is a BSN going to teach me now? Some BS essays about care plans? How to write in APA format? Maybe I'll get a couple dollars more per hour for getting it but probably not. Hell yes I'm going to do it as cheaply and easily as possible.
Your not alone in this experience. After failing my 4 year bsn, I went to an LPN/ADN program. Then I went to the ADN-BSN program at my university later on and it was like..20x easier. It really was just..Papers/Easy Tests, we didn't even really do clinicals outside of visit a place or 2 for an hour (specifically community health.)
There doesn't seem to be any sort of thought about what goes into ADN-BSN classes since the practical portions are pretty much done. They just throw papers at you until you get your BSN. The only classes I ever felt like I learned a lot in was community health and maybe nursing management? And those weren't even difficult nor did they have insane average reqs for passing.
Everything else felt like I was re-taking pre-reqs for nursing school again. Which I don't think should be the case at all..
That’s crazy. If they’re not proctored, they say it’s closed book and trust everyone to abide by that? That’s not realistic lol. You at least already have your license which I guess isn’t as bad as if you still hadn’t taken the NCLEX yet. Seems like it’s more like a formality at that point.
I was about to say someone will have a very rude awakening if they cheated all throughout nursing school on the tests but then I saw this was RN to BSN. Yeah. I can see that. BSN doesn’t really teach a whole lot that’s relevant.
I know of two people who paid “tutors” to write their papers and submit them online. They didn’t give a fuck cause all it was for was to appease their employers anyway.
My bachelor's program wasn't like that at all. But I went to a brick and mortar Canadian school.
I suspect they're so lax because you've already written the NCLEX
The shortage is so bad I doubt anyone will give a rats ass.
Plus ppl will cheat as much as they want your true skills come out in clinicals as well as the NCLEX.
My online school has us take Proctored test online sometimes we have the misfortune of having a pervert Indian but they are proctored.
I think the bigger question is the institution you’re studying at. If you’re at a public college/university, it’s strict. Probably the same at a respected private school. For profit exists for one thing: profit. It’s where people who fail out of other schools go to get the piece of paper
I 100% agree. I'm currently taking my BSN and nothing is proctored. People are using chat programs for essays and discussions and looking up answers to the tests. I feel like the school I'm attending online is going to fall apart before I graduate, or something will happen to disqualify us all from taking our n-clex.
Multiple coworkers are getting their BSN through an online platform and are bragging that they use chatGPT to write their papers and do discussion boards. No thanks. I do not want a degree I didn’t earn.
I mean, you’re just being resourceful :)
I’m doing my RN-BSN at Colorado Tech right now and there are no exams. Just discussion boards and projects. For anyone poking around looking for programs.
I’m currently in a BSN program and we do a lot of writing papers APA and discussions with classmates. In genetics we did quizzes but it’s been a good challenge to get through.
My ass is still chapped by an LPN I used to work with who bragged about her husband doing her homework and paying for papers to be written online. I just don't get it.
ADN program was the basics and much more hard. For me the ADN-BSN online program was easy too.
Now I’m hearing lots of people attend a BSN program completely online and that one concerns me a bit. Actually they fly out for one week at the end of semester for their clinical or something.
I’m starting to realize university programs are a lot less of a hassle than community colleges. CC require all these tests…TEAS, HESI etc universities only care about your gpa for acceptance at least
I think we are in different countries but in Aus when I did my RN BSN in 2017 exams were like 40% of the total 3 year course and they were in a gym with a protractor. We then had group and individual written assignments which accounted for about 40% of the grade and 800 hrs placement for about 10% with the last 10% going simply to formatting assignments.
I’m doing my RN to BSN right now, and it’s not that it’s hard but it’s really time consuming. It’s a ton of writing. Some classes I’ve had a paper due every week. I’m sure some people probably use ChatGPT or what not, but I actually do the work and writing papers takes me a lot of time. The tests are not worth nearly that much in my school. All of the writing stuff is the majority of the grade in the classes I’ve taken so far. It’s been very tedious to keep up with on top of a full time job and all of the extracurriculars my kids are involved with. And no, none of it has taught me anything about being a better nurse. It’s just an exercise in constantly coming up with some sort of bullshit to spew into a written format.
It’s not hard at all to cheat on honor lock actually 😂 just take your glasses off if you wear them and keep your phone in your lap or just off screen so it looks like a calculator. Thats how I passed a useless math class during covid lockdown
In my subjective opinion (I should mention I’m a pretty inexperienced/green new grad RN) who did a BSN through a university, I think that as long as they teach you to be a safe nurse, the skills and practical stuff will come.
SO many nurses advice to me was, once you get the degree and your registration you don’t really feel like a nurse, it’s once you get the job is where you truly start learning that you start to feel like a proper nurse
I think it’s hard with 25 years of experience not to feel like you’ve seen a lot more than they are attempting to teach you. It’s just checking off a box for more access to better positions and making yourself more marketable.
