Online RN to BSN

CCNE Accredited

Transfer Up To 90 Credits

$390 Per Credit Hour

10 Months To Complete*

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Programs Curriculum Careers

Experience a Degree Program Designed for Healers

As a working nurse, you’re seeking a trusted, affordable program that fits your schedule. Grounded in healing and humanity, SHU’s RN to BSN is accredited by the Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education (CCNE) and carries a 40-year tradition of nursing education excellence. Our tuition is very affordable at $390 per credit hour, and we invite you to transfer current college credits to lower your program cost and duration.

In as few as 10 months, our flexible online RN to BSN will help you meet minimum level education requirements for most entry-level positions. An accelerated RN to BSN program is also available for applicants who qualify. No matter which option you choose, our full-time faculty nurses will support you with a holistic curriculum and local clinicals for hands-on learning to complete your nursing education.

  • Employment growth for RNs is projected at 6% from 2021 to 20311
  • $77,600 is the median annual salary for registered nurses1
  • 88.4% of employers prefer candidates with BSN degrees2
  • 41.7% of RNs reported a BSN as the degree that qualified them for their first US nursing license; this number was 39% in 2015, and 35.5% in 20133
  • Accelerated RN to BSN track option: Earn your BSN in 10 months at $390/credit hour by transferring with an ASN degree

Continue Your Education and Prepare for Leadership Opportunities

Sacred Heart’s online nursing programs provide multiple pathways to advance your nursing career and increase your earning potential. In addition to our traditional and accelerated RN to BSN options, we also offer a fast-track to your MSN with our RN to MSN program.

You’ve mastered patient care and working as part of a team. Advance as a leader who can inform a team about evidence-based practices, tools and processes to improve patient outcomes. Reshape policy, reduce costs and identify solutions to problems within your healthcare system after a deep immersion of quality care research within the curriculum. This unique MSN without BSN requirement degree offers four core and eight specialized courses. Complete your degree in two to six years, at your own pace, and then be prepared to sit for the American Association of Colleges of Nursing CNL Certification Exam.

Become a well-respected mentor and begin preparing new nurses to care for the patient population. With this online degree from SHU, you can transition into a teaching role, answering the call to address the growing nurse educator shortage. Among the most respected nurse educator programs, our CCNE-accredited degree features core knowledge in health care policy, practice and research plus nine specialized courses to prepare you as a nurse leader, educator and evaluator. Engage with expert faculty and work with a preceptor in two role immersions designed to apply theory to practice, and emerge ready for your CNL exam.

The nursing occupational outlook is positive, with plenty of roles for CNOs, directors of patient care and nursing administrators. Whatever your plans are, SHU’s online MSN degree in Nursing Management and Executive Leadership develops within you the sought-after skills to become an effective nurse leader who can improve processes and ultimately affect patient outcomes. Apply integrative expertise in strategic planning, quality improvement, workforce development, research and ethics, and human resource management. Courses on budgeting and process will also help you lead with expert insight in your new, advanced role. Upon graduation, enjoy a generous MSN nurse salary and an advanced education that opens doors to higher positions. You can lead a team, department or facility.

Fast-Track Your Nursing Career with Our Accelerated Program

Registered nurses who have an Associate Degree in Nursing with 90 transfer credits can earn their bachelor’s in as few as 10 months with Sacred Heart’s Accelerated RN to BSN. The accelerated track features the same CCNE-accredited curriculum and competitive tuition as our traditional RN to BSN program, helping you unlock the benefits of baccalaureate nursing education sooner.

Contact us to learn more.

You Belong with SHU!

Our mission to prepare students for lives of professional success and personal and spiritual growth excludes no one. And it’s because of that mission — and the spirited way we live it — that students of different faiths, ethnicities, and socio-economic backgrounds have made SHU the launching pad for their dreams and ambitions.

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Why Online Learning is Right for You

The advantages of online learning are obvious – you don’t have to pause your career or rearrange your life to earn the degree you need to take your career to the next level. Another key factor is fit – making sure a school feels right to you. Sacred Heart’s Center for Career & Professional Development will welcome you as if you had just walked through the door here in Fairfield. With an exclusive, online recruiting system of 10,000+ employers, one-on-one career counseling, resume workshops, and an active alumni network of more than 35,000, you can rest assured knowing that our campus reaches wherever you are.

A Truly Holistic Curriculum

Sacred Heart University’s online RN to BSN program is accredited by the CCNE. It features a holistic curriculum designed for working nurses and those new to nursing, paired with the flexibility and convenience of online learning. This transformative core curriculum, The Human Journey, takes you beyond the science of nursing so you can make meaningful connections and improve patient outcomes through the study of literature, philosophy, sociology and more. The goal of Sacred Heart’s online RN to BSN program is not just to educate you as a nurse — it’s to prepare you to become a healer.

Here are a few of the courses you may take in this program:

The Human Journey in Nursing

3 Credit Hours

The Human Journey in Nursing utilizes the four questions posed in the Catholic Intellectual Tradition Seminars to address nursing’s role in building a just society. Concepts such as human vulnerability, resiliency, spirituality, and cultural diversity will provide the platform from which discussions about the professions and the professional nurse’s role in shaping past, current, and future healthcare will be based. Reflection on service-learning experiences will personalize and professionalize the meaning and responsibility for addressing health inequities within the workplace and the perpetuation of health disparities in society.

Leadership in Contemporary Nursing Practice

3 Credit Hours

This course focuses on the professional nurse’s role in applying theory and principles of leadership and management in organizations across the health care continuum. Emphasis is placed on strategies necessary to function effectively in a changing health care system by exploring the interrelated process of thinking systematically, developing reflective judgment, and exercising leadership. Strategies for managing the quality and cost of health care, as well as research utilization, are also emphasized to promote effective practice.

Information Technology for Nursing Practice

3 Credit Hours

This course provides an introduction to information and technology needed for the practice of nursing today. It focuses on providing material to enable nurses to be computer literate by exploring the use of emerging information sources and communication technology and their impact on healthcare. Emphasis is placed on trends and issues in clinical technology. It will also examine key issues such as security and the use of databases.

Care Management: Individuals and Families

4 Credit Hours

This course is focused on the elements of care management of individuals and families across the health care continuum. It expands upon the concepts of care transitions from hospital to the community setting with an emphasis on the challenges related to transitioning such as financial management, resource utilization, and overall care coordination. Care management for individuals and families requires an understanding of family systems and the interaction of individuals with their family during healthy actual or potential health issues. A family assessment is utilized to allow you the opportunity to develop a plan that will promote a safe and productive transition to the community. You will engage in analytic discussions to further develop their understanding of family systems, systems of care, clinical practice and community nursing roles.

Higher Salaries for Advanced Credentials

Because of an increased emphasis on preventative care, growing rates of chronic conditions like diabetes and obesity, and an overall greater need for health care services for the aging “baby boom” population, the demand for nurses at all levels is expected to skyrocket.1

Since many of the settings that provide health care services — including Magnet hospitals and academic health centers — now require or prefer a baccalaureate degree for specific nursing roles,4 nurses with higher levels of education are poised to earn higher salaries.

RNs with BSNs can become certified nurse life care planners and work for insurance companies, providing lifetime care for ill or disabled patients. RNs also find themselves working in pharmaceuticals as sales or research professionals, and in the legal field as consultants for teams that investigate medical malpractice cases, insurance fraud, worker’s compensation claims and more.

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Sources and Disclaimer

  1. “Registered Nurses,” Occupational Outlook Handbook, Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor. Retrieved December 1, 2021, from https://www.bls.gov.
  2. “Employment of New Nurse Graduates and Employer Preferences for Baccalaureate-Prepared Nurses,” AACN Research Brief, American Association of Colleges of Nursing. Retrieved December 1, 2021, from https://www.aacnnursing.org.
  3. “National Nursing Workforce Study,” National Council of State Boards of Nursing. Retrieved on December 1, 2021, from https://www.ncsbn.org.
  4. “Degree Completion Programs for Registered Nurses: RN to Master’s Degree and RN to Baccalaureate Programs Fact Sheet,” American Association of Colleges of Nursing. Retrieved December 1, 2021, from https://www.aacnnursing.org.

*Accelerated RN to BSN track can be completed in as few as 10 months. Standard RN to BSN can be completed in as few as 18 months.