Ask an NP – Transitioning to an NP from a BSN

00:01 We often get asked how much experience nurses need before they go back to graduate school to get their nurse practitioner degree.

00:08 And I think the answer to that is that it varies.

00:11 If you're going into a Primary Care Program, I have had several students that have finished their BSN, and then gone straight into graduate school.

00:20 They usually work the first year or so of graduate school, so they're getting a little bit of bedside experience, but they have become very successful primary care nurse practitioners.

00:30 On the acute care side of things we have found that people are a little more successful if they have a year or two of bedside nursing experience.

00:40 Usually in a faster paced area, if you could work in the emergency department, ICU, maybe a bone marrow transplant unit, units that are the patients are a little bit sicker, and then come to graduate school, we find that they are more successful.