EKU's online RN to BSN: credits, pace, the clinical and state limits

How 25 EKU credits become a 120-credit BSN

The catalog requires a minimum of 25 nursing credits taken at EKU and a minimum of 120 credit hours in total, transfer hours included. Three things close the gap between the two numbers:

• Credit for prior learning. On admission, with a current, valid, unencumbered RN license from an approved state, you receive 39 credits standing in for EKU's prelicensure courses, including NSC 330 Clinical Drug Therapy, NSC 350 Pathophysiology and the adult, mental health and family health nursing courses with their clinicals.
• General education waiver. Associate-degree RNs who meet EKU's general education certification protocol have their general education requirements waived.
• Transfer credit. Your associate degree and other college work supply the rest, and any transferred nursing or support course needs a minimum grade of 2.5 (C).

Your own total depends on the transcripts you bring, so ask for a credit evaluation before you choose a pace. Once you're admitted, Degree Works shows how each credit is being counted toward the 120.

Accelerated or traditional: picking a pace

EKU offers two speeds. The accelerated path aims for graduation in 12 months by taking two courses most terms, and it requires general education certification and a qualifying statistics course before you start. The traditional path takes one course every 7 weeks, adding a second now and then, and EKU says students on it earn the BSN in about 18 months.

The right pace depends on your shifts more than your ambition. Two courses in one 7-week session means two sets of deadlines running at once, and the term that holds NSC 442 and NSC 442C also brings clinical hours at an agency. It helps to place that clinical term where your work schedule is lightest and plan the rest of the program around it. The 7-week term guide shows how sessions fall across the year.

The one clinical course: NSC 442C

NSC 442C Complex Health Systems Clinical is where the program's clinical hours sit. In the 2023-24 handbook, since archived, the course was worth 2 credits and asked for 60 clock hours across 8 weeks; today's catalog gives 2.5 credits and no hour figure. EKU presents the work as a clinical project that you can complete at your current employer.

The archived handbook also laid out the process around it. Students could explore partnerships in their local community with faculty guidance, the agency needed an affiliation agreement even when it was the student's employer, the primary course leader approved every preceptor or mentor, and the agency request form was due the semester before the course. The NSC 442C guide covers the hours, setting and deadlines in detail, and the agency agreements guide explains why agreements need lead time.

How we help EKU RN to BSN students

Your placement advisor's work centers on NSC 442C. If your employer can host the project, we help you confirm the agreement route and a suitable mentor early. If it can't, or you would rather work somewhere new, we find a nearby healthcare agency with a mentor suited to a complex health systems project, then prepare the details your agency request form needs.

If this is the first clinical you have helped arrange, we walk you through each step EKU's process asks of you, from the agency request form to the mentor approval, so nothing about the course catches you short.

Every step is timed against EKU's calendar, so your agency is in place a semester ahead, and we stay on call if the agency steps back. Use the form below to tell us which term your clinical falls in.