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Online RN to BSN Degree (Competency Based)

RN to Bachelor of Science in Nursing (Competency Based-CB)

Prepare to enhance your nursing practice, faster. When you transfer credits from your Associate Degree in Nursing (ADN), you can complete your Registered Nurse (RN) to Bachelor of Science in Nursing (Competency-Based) in as little as 12 months.

Self-governed, with the assistance of your faculty practitioners and faculty mentor, this program is designed for working professionals who have an associate degree in nursing, an unencumbered RN license and one year of professional experience.

What is competency-based education?

Your RN to BSN-CB in less than 12 months for under $10,000

Grow your career with our nursing degree

Ignite Your Passion

Start when you're ready

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Courses

Browse courses for your online nursing degree

Education should hold practical value. That’s why our courses meet rigorous academic standards and provide you with skills and knowledge immediately applicable to your career.

Program Handbook: Nursing Student Program Handbook

Look for this icon to see which skills you’ll learn in a course.

Core Courses

3 Credits

Students will describe the knowledge, skills, attitudes, and clinical thinking processes needed for professional growth as a practitioner, leader, and educator.

3 Credits

Students will analyze and describe how consumer-driven health information and health informatics redefine how health care is discussed, researched, and provided across various health professions.

3 Credits

This course examines electronic modalities that assist in patient-centered health care management. Topics include informatics, automation of data management, and evaluation of information systems. A key focus is the relationship between technology in health care delivery and patient safety.

3 Credits

This course analyzes the role of the contemporary nurse as a leader and manager in the profession and health care industry. Topics include managing heath care resources, assessing quality and risk in patient care, and decision-making models.

3 Credits

This course emphasises the role of research outcomes in evidence-based nursing practice. Topics incude formulating research questions; collecting, summarizing, and interpreting data; and understanding the elements of research design. The key concept is the role of nursing in research analysis for improving practice environments and patient outcomes.

3 Credits

This course addresses legal and ethical aspects of the professional nurse's role in health care delivery and management. Topics include ethical and legal principles, ethical decision-making, standards of care, scope of practice, state Nurse Practice Acts, and Code of Ethics.

3 Credits

This course examines the nurse's role as a leader in health care. Topics include financial and resource management, cost controls, fiscal responsibility, and health care policies and reform. A key concept is the interrelationship among health policy, legislation, regulation, finance, and practice.

3 Credits

This course addresses the role of nursing in community and public health. Topics include theories and models of community and public health nursing, diversity, advocacy, family and community assessment, and health education. A key focus is evidence-based health promotion and preventive care of individuals, families, and communities. This course requires a minimum of 45 Direct Care Hours.

3 Credits

In this course, students will learn how quality improvement in clinical nursing as well as how regulatory bodies and accrediting standards impact patient safety. Students will also learn to assess risks, analyze the effects of nurse-sensitive indicators on quality patient care, and evaluate how the management of quality drives patient safety and improves health care systems. Factors that influence quality, safe, patient-centered care will be evaluated by students.

3 Credits

This course explores public and global health issues relevant to professional nursing practice. Topics include social responsibility and determinants of health, epidemiology, disease prevention and health promotion for at-risk populations, and national and global health organizations. A key focus is the application of evidence-based public health principles. This course requires a minimum of 45 Direct Care Hours.

3 Credits

In this capstone course, students integrate and synthesize the content and experiences from all nursing courses into a final leadership project.

General Education Courses

Electives

Requirements: 33 credits

In a competency-based program, you earn credit by demonstrating your knowledge of a core skill, or competency. Since there are 33 credits in this program, one competency equals one credit.

Requirements to enter this program:

An Associate of Arts Degree in Nursing, Associate of Applied Arts Degree with an emphasis in Nursing, an Associate of Science Degree with an emphasis in Nursing, or an Associate of Applied Science Degree with an emphasis in Nursing from an accredited college or university.
Students must have a valid, unrestricted/unencumbered RN license.
A minimum equivalent of one year of full-time post high school clinical-based RN work experience within the past five years. (Full-time work is defined as 32 hours per week for the BSN-CB program.)

11 Core Courses

Here’s where you’ll pick up the bulk of your program-specific knowledge. By the time you finish these courses, you should have the confidence and skills needed in this field.

4 courses at a time

16 weeks per course

11 courses per year

Schedule

Your academic counselor will help schedule your courses for a Registered Nurse (RN) to Bachelor of Science in Nursing (Competency-Based).

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Earn career-relevant skills in weeks – not years.

Learning shouldn’t take years to put into practice. That’s why we’re empowering you to build career-relevant skills with every course.

We’ve worked with the labor market researcher Lightcast to identify in-demand skills for occupations and mapped those to our related associate, bachelor’s and master’s degree programs.

Learn about skills

Earn career-relevant skills in weeks – not years.

Learning shouldn’t take years to put into practice. That’s why we’re empowering you to build career-relevant skills with every course.

