As a registered nurse, you make a difference every single day. But if you’re an RN with an associate degree who wants more from nursing, you may be wondering if it’s time to complete your Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN).
Completing your BSN can open the door to new career opportunities in nursing. You can pursue advanced skills, prepare for promotions at your current workplace, or get ready to move away from bedside nursing into a new role. However, going back to school is a major decision. You may be wondering whether you’ll need to juggle school and work for years, or if you can afford to complete your degree.
In this article, we’ll explain how Salem University’s online RN-to-BSN program offers the flexibility working RNs need to continue their education—in fact, some RNs may be eligible to complete their bachelor’s degree with us in as few as 10 months.
Why Should You Complete Your BSN Degree?
First, there are several reasons why you should consider completing your BSN degree. Enhanced earning potential is one consideration. While salary varies by employer and job market, Payscale.com reports that, as of 2023, the average salary for an RN with a bachelor’s degree was $94,000 per year, while the average salary for an RN with an associate degree was $77,000 per year.
The next reason to consider earning your BSN is because employers increasingly look for it when hiring and promoting nurses. According to the American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN), 69.8% of employers who responded to their 2023 New Graduate Employment Data survey said they strongly preferred to hire nurses with BSN degrees. The AACN also reports that the Veterans Administration (VA) requires nurses to hold a BSN before they can qualify for promotion beyond entry-level roles.
There’s also evidence that earning your BSN can help you provide an even higher standard of care for patients. Researchers have been comparing patient outcomes at hospitals with different proportions of BSNs in their workforces for more than 20 years, and the evidence usually shows lower mortality and readmission rates. A 2021 paper from the University of Pennsylvania which studied hospitals in five different states over a 10-year period found that those hiring more BSNs saw better patient outcomes in terms of:
- Risk-adjusted mortality rates
- Seven-day patient readmission rates
- Length of patients’ stay in the hospital
Finally, becoming an RN with a BSN also sets you up for graduate-level study, such as a Master of Science in Nursing (MSN) program.
Benefits of Salem’s Online RN-to-BSN Program
Salem University makes it possible for busy nurses to complete their BSN degree 100% online. This makes balancing work, life, and your degree less stressful—you won’t have to commute to campus after finishing a busy shift.
Our program is also formatted to help you by scheduling one course at a time, so you don’t have to juggle multiple subjects at once. In addition, we make sure to keep the number of live class sessions to a minimum, giving you maximum control over when and where you study.
Finally, we also offer RN-to-BSN students a prior learning assessment (PLA), which makes it possible to transfer credit not only from their associate degree program, but also from their work experience. This can shorten a student’s time to graduation to just 10 months!
How the Prior Learning Assessment Works
The PLA aims to reduce the number of general education courses you may need to take to complete your BSN degree. If you have completed more than 500 hours of work experience as an RN before you enroll with us, you can receive transfer credit for your general education courses.
This makes it possible for you to take just the BSN core courses at Salem. You can finish your core courses with us in as few as 10 months.
New Student Success Grant Available
Finally, Salem University offers a New Student Success Grant that reduces tuition for certain out-of-state online RN-BSN students to just $475 per credit hour. This represents a saving of $75 on our out-of-state tuition rate of $550 per credit hour. The New Student Success Grant is available to students who are residents of Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, or West Virginia. Learn more about Salem’s New Student Success Grant here.
Get Started Today!
You could be closer to the BSN degree finish line than you think. Get in touch with Salem University today to learn more about our online RN–BSN program!
