Nursing Degrees and Schools

According to reports, by 2016, the United States will need over one million new nurses to fill current or new positions in hospitals, doctor’s offices, and other health care facilities across the country. To help encourage students to consider this career path, many programs are available to help new nurses get certified faster. Accelerated nursing programs, which are available for both bachelor’s degrees and master’s degrees are becoming more and more popular as a way to get students out of the classroom and into the workforce.

The purpose of accelerated programs is not to provide a lesser-quality education for registered nurses. Rather, these programs take into account skills that you already have, eliminating coursework that you’ve done in the past. Accelerated programs are available exclusively to adults who already have degrees in other fields. While a traditional bachelor’s or master’s degree in nursing requires a number of courses unrelated to the medical field, in order to provide a well-rounded education, accelerated programs recognized that you’ve already completed these non-nursing courses to get a different degree. So, they allow you to switch fields without making your repeat certain courses.

Accelerated programs for both bachelor’s degrees and master’s degrees have a number of prerequisites in order to confirm that your past education has prepared you for a degree in nursing. Most accelerated nursing programs also have fast-moving academic schedules, where students go to school full-time and year-round, with only very short breaks between semesters. If you meet all of the prerequisites, you can get your bachelor’s degree in one to two years or your master’s degree in about three years. Traditionally, it would take four years to get a bachelor’s degree in nursing and five or six years to get a master’s degree.

There are over 200 accelerated bachelor’s degree programs for nurses in the United States, as well as over 50 programs available for those who want a master’s degree in nursing. New programs are also being developed every year, as more and more adults are beginning to see the benefits in becoming nurses. This is a field with a great amount of job security, and there are openings for registered nurses across the United States, and even in communities with high unemployment rates. Few other fields have that to offer, so many people having a hard time finding jobs are considering heading back to school to become nurses.

On top of the accelerated programs for nurses, there are also bridge programs available to LPNs and RNs who have just an associate’s degree. These bridge programs allow you to get a bachelor’s degree or master’s degree in nursing more quickly, building upon your past education. The higher your degree in the field of nursing, the more career options you’ll have and the higher your salary will be, so check out all of the educational options available to you to get an advanced degree in nursing as quickly as possible.