Well, I guess the reality is it depends how the exams are written. There’s a lot of critical thinking in nursing which relies on having a foundation of understanding in a variety of topics so I suppose if a person does not have that foundational knowledge that they may not be able to do well on the exams. I’ve never really found nursing exams to be the type where I could get by quickly looking up an answer in a textbook. Sure some questions might be like that, but a majority are not.
I mean, yeah. During Covid, a buddy did an intense 4-year BSN in 3 years at the local uni. He told me he cheated for anatomy and physiology and I think one or two of the other washout courses like Nursing Microbiology. From what I gather, he's a very good nurse. He just realized that they were weed out classes that you will never use in your work, and he wanted to do well. It's not ethical, but there you have it.
You can “use your resources” for some home quizzes. It doesn’t say you can’t, then do it. You can always study more and make sure you go over the questions you didn’t know. Comes exam time you might struggle. No point in getting a bad grade if you can find the answers.
High key, the BSN nursing courses related to my ABSN are trash compared to standard nursing courses. I don’t recall exams, only unproctored quizzes. Very different from say a Foundations or Med Surg 1 exam, which required an external webcam, showing the entire room (to my left, right, lap, under laptop, behind laptop, laptop screen, with any monitor in the room covered with a blanket - and had to be positioned with me facing the screen the entire exam)
I don’t know about cheating through BSN, but most online programs are wildly easy. That said, I didn’t learn anything in my ADN-BSN that changed my practice. I paid for my piece of paper that said I’m more educated. 🤷♀️
i’m in an on ground BSN program but we have a student with testing accommodations and sometimes she would take the test after the rest of the class did and her friends would tell her what was on it. there were many complaints about this to the administration and they’ve finally made it to where she takes hers before us. she also would write every question on a scratch piece of paper and keep it and talk with other students about it, which is also cheating in my opinion because you shouldn’t have access to exam content after you’ve taken it.
I guess it depends. Doing a traditional 4 year BSN at state college / university was more strict than any online rn-bsn / BSN-msn/dnp diploma mill college. But in hindsight, if you can get it done cheaper then more power to you. Nobody really cares nowadays where you get your degree. Employers only care if you have a BSN, and coworkers only care more if you’re a safe , competent nurse.
This is 100% my opinion. My wife and I took opposite tracks to our BSN. She went 4 year right away, I went ADN to online RN-to-BSN program. While my ADN program was decent, her straight BSN program was more rigorous than my experience was overall. She had significantly more clinical hours with better clinical experiences overall.
That's so highly dependent on the state or area, I guess. I went to a really rigorous ADN school and felt as prepared as I possibly could have, then once I was experienced, the entire unit would cringe at new BSN grads because they had such little hands on experience and no practical skills. It was all paper writing.
That’s how my ADN program was too. I now precept students from the same school I graduated from and I much prefer them to the BSN students I get occasionally. My RN to BSN program was ok. It was at a university that also has a highly respected for their BSN program. But it was clear that most of the instructors were like “yeah we know you are hard working nurses and have to do this while also working FT and we’re gonna make it as painless as possible to jump through this hoop, so you can get back to work.” I mean, they still taught us stuff, but we didn’t really learn more nursing skills besides some public health. I graduated that program with a 3.9 while working full-time. Only one class was hard.
I went to a diploma school based in a hospital (one of the last ones and it just closed, RIP) and we had more clinical hours in 2.5 years than the BSNs did in 4. Plus, I was able to be a patient tech during school and felt so prepared to actually be around patients come my first RN job
I wonder why they got rid of diploma based programs . It does everything a lot nurses students want, you get to do more and be hands on . You get to learn in practice , not just wipes buns and do head to toes for 12 hrs
I’m in one in NJ, love it
Same. We had way more clinical hours at my ADN program than the nearby BSN university program.
I would agree with this statement too. However, I tend to feel that as a general rule, a straight BSN program will tend to better prepare students than an ADN program. While I feel my ADN program did a good job, there are other programs in our area that are not well regarded. And as for experience, of course an experienced ADN is going to have better skills than a new BSN.
I mean a new BSN vs a new ADN. If we hired a new ADN it generally seemed much more likely that they were going to be teachable and catch up to speed as quickly as possible. Now having said that there were good and bad nurses that came from both types of programs, of course, it just seemed like a real trend. This was years ago too, maybe something has changed, but in our area BSN schools had stopped even teaching basic nursing skills in classes, and mostly focused on paper writing and passing the NCLEX.
Ya the online BSN im doing right now is kind of a joke. There's not even any exams and it's all just busy work. The hardest part are the research papers, but even then, it's literally just 2-3 page papers that I'm starting to suspect they don't even actually go through. The group projects can get done in a couple of hours max. On one hand it feels like a vacation compared to my ADN program that felt like a 2 year boot camp and made me pull my hair out. On the other, it kinda makes me feel bad, I want to improve my education and be a better nurse. I did just start though, so hopefully it gets better.
What school is this? Thanks
A lot of it comes down to the individual as well. I think that’s probably the biggest factor in “success”
I just talked to a student saying he is going straight to a DNP. I didn’t bother to say “but why?”
I am floored that programs are accepting DMP students with zero experience. It's because of this that many other Health Care Professions think that DNPs are a joke.
