Nursing Degree Programs: A Guide for Future Students

Key Infor­ma­tion:

• Nurs­ing degrees range from diplo­mas to PhDs, each lead­ing to dis­tinct roles and spe­cial­iza­tion opportunities.
• Get­ting into a nurs­ing pro­gram requires meet­ing aca­d­e­m­ic pre­req­ui­sites and often includes health­care experience.
• Nurs­ing edu­ca­tion cov­ers foun­da­tion­al to advanced top­ics, empha­siz­ing hands-on clin­i­cal prac­tice and lead­er­ship skills.
• Nurs­ing degree careers span hos­pi­tal envi­ron­ments, spe­cial­ized clin­i­cal roles, and emerg­ing fields like tele­health and health tech.

Nurs­ing is a chal­leng­ing, high demand pro­fes­sion that can be con­fus­ing to fig­ure out. There are a lot of dif­fer­ent types of nurs­ing degrees, with a fair­ly struc­tured path­way to more advanced degrees and roles. There are a lot of spe­cial­iza­tions in nurs­ing, rang­ing every­where from fam­i­ly med­i­cine to tech­ni­cal roles in fields like radi­ol­o­gy or oncol­o­gy. There are also licens­ing exams to com­plete. There are cer­ti­fi­ca­tions to obtain and pro­fes­sion­al devel­op­ment to keep up with. This guide will take a bit of the mys­tery out of what it takes to get start­ed with a career in nursing.

Different Nursing Degree Programs

How Do I Get Into a Nursing Program?

Admis­sion require­ments to entry-lev­el nurs­ing pro­grams will vary from insti­tu­tion to insti­tu­tion, with strict entry require­ments often being the sign of a qual­i­ty pro­gram. Eli­gi­bil­i­ty require­ments typ­i­cal­ly include a high school diplo­ma, aca­d­e­m­ic tran­scripts, and stan­dard­ized test scores. Some pro­grams may also require let­ters of rec­om­men­da­tion and a per­son­al state­ment. For MSN, DNP, and nurs­ing PHD pro­grams, the pro­fes­sion­al and aca­d­e­m­ic require­ments will focus on a future stu­den­t’s abil­i­ty to han­dle com­plex course­work and con­duct inde­pen­dent research. 

Vol­un­teer­ing at local health care cen­ters and tak­ing advan­tage of intern­ship oppor­tu­ni­ties at the BSN lev­el can help make your nurs­ing pro­gram appli­ca­tion stand out a bit. Even though there is a nurs­ing short­age in the US, nurs­ing pro­grams remain high­ly com­pet­i­tive with the best oppor­tu­ni­ties going to stu­dents who have a high GPA and nurs­ing or health­care expe­ri­ences already on their resume.

What Will I Learn In A Nursing Program?

Nurs­ing pro­grams cov­ers a vari­ety of sub­jects and can get very spe­cial­ized at advanced lev­els. Diplo­ma, ADN, and BSN stu­dents will learn about human anato­my, phys­i­ol­o­gy, micro­bi­ol­o­gy, patient care, health­care man­age­ment, and oth­er foun­da­tion­al sub­jects. Stu­dents will also engage prac­ti­cal train­ing in clin­i­cal set­tings, allow­ing stu­dents to learn and apply knowl­edge in a hands-on way. MSN, DNP and PhD stu­dents will learn more advanced fea­tures of these fun­da­men­tal cours­es, along with spe­cif­ic train­ing in fields like radi­ol­o­gy, advanced prac­tice, clin­i­cal research, or oth­er tech­ni­cal health­care roles. Most nurs­ing pro­grams will also include train­ing in basic lead­er­ship and admin­is­tra­tion, prepar­ing stu­dents for fast-paced and high­ly-struc­tured hos­pi­tal environments. 

What Can I Do With a Nursing Degree?

Grad­u­ates from nurs­ing pro­grams often start work­ing in hos­pi­tals. Oth­ers find posi­tions or build their resume to land jobs in spe­cial­ized clin­ics, pri­vate prac­tices, nurs­ing homes, and K‑12 schools. Advanced nurs­ing degree grad­u­ates find spe­cial­ized roles such as nurse prac­ti­tion­ers, nurse anes­thetists, or clin­i­cal research. As the demand grows for nurs­es at every edu­ca­tion and expe­ri­ence lev­el, a nurs­ing degree can also lead to jobs in emerg­ing fields such as trav­el nurs­ing, tele­health nurs­ing, health­care non­prof­its, health­care tech­nol­o­gy, and health communications.