Online Nursing Degrees

Online nursing degrees allow you to improve your career and salary with flexible hours that work around your current schedule. With many baby boomers retiring, there is a critical nursing shortage growing by the day. The demand for nurses will create over a million new jobs, and is already lifting nursing wages.

The most common online nursing degrees offered are RN-to-BSN programs and MSN degrees. Although some institutions offer a variety of advanced degree and certificate options for students seeking online education, most schools limit their online degrees to a handful of programs.

When considering an online nursing degrees, there are many types of nursing programs to consider. You also have choices to make about your intended specialty. Are you interested in pediatrics, cancer nursing, or care for aging adults? Or do you prefer a more heart-pounding, adrenaline-charged job?

Many nurses make their choice of specialization based on the patient population. Your nursing program covers a wide sample of the various types of patients any nurse would come into contact with under normal circumstances.

If you know you’ve always wanted to work with pediatric patients for instance, or in women’s health you will likely be innately drawn to a specialty this way. Fortunately, an online nursing degree can be pursued in almost any specialty.

Nursing degrees include one-year or certificate / diplomas, two-year Associates degree in Nursing, four-year Bachelors of Science in Nursing (BSN), post-graduate Masters of Science in Nursing (MSN), and Ph.D. in Nursing. A one-year degree or a diploma typically prepares students to take their Licensed Practical Nurse (LPN) exam. Graduates of a two-year degree and upwards may qualify to take the Registered Nurse (RN) licensure exam. If you are motivated, nurses that study in a post-graduate degree are also called Advanced Practice Nurses.

Online nursing programs should be considered as carefully as a campus program. As you might imagine, there are no schools that allow you to fulfill your clinical requirements online, so the clinicals are usually arranged at a medical facility near your home.

This fees for programs vary widely by school and degree program. Students should expect to pay anywhere from a little less than $100 to more than $300 dollars per credit, with average tuition for online programs sponsored by public universities generally falling in the $110-170 range. Additional registration or enrollment fees may also be charged. Of course one of the biggest advantages of taking nursing classes online is that out-of-state tuition is not typically charged.

Prerequisites for online nursing degrees vary, so make sure You check with the school you are interested in to learn about the specific entrance requirements of your degree program. In general, BSN programs, whether online or traditional, have the following requirements:

• SAT or ACT exam; minimum scores vary widely by school
• Minimum GPAs range from 2.0 to 3.25, depending on the school
• 3 years of high school math, including geometry and algebra II
• 3 years of high school science, including biology and chemistry
• 4 years of high school English
• 2 years of high school foreign language

RN-to-BSN, RN-to-MSN and MSN programs generally require the following:

• Graduation from a National League of Nursing (NLN) accredited nursing school
• A current RN nursing license
• A 2.5-3.0 GPA (grade point average in selected prerequisite courses)

Other types of certificate and degree programs may have their own specific prerequisites; schools generally list these in their catalogues or on their websites.

Whatever your particular situation is today, there are online nursing degrees and programs available to meet your needs!