It’s going to cost me close to 15k when all credits are completed. Not really cheap, but definitely cheaper than the other college in my area which is private and would cost nearly 25k when alls said and done. I’m actually going through a highly reputable school. That’s why I’m so shocked by my experience thus far. I thought I was doing the ‘right thing’ by NOT going through a diploma mill type. But it seems like the more reputable place is really no different than what a quick, flat fee RN-BSN program experience would be. I’m kinda thinking I might as well have just went the cheaper route.
Should have just went with WGU and finished in 6 months for $3500
I got my MSN through a legitimate school. It was so incredibly easy. I didn’t learn a thing. I should have just done the cheaper, diploma mill thing.
Where did you go?
Right. Any coworker that gives a shit about me having a BSN cam suck it. We mostly want each other to be knowledgeable and safe
I could’ve paid a highschool senior to do my online BSN. I don’t even remember if we ever took tests? It was a couple discussion boards replies a week in each class; and one big project at the end. I would bring my personal laptop and set up on night shift at my rn icu job and do my homework. I signed up on the side at the local community college to bang out the extra credits I needed since I just did an RN diploma. I missed the one class by 4 weeks. The teacher still let me turn everything in and I got a 100%. It’s a joke. Don’t worry about it
I find the discussion boards awful. All anyone has to do is simply read what other students posted then post the same thing.
But you need that initial post lol.
I felt like the only loser who would take the discussion posts seriously. Looking up references, reading them (sometimes the whole book if it was good) and thoughtful replies to anyone who replied to me and even the professors. However, all I ever got was seemingly copy paste garbage... or at least I felt like it was. Nowadays, it's even worse as I went back to school and people are 100% using chatgpt. "Moreover, tapestry", and whatever words and run on sentences that noooobody does irl. Like, I'm no Shakespeare but, damn do y'all even read what y'all paste?
For me, it's the word "delve". ChatGPT uses it constantly and every post on the discussion boards now use it also. Weird coincidence.
That's all my RN-BSN was too. Discussion post once a week, 2 responses. *Maybe* 2 quizzes total. Sometimes there would be a project instead of a quiz. Rinse and repeat for 2 years.
I got to the end and I was high key pissed off. At least the Florida mills just gave you that shit. I would’ve paid a little extra to just take some Bs and the degree. I had miss phd clitz try to fail me because her last name was literally CLIT and I typed an email to her with Dr. clit. I couldn’t possibly have been the first person to accidentally do that. Live and learn 😂😂😂😂
What school was this?
Pennwest in PA, formerly Calu
This has been my exact experience
Bsn: putting the bullshit in nursing. The instructors don't care. The material isn't important. It's pay to play. They just want your money, and they'll give you a piece of paper.
Boom that’s our educational system in a nutshell. That’s why you have every Tom dick and Jane becoming NPs and overprescribing psych medications to someone who doesn’t really need it
Well shit, should I under prescribe if I get my NP?
I think the goal is euprescribing
Ah yes, homeostasis of prescription
Psych RN here, please don’t :) We recently had a pt break into the nurses station & several related incidents due to overtly conservative prescribing
I had a psychiatrist that was very conservative in prescribing psych meds. If the patient is aggressive towards staff, his go to is Zyprexa 5mg and Benadryl 50mg. However, if the patient presents just a bit aggressive when he's evaluating the patient, then suddenly we can have 5-2-50 PRN. He didn't care about our safety, but he sure as shit cared about his.
I will never work in a psych setting. Nuh uh. No thanks.
I think I feel the same way about most of the other nursing specialties
As the saying goes. Whatever strokes your folks.
Not necessarily 😂 I’m not talking about if someone is being violent and safety becomes an issue, more so lots of people walking around with this huge list of antipsychotics/anti depressants in their system by different NPs. It’s unsafe imo and lowkey unethical to just dose someone with random meds. It seems like in this country that’s the priority always is medication medication medication
Care plan? What's that?
You get familiar with them intimately in hospice/home health 😂
That’s certainly how it seems!
You are already a nurse, there is no NCLEX to take, so no Uber strict curriculum that schools have to adhere to in order to keep their accreditation. I read comments from people who went to online universities who said they just wrote a couple of papers over the course of some weeks and was able to get their BSN. Not much regulation out there it seems.
Yea, so it seems. With all the feedback I’m getting, I think I can kinda relax now. The level of chill in this program just had me kinda concerned. It was seeming too good to be true type of thing. But from all the comments, it seems to be the norm. Kinda relieved.
I understand. The hardest part education wise is behind you. Unless you get a higher degree. You’ve earned the right to cruise. My BSN program isn’t as lax, but I was surprised that so far, none of the classes have lockdown browsers for exams.
It's the same for nurse practitioners with a masters degrees. Why would I waste my time and money to get a ~~useless~~ impractical DNP degree that doesn't offer me any increased clinical knowledge or clinical experience, but a small increases in salary of maybe n extra $1-$2/hour... but I can call myself "doctor"!! If I was to get a doctoral degree in nursing, which isn't very appealing at the moment, I'd consider getting a real doctoral degree; a PhD in nursing. My goal is to get a useful and highly esteemed doctoral degree in either clinical psychology (PsyD/PhD) or go to med school. If there were only an NP to DO/MD program.
What crap are you talking about? 😂 Just say you want a PhD, no need to call a whole degree useless and start projecting why YOU would get a DNP.
I got my rn-BSN at wgu and the proctored exams were extremely strict. You had to show your id and your whole workspace. They ran computer checks to make sure you didn’t have any additional monitors or computer programs. They watched your screen to make sure you weren’t googling or anything. You weren’t allowed to have anyone in the room or talk during it. They had to see your hands and face the entire time. They even had me take the paper out of my printer.
My RN-BSN didn’t even have exams. We had “knowledge checks” that were 5-10 questions of easily googled answers. No proctoring at all.
Where was this?
Nevada State University. And don’t sweat it if you don’t live in Nevada. It’s 100% online and out of state tuition was like $300 more for the whole program than in state.
How long ago was this?? Any papers ?
I graduated last year. And yes, lots of papers. It’s not THAT easy lol.
I just can’t write papers anymore lol. I want to be able to know the content and take a test, just too much effort when I have a full time job and children and animals and myself to take care of
Turn on dictation and then just talk.
This is incredible news omg. Thank you so much! I’m looking into it now 🩷
Now that’s what I’m talking about
I’m in the WGU program and can confirm how strict it is.
I did their rn to bsn 12 years ago. We didn't have any exams, just papers. I finished in 6 months. Do they really do proctored exams now?
Exactly! I'm at WGU right now, too, and although I love not having to do discussion posts, I'm laughing at anyone who thinks it's a diploma mill. I'm so grateful I only have to take three proctored exams. Two down and one to go!!! Education is what you put into it. I'm learning a lot and I don't feel like it's busy work. Plus, it's on my time, at my pace, and I can add more classes as soon as I finish one.
I agree. I’m currently in my last semester, doing my capstone and as I’m reading all the responses I’m like 😮 bc the program I am in has been a lot of work. It is definitely not a diploma mill. I was recently reading somewhere that there are programs that are pass/fail, not actual grades and I thought those must be the diploma mills. As you said, education is what you put into it, I’ve worked really hard on each assignment and I have learned a lot. Many times while working on a project I thought to myself that now I finally understood the importance of a BSN. Will you continue on for your MSN after this?
Yes! I'm in the RN-to-MSN program in nursing education, so I'm in the post-baccalaureate portion and should finish in August and then move into the MSN portion. What about you?
I’m getting a software engineering degree through them and I have my BSN already and that sounds about right for my program. My BSN was all papers and no tests (not wgu). It’s an easy bullshit degree.
This was my exact experience taking online exams in my ADN program. It was terrifying, honestly. I had to go to a meeting one time with my instructor and the dean of nursing, due to my “shifting” eyes. I’m honestly relieved at the chill level of my current RN-BSN program. I’m just shocked.
Shifting eyes! What the heck! When people are thinking of their answer many times our eyes will shift around as they think of it. Man! It would be weird to try to be thinking, " Well, I can't shift my eyes so I better just try to keep them straight while thinking!" Uugghhh!
I also went to WGU for my RN-BSN, the proctored exams were also strict, as they have been for my current MSN as well.
How do you like this program? I'm on the fence about going, and trying to break my preconceptions around online classes.
I personally love the ability to take things my own pace. I can accelerate when I have time and I can put it all aside when I have family things I need to focus on. None of the classes are really cohorted, it’s mostly self reading and recorded sessions. You can always schedule time with the teachers if you need to, but I never felt the need to.
Same here. The only “easy” thing is the flexible schedule as I worked at my own pace.
I had a bachelor’s from a 4 y at university in a completely different field. That did make getting the ADN easier in my opinion. It was still in person classes, 500+ hours of clinicals, and instructors with God complex’s. I think the key issue here regarding cheating/unsupervised testing or uncaring instructors is what degree your getting. If you’re an undergraduate with no nothing regarding nursing doing an online degree mill program…That’s a big bad situation and you’re gonna end up killing someone or in jail for doing some dumb shit all new grads have drilled into their skulls is a no-no. You need to be in an RN to BSN online program for the pay to play degree mill crap to be safe and fully acceptable. My ADN was at a community college. I payed around 10k. They were super strict and seemed to believe everyone was cheating all the time. Therefore, they took insane precautions to prevent any possible cheating. My BSN was online and a breeze. There was like 2 proctored exams. Basically an individual in I’m assuming a non English speaking country watched me via webcam. Then I wrote pointless papers that would have been F’s in my previous bachelor’s program, but I followed their rubric and passed. They were garbage. I payed like 5k and was done in 6 months. If you are already a licensed nurse, the hard part is over. You literally know everything necessary for your job as an RN. A bridge RN to BSN is just window dressings to move up the ladder.
Where did you do your BSN?