We’ve worked with the labor market researcher Lightcast to identify in-demand skills for occupations and mapped those to our related associate, bachelor’s and master’s degree programs.

Learn about skills

Tuition

Paying for school

Tuition is based on a calculation of number of credits multiplied by the per credit cost.

Learn about cost of attendance

RN to BSN-CB estimated program cost

$9,900 / program

Tuition Guarantee

With our Tuition Guarantee, you pay one flat, affordable tuition rate from the moment you enroll to the day you graduate from your program.

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Learn about cost of attendance

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Budget & borrow

How to pay for college

Paying for school can be intimidating, but we’re here to help you make sense of it. Our finance advisors can walk you through your options like federal financial aid and savings opportunities to minimize your debt. Plus, we can help you figure out your financial plan.

Explore federal financial aid

Careers & Outcomes

What can you do with a RN to Bachelor of Science in Nursing (Competency-Based) degree?

Discover where your degree might take you and make informed choices about your future.

An BSN-CB can prepare you to be a:

Charge Nurse
Public Health Nurse (PHN)
Director of Nursing (DON)

Top skills learned in this program:

Business Management
Communications
Coordinating Safe Care
Critical Thinking and Holistic Nursing
Health Administration
Information Management and Communication
Leadership
Professionalism
Quality Improvement and Case Management
Strategic Planning

Ready to get started?

Start your application for free or request additional information.

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What you’ll learn

When you earn your online Registered Nurse (RN) to Bachelor of Science in Nursing (Competency-Based), you’ll be equipped with a concrete set of skills you can apply on the job. You’ll learn how to:

Demonstrate evidence-based holistic patient-centered care that reflects knowledge of the health-illness continuum.
Implement appropriate health promotion and disease prevention strategies for diverse individuals, families and populations across the life span.
Demonstrate professional standards of moral, ethical, and legal conduct in health care industry.
Apply leadership and organizational principles that promote safe health care delivery and nursing practice.
Incorporate strategies that influence health policy at state, national, and international levels for the provision of safe, quality patient care.
Integrate patient care communication and information technology systems in health care delivery to improve patient outcomes.
Utilize interprofessional care coordination strategies to promote quality patient care.

6% Growth

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, job growth for registered nurses occupations is projected to be faster than average between 2023 and 2033.

The BLS Projected Growth for 2023-2033 is published by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics. This data reflects the BLS’ projections of national (not local) conditions. These data points are not specific to University of Phoenix students or graduates.

Admissions

Apply for free – no application fee, no obligation.

Starting your degree is a big decision — and we want you to feel great about it. That’s why we remove obstacles from your application.

No SAT/ACT required
No essay required
No cost, risk-free trial for eligible students
We’ll request transcripts at no cost to you, when possible, and we accept eligible credits from over 5,000 accredited institutions.

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How to enroll at the University of Phoenix

How to enroll at University of Phoenix

Receive 1-on-1 support

You have a support team of real people you can lean on. And our academic counselors, who are with you every step of the way, have earned a 5-star rating from 90% of our surveyed students.^[1]Start a conversation with an enrollment representative today.

[1] Transactional Survey, August 2021-22 (18,645 respondents)

Call or chat with us 7 days a week.

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Gabriel G., Enrollment Rep

Receive 1-on-1 support

You have a support team of real people you can lean on. And our academic counselors, who are with you every step of the way, have earned a 5-star rating from 85% of our surveyed students.^[1]

[1] Transactional Survey, September 2022-August 2023 (23,739 respondents)

Start a conversation with an enrollment representative today.

Call us at 844-937-8679 or chat with us 7 days a week.

Request info

Apply now

Student Experience

An education that fits your busy life

Balancing family, work and school

Work toward your degree without giving up what matters most. Start your degree year-round and take one class at a time.

Learn about our flexibility

Online learning

Enroll in online classes and attend class whenever it fits your life, day or night.

Read about online classes

Around-the-clock support and resources

You have a support team available up to 14 hours a day, 5 days a week.

See student resources

Computer requirements for courses

Many course assignments will require you to use a computer to complete and submit your assignment.

Professionals dedicated to you

Your success is a top priority for our deans and faculty members. They bring an average of 28+ years of experience and hands-on perspective to the classroom, and help bridge the gap between academics and industry knowledge.

I definitely understand how difficult it is for students who have a family. I try to make my classes as “un-stressful” as possible.

Beverly Jensen
2020 Faculty of the Year

MSN, RN, CNE

Read her story

Accreditation

Count on the quality of your education

programmatic accreditation

The baccalaureate degree program in nursing, master's degree program in nursing, and Doctor of Nursing Practice program at the University of Phoenix are accredited by the Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education, 655 K Street, NW, Suite 750, Washington, DC 20001, 202-887-6791.

This program is aligned with leading industry organizations, such as: