The RN to MSN Bridge program is a special program designed for practicing (or at least licensed) RNs who hold a baccalaureate in another discipline. The goal of the bridge program is to provide the necessary undergraduate courses to meet all baccalaureate level requirements for an MSN application. Typically an RN to BSN Bridge program takes no more than one semester – perhaps three classes – which can easily be completed online.
Featured Online Program
Loyola University of New Orleans Online (*Highly Recommended) offers an RN to MSN Bridge program for nurses who have earned a bachelor’s degree in a field unrelated to nursing. This is a six credit, two course preparation program for the MSN curriculum to follow. The two courses are Population Health, and Issues in Professional Nursing. The online MSN degree specializes in Healthcare Systems Management, which covers a variety of Nurse Leadership careers.
The Bridge Academic Program
Most RN to MSN Bridge courses are focused on issues that an associate’s degree in nursing curriculum might not include. Issues having to do with public health such as managing epidemics or infectious diseases, community health education, health risk reductions and the promotion of healthy practices are common topics in a bridge program. There might be classes in nurse leadership, in managing a team, or in the personal skills associated with families and acute care.
The Bridge program at Drexel University (*Highly Recommended), for instance, focuses on some timely and relatively recent developments with a class on Genetics in Nursing & Health. As the role of genetics continues to unfold in disease and the risk of disease, it is important for nurses who are going to be in a position of leadership and/or communication responsibilities to be familiar with this burgeoning area of medicine. Geriatrics is another field that gets a lot of attention in an RN to MSN Bridge, because nursing for the elderly is becoming a large sector of the nursing field. Increasing numbers of graduates are finding jobs in long term care facilities, extended housing situations, and facilities for the elderly that are equipped with entire medical units.
Fast Tracking the MSN
The Bridge program can take a student into completion of a bachelor’s in nursing followed by an accelerated MSN program. The entire two-degree effort can be completed in three years with summer sessions included. Fast-tracking nursing program began in the 1990s due to the shortage of RNs in the workforce. Today fast tracking has been extended to the advanced nursing professions.
