20 Best Bachelor’s Degrees in Nursing Online 2020

There is a crisis in medical staff. Baby boomers and subsequent generations will continue to age and require extensive medical care and personnel to administer that help. As a result, the nursing industry is positively booming, making the best online nursing degrees the perfect choice for young professionals looking to do great work and earn an excellent salary. The best online bachelor’s degrees in nursing can prepare you for the demanding but rewarding job of nursing, either in general or with a specialty. Even better, these bachelor’s degree programs incorporate RN licensure and almost always lead to a direct salary boost relative to nurses who just complete the certificate. What is a Bachelor’s in Nursing Degree? While you only need an RN license to become an active nurse, those with bachelors degrees will be assigned more complex tasks and some managerial duties to reflect their greater expertise and academic experience. Bachelor’s degrees in nursing will, therefore, offer more academic and practical experience than most RN licensure programs. A given bachelor’s program may focus more on the practical skills necessary to successfully administer medical care while others may focus more on the academic aspects of the field. However, all nursing programs incorporate a clinical hour requirement to ensure that all students receive plenty of hands-on experience before graduating. Most degree programs will incorporate classes that cover topics such as health assessment and medical treatments, as well as ample biology and chemistry courses. In addition, many of the best nursing programs will have several leadership or communication courses. These courses better allow nurses to take charge of high-energy situations and direct other nurses to better assist hospital staff and their patients. Nursing programs may be completed between two and three years depending on whether a student already has an RN license. Those with bachelor’s degrees in another subject or an RN license may be eligible to enter an accelerated nursing program. To apply for a bachelors in nursing program, students must typically have a minimally high GPA and English proficiency. Careers for Nursing Majors Nurses can work in various medical facilities, such as hospitals and clinics. However, nurses with bachelor’s degrees often have the ability to specialize in certain types of patient care. For instance, some become cardiovascular nurses or addiction nurses. Others become neonatal nurses, which emphasize care to newborns. Still more may become critical care nurses, who spend lots of time in the emergency room and care for patients who are seriously ill or injured. Those nurses who proceed into a master’s degree for nursing can specialize even further. Some can become nurse anesthetists, who are trained to apply anesthesia to patients before and after an operation. Nursing Salary Potential The salary potential for nursing majors is high, especially for those with a degree. Median salaries for most nurses hover around $71,000 per year, and nursing jobs are growing at about 12 percent per year. Nurses who proceed on to a master’s degree have even higher earning potential. Nurse practitioners, midwives, and anesthetists have a median annual salary of $114,000 per year. They also have an extremely high job growth rate of 26 percent, which is much faster than the national average. Because nursing requires a certificate or license to begin employment, salary boosts are acquired through further college education rather than a certificate of completion. More education always leads to greater employment opportunities and higher salaries. What are the Best Online Nursing Degrees? We know that you have educational goals that you’re itching to pursue, but you may not know where to start. The editors of CollegeRank utilize a unique ranking methodology based on the following three aspects: 40% Potential Salary After Graduation: Average mid-career salary of school alumni 30% Institutional Accreditation: Regional and National Accreditation for the 2019-2020 school year 30% Overall Degree Affordability: Average cost of undergraduate and graduate tuition per school At CollegeRank, we strive to do our best to guide you and your family toward a fruitful academic career. The pursuit of knowledge is a noble one, and we want to help you reach your goals. For questions, comments, badge downloads, or data corrections, please feel free to reach out to us at editor@collegerank.net. 1The University of Texas at ArlingtonLocationArlington, TexasAverage Net Price$12,533More Information The University of Texas at Arlington began as Arlington College in 1895. The school has since expanded to offer more than 180 bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degree programs to a student body of over 42,000 students. Arlington is a public university, having joined the University of Texas system in 1965. UTA’s online Bachelor of Science in Nursing program requires 51 credit hours of nursing courses, along with pre-requisite and pre-nursing courses. Students also complete three hours of elective coursework. The nursing curriculum includes clinical courses that can only be completed with partnership hospitals in Texas and nursing courses such as Clinical Nursing Foundations, Nursing Leadership Management, and Community Health Nursing. Examples of elective courses are Legacy of the Family and Medical Terminology. Pre-nursing courses cover topics such as pharmacology and pathophysiological processes. Program graduates have gone on to pursue a wide range of careers. Alumni now work in community hospitals, long-term care facilities, schools, trauma centers, and home health agencies. The UTA online nursing program has graduation and licensure rates that both exceed 90%.