Registered nurses with a bachelor’s degree have better access to leadership positions and career advancement than those with just an associate’s degree or nursing school diploma. That makes RN to BSN programs appealing.
If you are an RN looking to advance your career, you may be looking for the easiest RN to BSN program online. Online education offers multiple benefits to working adults. There is greater flexibility, especially if your program offers asynchronous courses, and there may be monetary as well as time savings.
If you have faced challenges in your previous educational experiences, you might be looking for a program that is easy to apply to and get accepted into. Let’s go over some of the factors you’ll want to be aware of, and then we’ll review the best and easiest RN to BSN programs online.
How To Find an Easy Online RN-To-BSN Program
To find an easy online RN to BSN program, you first need to know what your criteria are. Are you looking for a school that has a generous transfer credit policy? Are you hoping for a program with little in the way of clinical requirements? Perhaps you need a program that will admit you despite a less-than-stellar GPA from your previous educational experiences.
Here are some of the factors to take into account when searching for the program that fits your needs:
Transfer credit policies
Ideally, you’ll be able to find a program that accepts as many of your previous classes as possible toward your credit total. This will reduce the number of credits you need to take, making the program both easier and more cost-effective.
Every college and university has its own rules regarding the acceptance of previous credits, so there are no hard-and-fast rules here. A good admissions counselor can give you an idea of how many of your credits will be accepted. If you still need to submit your transcript, remember to bring a copy when you meet with a staff member from the school you’re interested in.
Previous foundational nursing courses, such as anatomy and physiology or nursing leadership, may be transferred, depending on the school. You may also find that your institution is willing to accept credits for courses outside the nursing field. Many programs, for example, require you to take a certain number of humanities courses. If you took them while earning your associate degree, it might be possible to check them off the list of required courses and move on to more advanced courses in nursing.
Clinical requirements
Some RN-to-BSN programs have low or no clinical work requirements. It is assumed that because you have already earned your nursing license, you have had clinical experience and may even be working in the field, giving you real-world clinical experience.
Keep in mind that the number of clinical hours is not voluntary. It is determined by your school and your state licensing board. If you cannot provide proof of past clinical experience, you may need to fulfill this requirement to earn your BSN.
Clinical experience for online programs is usually conducted at a nearby medical facility or hospital, even if your school is not located in the same area. You will work with your professors and other staff members at your school and at possible placement sites to determine the best way for you to complete this requirement.
The time to find out about clinical requirements, of course, is before you have begun your program. Ask an admissions counselor what constitutes clinical experience and what proof you need to submit to show that you have completed it. Low or no clinical experience can make your program faster and easier to complete.
Competency-based learning
Competency-based learning is precisely what it sounds like. If you can prove your competence in a subject by passing an assessment or test, you can earn credit easily without having to attend a class on the topic.
Let’s say, for example, that you are an RN who has been working in the NICU at a local hospital for four years. If your BSN program has a class in caring for fragile newborns, you could be given credit by proving that you are experienced at caring for this patient population.
Not all institutions offer this type of benefit, but if you have been working as an RN, it’s worth asking your program director or admissions counselor if there is an opportunity for you to prove your competence in areas where you are already confident of your knowledge base.
Doing so may save you time and money on your program, allowing you to check off required courses without spending hours in the classroom studying a subject that you are already very familiar with. This can be a great way to make your program more efficient for you.
The Pass-Fail Problem
One speed bump you may encounter on the road to earning your BSN is the pass-fail problem. Many of the easiest RN-to-BSN programs make it simple for students by using a pass-fail grading system rather than a traditional tiered letter system. It’s perfectly acceptable if you decide to conclude your educational journey after obtaining your BSN.
But if you have hopes of continuing on to a master’s degree or even a doctoral-level nursing degree, you may find that admissions counselors at your future schools are reluctant to accept pass-fail courses. You may also fail to meet the minimum GPA requirement for graduate programs, often set at 3.0.
If you do intend to continue your education past your BSN, your best option is to choose a program that offers letter grades along with a numerical GPA based on those grades. This will ensure that your coursework at the BSN level is acceptable to your graduate-level institution, so you will have smooth sailing as you continue your education.
Our Research
This list features some of the country’s easiest online RN to BSN programs. Each school featured is a nonprofit, accredited institution, either public or private, with a high standard of academic quality for post-secondary institutions.
We evaluated each school’s program on tuition costs, admission, retention and graduation rates, faculty, and reputation. Then, we calculated the Intelligent Score on a scale of 0 to 100. Read more about our ranking methodology.
Next, we compared this comprehensive list of the easiest online RN to BSN programs to a list of aggregated college rankings from reputable publications, such as U.S. News & World Report, to simplify a student’s college search. We pored through these rankings so students don’t have to.
The 50 Easiest Online RN to BSN Programs