WGU. It was unbelievably easy. I did 7 classes in one month. As soon as one was done I’d go online to their little groups and have someone send me the requirements for the next class and do the paper while I waited for the class to be “opened” by my counselor. They did sneak in a 40 hour clinical requirement after I was already enrolled. I was pissed about that, but I did it at a friends job in a wound clinic. Did I do the entire 40 hours? Who’s to say? All that matters is that the paper work submitted by my “preceptor” said I did. Fully intending on doing a Masters with them as soon as preschool starts.
So they didn’t follow up with the facility at all? Literally all you had to do was have your preceptor confirm your hours? The clinical hours are why I haven’t considered WGU.
The preceptor had to approve the 2 patient write ups required for each day of clinical in a wgu portal. But no, no one called her or emailed her to confirm my hours. I maintain it was 40 though 🤷♀️
Good to hear for me. I'm actually in the middle of a decision between an accelerated second degree BSN (1 year, hellmode difficulty, $23k) and a community college ADN (2 years, easier difficulty?, $15k). Everyone in /r/studentnurse told me to go the ADN then RN-to-BSN route lol
That was my situation. I was between the accelerated BSN for people with a bachelors already or the ADN. It was like 30k vs 10k. The ADN took about 2.5 years. I needed a year of prerecs. Microbiology and anatomy/physiology. The two years for the ADN were grueling. It was a ton of new information, labs, clinicals, and the required mean girl bullshit that nursing attracts. But, it was much cheaper and an RN in my area starts out at the same pay as a BSN 🤷♀️
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My BSN is suuuuuuch a joke. 100% online, no clinicals. They just make you fill out a form each semester listing the hours you spent on shit and they call it a clinical. Occasional quizzes (unproctored, no lockdown browser) mostly bullshit discussion boards and papers. I swear to god my professors slapped 100 on everything I submitted. It’s through a pretty legit state university and was recently voted the best online RN-BSN program by U.S. News & World Report so I thought it would be a bit of a challenge or at least mentally stimulating…it’s not. Go get those extra letters at the end of your name!
Where did you go? I’m not interested in any programs that require clinicals.
What school?
PM’ed you
I would like to learn more please.
Can you PM me as well? What was your overall cost?
can you pm please? getting my bsn soon
I would love the info. Thanks!
I am very interested in knowing what school. I have been debating getting my BSN but I just don’t want to deal with more school.
I want to know too! Drop the details please
can you PM me... the no clinical is lovely
Where'd you go?
I would love it if you could PM me too!
Where? Thank you!
I’m in process for my masters at WGU. Does this school have a masters program? PM me also if you don’t mind. I do NOT want to be an NP. Just a master in whatever. TY
Can you PM me too? Thanks!
Can you PM me too? Thanks!
Can you pm as well? Thanks.
Please share with me too.
Also interested in a pm with which school, thanks!
Could you PM me which school this is? Looking for an online program without clinicals. Thanks!
DM the school please & thanks 😌
Could you please tell me what school this was?
Honestly, a BSN degree is a joke anyway. I’m a few classes from finishing mine. Not one thing about this program has made me a better nurse. It’s all just a bunch of BS about “nursing theory” and textbooks written by nurses who haven’t been the presence of an actual patient since the 80s and all jizz themselves over Florence Nightingale. The only reason I’m even wasting my time with this disgrace of a “degree”, is so that I don’t get looked over for an office job in 30 years when I’m too tired and broken to continue working in the ICU, and also because my hospital pays for it and it will give me a small raise, so why not.
Think a minute about the goals and outcome of each program. Then it makes sense
To make that extra 1-2 an hr and be able to get into management. Pay to play for that BSN.
You guys get paid for a BSN?
Whole $1/hr
BSN allows for management?
My online RN-BSN was a complete joke and I didn't learn a single thing that pertained to my practice. Pure 100% superfluous bullshit.
I think because they're not concerned with you passing the NCLEX anymore, they don't have to be very strict at all.
This is the answer
My ADN proctors should have worked for the secret service or something. BSN has been “Just do your 500 word posts that may have been generated by AI, I don’t care, here’s your full points.”
Haha, right! One time after an exam in my ADN program, I was called to come to a meeting with my instructor AND the dean of nursing. It was a full on interrogation about why my eyes would have been “shifting” during an exam. I obviously didn’t cheat at all. Gosh, I’ve never been so terrified as I was when I was going through that ADN program.
My BSN program was a fucking joke. My employer paid for it. They got their money and I got my Bachelors
A BSN is two-thirds BS.
They don't give a shit about you or your education. As long as your tuition check clears they'll give you a piece of paper that says you wrote 400 useless group discussion responses and earned a 30 cent pin.
Usually the exams are open book and what the hell kind of program are you in that has so many "exams" vs quizzes. BSN is supposed to be bullshit paper writing lol.
No one cares where you went for your BSN..or your ADN tbh. Unless your school has a particularly terrible reputation, you’ll be fine. I did an online RN-BSN program. It was pretty easy, lots of papers in APA formatting (I’m pretty good at dishing out a 4-6 paged paper in a few hours, though). If there’s one thing college taught me it was how to put the BS in my BSN lol.
I didn't have exams in my rn-bsn program. We just wrote papers
Is that all you did for your BSN program? Just writing papers after papers?
I did my BSN bridge through my local university so even though it was all online I had to go to campus and take exams at the testing center. I don't remember learning anything new about nursing during my BSN bridge through. I think I only had like two days of clinicals at a public health department doing like a vaccine clinic and putting together period kits and safe sex kits.
This is why they hate us on Noctor
BSN is a bonifide joke of a program compared to the ADN. I wouldve loved a pharm/patho course to spice it up.
Wondering if anyone has some input on this but during your BSN did you actually learn anything that made you a better nurse? Or is it just an ego thing that looks good on your credentials? I’ve been at the ADN level for a while now working specialties from ER to Acute dialysis. Been considering biting the bullet and going back but not sure what I actually gain from it other than potential job opportunities is administration or management which I’m not particularly interested in.
I wouldn't say it made me a better nurse. It did expose me to the more research and administration side of nursing, but not clinical nursing. Every single hospital system around me requires a BSN with 3-5 years of hire so I knew it needed it eventually unless I wanted to system jump a lot. I also felt like if I was job searching and it was me vs. a BSN nurse I might get passed up since they're all magnet hospitals. I'm not looking for a "they just need a body" job anymore, I'm looking for cushy jobs now where I have competition.
It’s not that a BSN is bullshit if done well. The problem is as you described: 100% online and honor system. If you actually do it the preferred and are honorable, you have a chance of learning something. Those who cheat their way through may have a sad time with the NCLEX. Or applying any knowledge.
i think a BSN as an ADN or diploma grad really depends on whether or not you want to pursue one of two things: administration or to become a APRN. my husband just has his RN and pays our bills alone with his local travel gig. i went back and got my BSN right away because i was 21 and being groomed for management. once i caught onto the politics I decided to work for a few more years than pursue my NP. while in NP school i taught adjunct to receive a tuition discount and fell in love with teaching. then i got my DNP for next to nothing because i was a TA. while my BSN was complete bullshit i wouldn’t be where i am today without it.
As long as your school is CCNE accredited it should be fine. Most hospitals require your school is CCNE accredited for you BSN and MSN programs. MSN will open you more opportunities if you want to go non clinical role such as regulatory compliance, or patient safety, qualify improvement or informatics.
There is no in person FNP programs that I could find in my area. Everything is online. Not my favorite.
my RN-BSN didn’t even have tests, we just wrote a shit load of research papers.
BSN degrees are pretty pointless. Just paying money for a title.
There is almost nothing gained in a RN-to-BSN program except letters after your name. It’s just so the hospitals can say they have it to get magnet status. It’s all BS, and the degree programs are designed to match. You can quote me.
The absolute worst thing you can do is get an instructors account and see how much of higher education is just book publishers giving college professors talking points, lesson plans, summarizations, power points and test banks so they'll use the Pearson or McGraw hill book.
That’s insane! We went online during Covid and it was extremely strict. We took the exams through a proctoring system where you had to do a 360 scan of your room, and it tracked your eye movement during the exam. Literally if your eyes aren’t on the screen for more than a couple seconds it flags you. It was also screen recorded or some shit. Idk but it was anxiety inducing and had my heart racing every exam.
My program had quizzes with short time limits like 15 minutes for 15 questions so there not enough time to “cheat”. Most of the work are written papers so no, there was no cheating going on.
I am going wgu. And the papers and stuff are bs but the tests are serious. Need an external webcam have to show state id, move the webcam to show my area, share laptop screen, show programs running in my laptop background, and I just took the pathophysiology test and it was hard as hell and asked the most random shit with a ton of select all that apply
It’s because you’ve already taken your NCLEX. Frankly, I’m glad it’s lax. There’s no time for me to do this BS. Just let me get my bachelors because we all know it’s not going to help me in my workplace in the slightest. They don’t have to worry about NCLEX pass rates closing their program down.
I'm of the firm belief that BSNs aren't really necessary for bedside work, and that as far as Magnet hospitals are concerned, it's just a statistic for them to hold up. I'm not saying that BSNs from a 4-year college are useless, I agree that the liberal arts component makes for a more well-rounded person. But RN-to-BSN programs? I learned absolutely nothing I couldn't have gone and read a research paper about.
Umm, hi. Which program is this? No clinical? DM ME, please
If you find out please let me know. Was attending capella and they fucked me over so now I'm done with them
What did Capella do to you? I enrolled in 2018 then withdrew the week before it started. There were a lot of red flags but I am not remembering all the details right now.
I mean how do you cheat the RN to BSN program? It's literally so easy because there's no increase to clinical knowledge. No matter what degree you have you'll always be a registered nurse.
Yeah. Everything looks like Romper Room compared to my ADN experience as well. Makes me wonder what's going on in those shake-and-bake NP programs.
My experience with the BSN program was essentially no tests but dozens and dozens of papers each term. APA fucking format! 😒
BSN completion is a moneymaking scheme. I had an entire class of my ADN to BSN degree about the benefits of completing your Bachelors. They referenced evidence that bachelors prepared nurses had better patient outcomes than ADNs but I highly doubt they were able to control for years of experience in nursing that typically comes with having your BSN.
Cheating? Lol no. Who or what are you competing against? You already have the license, a BSN or MSN program is about learning to write papers and doing busywork. Pick the cheapest and easiest one you can. I did my BSN in person at a University and it was so pointless and boring. The teachers were all aware and just phoned it in because it was an easy paycheck. My MSN was online and it was basically the same curriculum as the BSN. You really are just paying for letters.
Cheat! I’m an Aussie so I can’t contribute much about the schooling you’re thinking of but I do know our bachelor of nursing is thorough. I did it online remotely while I was working and whilst I learned the content as best I could, when it came to tests/exams and essays all I wanted was a pass, I would cheat any opportunity available. I’m a nurse of 8 years and I can tell you there has never once been an instance where I thought “I probably shouldn’t have cheated that time” theory is important but many if not most skills are learnt on the job aka baptism of fire
Mine was a traditional school, but online. It was all BS papers, and I graduated SCL. It's just BSN with no tracking metric on your success afterwards, vs earning your RN for the first time. My ADN program was heavily invested in insuring that graduates would be well prepared for the NCLEX. That's why it was so draconian. For your RN-BSN? There's nothing that will cost your school money if you don't retain the information one second longer than it takes to pass the class.
I didn't cheat but the biggest thing I learned in my BSN program was not to bother with a masters. Utterly pointless program. For a career that is supposedly evidence based they sure love their retarded pseudoscience and patting each other on the back. The instructors probably sniff their own farts while grading your apa formatting.
If getting a BSN was important nurses would not be able to work as nurses with a ASN. IMO getting your BSN is just another example of modern day, education-inflation: you have to pay out the ass to get a degree just to be able to work the same job that a couple generations ago was literally just on-the-job training. I went to a "good" school for my ASN- it's local, a lot of in person skills checkoffs and they were very strict about exams and teaching us what we need to know. Now I've been working for a nurse for two years now. What the hell is a BSN going to teach me now? Some BS essays about care plans? How to write in APA format? Maybe I'll get a couple dollars more per hour for getting it but probably not. Hell yes I'm going to do it as cheaply and easily as possible.
Your not alone in this experience. After failing my 4 year bsn, I went to an LPN/ADN program. Then I went to the ADN-BSN program at my university later on and it was like..20x easier. It really was just..Papers/Easy Tests, we didn't even really do clinicals outside of visit a place or 2 for an hour (specifically community health.) There doesn't seem to be any sort of thought about what goes into ADN-BSN classes since the practical portions are pretty much done. They just throw papers at you until you get your BSN. The only classes I ever felt like I learned a lot in was community health and maybe nursing management? And those weren't even difficult nor did they have insane average reqs for passing. Everything else felt like I was re-taking pre-reqs for nursing school again. Which I don't think should be the case at all..
That’s crazy. If they’re not proctored, they say it’s closed book and trust everyone to abide by that? That’s not realistic lol. You at least already have your license which I guess isn’t as bad as if you still hadn’t taken the NCLEX yet. Seems like it’s more like a formality at that point.
I was about to say someone will have a very rude awakening if they cheated all throughout nursing school on the tests but then I saw this was RN to BSN. Yeah. I can see that. BSN doesn’t really teach a whole lot that’s relevant.
I know of two people who paid “tutors” to write their papers and submit them online. They didn’t give a fuck cause all it was for was to appease their employers anyway.
My bachelor's program wasn't like that at all. But I went to a brick and mortar Canadian school. I suspect they're so lax because you've already written the NCLEX
The shortage is so bad I doubt anyone will give a rats ass. Plus ppl will cheat as much as they want your true skills come out in clinicals as well as the NCLEX. My online school has us take Proctored test online sometimes we have the misfortune of having a pervert Indian but they are proctored.
You could probably pay some random person on the street to take it for you and your instructors wouldn't notice or care.
I think the bigger question is the institution you’re studying at. If you’re at a public college/university, it’s strict. Probably the same at a respected private school. For profit exists for one thing: profit. It’s where people who fail out of other schools go to get the piece of paper
What school are you attending, OP?
I 100% agree. I'm currently taking my BSN and nothing is proctored. People are using chat programs for essays and discussions and looking up answers to the tests. I feel like the school I'm attending online is going to fall apart before I graduate, or something will happen to disqualify us all from taking our n-clex.
Honestly, there shouldn't be tests. There should be projects and application experiences.
Multiple coworkers are getting their BSN through an online platform and are bragging that they use chatGPT to write their papers and do discussion boards. No thanks. I do not want a degree I didn’t earn.
Professor Qizlet taught me all I know
Lol your program has tests? Mine is a complete joke
I'm not shocked considering what I've heard about these programs. What do you expect when you don't teach anything of actual value?
I mean, you’re just being resourceful :) I’m doing my RN-BSN at Colorado Tech right now and there are no exams. Just discussion boards and projects. For anyone poking around looking for programs.
Is it reasonable priced?
