If your child wants to change his or her career path after earning their undergraduate degree, you don’t have to worry. There are educational options that can build upon the undergraduate degree they have already earned, and open the door to a successful and rewarding career. One option is an accelerated nursing program, like Concordia University’s ABSN.
Concordia University offers an Accelerated Bachelor of Science in Nursing (ABSN) in Portland that can help turn your child’s non-nursing college experience into a career as a nurse in16 months. How is an accelerated nursing program worth it for your son or daughter? Read on to find out.
What Is an Accelerated Nursing Program?
Accelerated nursing programs like Concordia’s Accelerated BSN in Portland, target career-changers with non-nursing degrees or college students who have enough credits to qualify for admission. Having prior college experience allows students to leverage their degree without having to start over. ABSN provide students a fast-track toward a Bachelor of Science in Nursing degree where they will gain the experience and practice needed to graduate career-ready.
Why Earn a BSN?
While there are several paths your child can take to become a registered nurse, earning a BSN is one of the best things they can do for their nursing career. Why? Because more and more hospitals are requiring nurses to hold a bachelor’s degree or higher.
Healthcare institutions believe that baccalaureate-level nurses are better equipped to meet the challenges of today’s rising health care complexities. The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, for example, notes that having a higher proportion of BSN-prepared nurses on staff is linked to better patient outcomes.
Earning a BSN can also offer your child more opportunities and higher salaries in the health care workplace. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average salary for a registered nurse in Oregon is $80,010. Keep in mind, that doesn’t account for the differences in pay between BSN- and ADN-degree holders. PayScale explains that while it’s likely that ADN and BSN degrees will start out similar in pay, a BSN-prepared nurse will see his or her pay increase faster and by a greater amount than the ADN-prepared nurse. Furthermore, a BSN can provide your child with personal fulfillment, job security and flexibility.
The Benefits of Concordia’s Accelerated BSN
Whether your child studied criminal justice, chemistry or marketing, Concordia’s ABSN can place them on the path toward nursing success. Here are some of the benefits Concordia’s Accelerated BSN offers.
Speed
Let’s face it, no parent wants to see their child not use the education or degree they have already earned. Through Concordia’s ABSN, your son or daughter can earn a BSN in 16 months, allowing him or her to enter the workforce sooner. To qualify for the ABSN program, he or she must obtain a minimum of 60 non-nursing credits from a regionally accredited college or university. Your child must also successfully complete Concordia’s prerequisite courses, which provide the nursing fundamentals needed to hit the ground running.
Access
There is no better time for your child to change careers to nursing. After all, the nursing field is growing at nearly double the pace of the U.S. job market overall. This immense growth has created capacity and access issues at many nursing schools. At Concordia, this is not the case — with three start dates per year, your child has access to begin his or her nursing education sooner.
The Blended Curriculum
In addition to speed and access, another benefit to Concordia University’s ABSN is its blended learning curriculum, which combines 59 credit hours of online and hands-on learning in labs and clinicals. While the online portion of the curriculum can offer your child flexibility, it will demand extra commitment. In fact, most of Concordia’s Accelerated BSN students treat the blended curriculum like a full-time job. Having discipline will prepare your child to put what is learned online into practice during hands-on labs and clinical rotations inside Portland’s top health care institutions.
Online Learning
Delivered through an intuitive e-Learning platform, Concordia’s online coursework will allow your child complete coursework anytime, anywhere. The platform allows him or her to complete interactive and engaging activities conducive to your child’s personal learning style, as well as to join scheduled chat sessions with other instructors and students.
Hands-on Nursing Skills and Simulation Labs
Skills and simulation nursing labs allow your child to practice what they’ve learned online in a safe, life-like hospital environment that features state-of-the-art hospital equipment and high-fidelity medical manikins.
Skills Lab
The skills lab will teach your child how to apply various nursing skills safely and effectively on medical manikins using hi-tech medical equipment. Here, he or she will get comfortable with hospital equipment before practicing in a real-world setting.
Simulation Lab
The simulation lab will test your child’s critical thinking skills. Here, instructors will assign real-world patient scenarios. Within these scenarios, your child will experience different roles, acting as a nurse or family member. This will help him or her grasp all the skills needed to be an adequate caregiver.
Clinical Rotations
Taking place at leading health care facilities, Concordia’s diverse clinical rotations will have your child working alongside seasoned nursing staff and doctors. Clinical rotations will give him or her a chance to use their online nursing theory and hands-on lab experience to help patients in need.
What Your Child Will Gain
Now that you have a better understanding of what Concordia University’s Accelerated BSN has to offer, it’s time to discuss what your son or daughter will gain after completing this 16-month curriculum.
National Council Licensure Examination (NCLEX-RN®) Preparation
For your child to have a career in nursing, he or she must pass the National Council Licensure Examination (NCLEX-RN®). This test ensures that your child has what it takes to care for patients in the best way.
From day one of Concordia’s Accelerated BSN, your child will be immersed in NCLEX-RN® test prep through Kaplan Nursing, though he or she may not realize it at the time. That’s because the exams taken throughout the nursing program are structured to reflect the NCLEX-RN® format. After each exam, your child will review the rationale behind their incorrect answers to better instill confidence which helps him or her retain the information at hand.
Support from Start to Finish
While you may serve as your child’s biggest support system, it should ease your mind to know that Concordia’s staff and faculty can serve as a close second. Throughout the 16-months, our faculty and staff will remain in close contact with your child via email, video chat, phone and in person. They will help your child understand the dynamic content in the ABSN, and will reach out frequently to check in.
Leadership
As a student in Concordia’s ABSN, your child will be surrounded by individuals who truly exemplify servant leadership. Staff and faculty can help your child determine what areas he or she needs to work on. Through their teachings, your child will learn how to care for patients in a holistic way, which will allow him or her to become a true leader in the field of nursing.
Encourage Your Child Today
Is an accelerated nursing program is worth it for your child? If you are interested in learning more about how Concordia’s ABSN can work for your child, your next step is to share this exciting information with him or her. Then put your child in contact with a dedicated admissions counselor who can answer any additional questions either of you still have.