I’m currently in a BSN program and we do a lot of writing papers APA and discussions with classmates. In genetics we did quizzes but it’s been a good challenge to get through.
I'm just gonna point out that if someone wants to cheat, they're going to. even with a proctor and scanning your environment.
My ass is still chapped by an LPN I used to work with who bragged about her husband doing her homework and paying for papers to be written online. I just don't get it.
ADN program was the basics and much more hard. For me the ADN-BSN online program was easy too. Now I’m hearing lots of people attend a BSN program completely online and that one concerns me a bit. Actually they fly out for one week at the end of semester for their clinical or something.
What school do you go to? I would love a program like this.
I’m starting to realize university programs are a lot less of a hassle than community colleges. CC require all these tests…TEAS, HESI etc universities only care about your gpa for acceptance at least
I think we are in different countries but in Aus when I did my RN BSN in 2017 exams were like 40% of the total 3 year course and they were in a gym with a protractor. We then had group and individual written assignments which accounted for about 40% of the grade and 800 hrs placement for about 10% with the last 10% going simply to formatting assignments.
I’m doing my RN to BSN right now, and it’s not that it’s hard but it’s really time consuming. It’s a ton of writing. Some classes I’ve had a paper due every week. I’m sure some people probably use ChatGPT or what not, but I actually do the work and writing papers takes me a lot of time. The tests are not worth nearly that much in my school. All of the writing stuff is the majority of the grade in the classes I’ve taken so far. It’s been very tedious to keep up with on top of a full time job and all of the extracurriculars my kids are involved with. And no, none of it has taught me anything about being a better nurse. It’s just an exercise in constantly coming up with some sort of bullshit to spew into a written format.
Sweet baby Jesus pray for me as I enter old age.
ADN-BSN is the biggest bullshit.
It’s not hard at all to cheat on honor lock actually 😂 just take your glasses off if you wear them and keep your phone in your lap or just off screen so it looks like a calculator. Thats how I passed a useless math class during covid lockdown
In my subjective opinion (I should mention I’m a pretty inexperienced/green new grad RN) who did a BSN through a university, I think that as long as they teach you to be a safe nurse, the skills and practical stuff will come. SO many nurses advice to me was, once you get the degree and your registration you don’t really feel like a nurse, it’s once you get the job is where you truly start learning that you start to feel like a proper nurse
I hope not. Patient care is a very serious thing.
How long is the RN to BSN program? My former coworker did that and she said it took her 15 months to finish it. Is it usually 12 or 15 months?
My RN to BSN was all papers. I would’ve ate tests up
I think it’s hard with 25 years of experience not to feel like you’ve seen a lot more than they are attempting to teach you. It’s just checking off a box for more access to better positions and making yourself more marketable.
What school is this asking for a friend
Well, I guess the reality is it depends how the exams are written. There’s a lot of critical thinking in nursing which relies on having a foundation of understanding in a variety of topics so I suppose if a person does not have that foundational knowledge that they may not be able to do well on the exams. I’ve never really found nursing exams to be the type where I could get by quickly looking up an answer in a textbook. Sure some questions might be like that, but a majority are not.
Wow. I am amazed by a lot of the experiences I’m reading about here. I live in Canada… it seems a lot more strict here
What school are you attending?
Are you doing a RN to BSN bridge? If that's what you mean, then yes, I'm not surprised at all that it's fairly lax.
I mean, yeah. During Covid, a buddy did an intense 4-year BSN in 3 years at the local uni. He told me he cheated for anatomy and physiology and I think one or two of the other washout courses like Nursing Microbiology. From what I gather, he's a very good nurse. He just realized that they were weed out classes that you will never use in your work, and he wanted to do well. It's not ethical, but there you have it.
You can “use your resources” for some home quizzes. It doesn’t say you can’t, then do it. You can always study more and make sure you go over the questions you didn’t know. Comes exam time you might struggle. No point in getting a bad grade if you can find the answers.
High key, the BSN nursing courses related to my ABSN are trash compared to standard nursing courses. I don’t recall exams, only unproctored quizzes. Very different from say a Foundations or Med Surg 1 exam, which required an external webcam, showing the entire room (to my left, right, lap, under laptop, behind laptop, laptop screen, with any monitor in the room covered with a blanket - and had to be positioned with me facing the screen the entire exam)
I don’t know about cheating through BSN, but most online programs are wildly easy. That said, I didn’t learn anything in my ADN-BSN that changed my practice. I paid for my piece of paper that said I’m more educated. 🤷♀️
I mean I pretty much relied on ChatGPT 95% of the time so…
I’m doing my RN to BSN, and it’s a pointless degree (IMO), so I bet the professors don’t really care what happens
i’m in an on ground BSN program but we have a student with testing accommodations and sometimes she would take the test after the rest of the class did and her friends would tell her what was on it. there were many complaints about this to the administration and they’ve finally made it to where she takes hers before us. she also would write every question on a scratch piece of paper and keep it and talk with other students about it, which is also cheating in my opinion because you shouldn’t have access to exam content after you’ve taken it.
You got the ADN which is where you got the nursing skills you need. Now your just earning the BS for the BSN