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Quick Answer
Cambridge’s RN to BSN is a post-licensure completion program delivered 100% online: 120 total credits across four semesters, 60 weeks, 810 clock hours.Up to 66 credits transfer in from your associate degree. You are finishing a bachelor’s degree, not starting one. The program requires no clinical hours — a structural difference that matters enormously if you are already working full shifts. The curriculum includes four graduate-level nursing courses alongside the bachelor’s-level coursework.Entry requires an active, unencumbered RN license and an associate degree from an institution accredited by an agency recognized by the U.S. Department of Education.
What is an RN to BSN completion program?
It is a bachelor’s degree for nurses who are already licensed and already working. The hard part — the science sequence, the clinical rotations, the licensure examination — is behind you. A completion program takes the credits you already earned, adds the upper-division coursework a bachelor’s requires, and awards the degree.
The word “completion” is load-bearing. This is not a second nursing education. It is the remaining portion of one you have mostly finished, which is why the timeline looks nothing like a four-year degree.
Understanding this changes how you should evaluate these programs. The question is not “how long is the bachelor’s?” It is “how much of mine already counts, and what exactly is left?”
How long does Cambridge’s RN to BSN take?
Sixty weeks, structured as four semesters, totaling 810 clock hours and 120 credits toward the degree.
For a nurse working full time, the useful way to read that number is not “sixty weeks” but “four semesters, one at a time.” Nobody completes a degree by contemplating the whole span of it. You complete a term, then the next one. The program is built to be metabolized that way, which is why it is delivered fully online rather than on a campus schedule that assumes you are free on Tuesday afternoons.
Does the RN to BSN require clinical hours?
No. Cambridge’s RN to BSN program requires no clinical hours.
This deserves more attention than it usually gets. Many RN to BSN programs — including well-known ones — include a practicum requirement, and a number of them expect the student to locate their own preceptor and clinical site, occasionally at additional cost. For a nurse working three twelves, that requirement is not a minor administrative task. It is the thing that quietly ends enrollments.
A program with no clinical requirement removes that failure point entirely. Every hour you commit is coursework you control the timing of. That is worth asking about at every school you evaluate, because the answer varies and it is rarely on the front page.
How many of your existing credits actually count?
Students are awarded transfer of up to 66 credits based on prior education. Against a 120-credit degree, that is more than half the requirement satisfied before your first assignment is due.
This is where the arithmetic gets persuasive. You are not weighing a bachelor’s degree against nothing. You are weighing the remaining fraction of one against the cost of leaving it unfinished — and the remaining fraction is a fully online, no-clinical, 60-week commitment.
Bring your actual transcript to the conversation. Transfer awards are evaluated against what you completed, not against a general rule, and the specific number for you is knowable before you commit to anything.
What do you actually study?
Below is an outline of the course curriculum.
| RN-BSN Program | Credit |
| Pre-requisite ASN (66 Credits) | 66 |
| Upper-Level Gen Ed Courses (12 credits) | |
| GOV 2101 American Government | 3 |
| ENC 1201 English Composition | 3 |
| COM 301 Microcomputer Applications | 3 |
| PHI 301 Critical Thinking | 3 |
| Core Courses (42 credits) | |
| NURSG 1301 Pathophysiology | 3 |
| NURSG 1302 Leadership | 5 |
| NURSG 1105 Population Health and Community-Based Nursing | 6 |
| NURSG 1304 Global Health | 4 |
| NURSG 1401 Informatics | 4 |
| NURSG 1402 Research | 6 |
| NURSG 4500 Theoretical Foundations of Nursing 3 | |
| NURSG 5002 Advanced Pathophysiology | 3 |
| NURSG 5003 Advanced Pharmacology | 3 |
| NURSG 5004 Advanced Health Assessment | 3 |
| NURSG 5050 RN-BSN Integration | 2 |
| Total | 120 |
Why are four graduate-level courses sitting inside a bachelor’s program?
Because the ladder was designed as a ladder rather than assembled as a catalog.
Advanced Pathophysiology, Advanced Pharmacology, and Advanced Health Assessment are the three courses that sit at the foundation of essentially every advanced practice nursing curriculum in the country. Nurses commonly call them the three Ps. Encountering them inside the BSN rather than for the first time in a graduate program means you meet that material while you are still building undergraduate study habits, with the safety net of a completion program around you.
One important qualification, stated plainly: whether graduate coursework completed here applies toward a future master’s degree is determined by the receiving graduate program’s transfer and residency policies, not by Cambridge. If graduate progression is part of your reasoning for enrolling, ask that question directly of an advisor and get the answer in writing before you decide.
What is true regardless of transfer policy is the preparation. Sitting with advanced pathophysiology once makes the second encounter substantially less punishing.
What does it take to get in?
The RN to BSN entrance requirements are specific:
- An active and unencumbered RN license.
- An earned associate degree from a postsecondary institution accredited by an agency recognized by the U.S. Department of Education, or a foreign credential recognized as equivalent.
- A completed admissions application including an admission interview, distance education questionnaire, personal statement, residency disclosure, proof of graduation, and a $50 application fee.
The distance education questionnaire and residency disclosure are not bureaucratic filler. Cambridge participates in the State Authorization Reciprocity Agreements (NC-SARA), and where you physically reside affects how an online program can serve you. Answer both accurately — a mismatch discovered later is far more disruptive than one resolved during admissions.
Will your employer help pay for it?
A surprising number of nurses never find out, and it is the single highest-return question in this entire article.
Tuition assistance and tuition reimbursement benefits are common across hospital systems, health systems, long-term care organizations, and staffing employers — and they are frequently underused because the benefit is buried in an HR portal nobody visits after onboarding. Some employers pay upfront, some reimburse on grade submission, some require a service commitment afterward, and the annual caps vary widely.
Three things to establish before you enroll anywhere: what the annual benefit amount is, whether it is paid upfront or reimbursed, and whether accepting it obligates you to remain with the employer for a defined period. All three are answerable in one email to your HR department.
If you work for an organization that employs a number of Cambridge students or graduates, it is also worth asking whether a cohort or employer partnership arrangement exists. Group arrangements sometimes carry terms that individual enrollment does not.
Is the RN to BSN worth it?
The honest answer depends on how long you intend to remain in nursing and what you want to be doing in it.
If you plan to stay at the bedside in your current role, in an employer that does not differentiate on degree, for the remainder of a short career — the case is weaker, and you should hear that from a school rather than only from a message board.
If you intend to practice for another decade or more, or you want access to specialty units, charge and leadership roles, case management, quality, or informatics, or you may eventually pursue graduate study — the case is strong, and it strengthens each year you postpone. The credential compounds. The postponement does too.
For national context: the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported a median annual wage of $93,600 for registered nurses as of May 2024, lists a bachelor’s degree as the typical entry-level education for the occupation, and projects 5 percent employment growth from 2024 to 2034 with roughly 189,100 openings annually over the decade. These are national medians across all settings and experience levels, not a projection of any individual’s earnings.
Frequently Asked Questions
How long is Cambridge’s RN to BSN program?
60 weeks across four semesters, totaling 810 clock hours and 120 credits toward the degree, delivered 100% online.
Does the program require clinical hours or a preceptor?
No. The program requires no clinical hours, which removes the preceptor and site-placement burden that many working nurses find difficult to manage.
How many credits will transfer from my associate degree?
Students are awarded transfer of up to 66 credits based on prior education. Your specific award is evaluated against your transcript during admissions.
Can I keep working full time while enrolled?
The program is designed for working nurses and is delivered fully online with no clinical requirement. Sustainable pace still depends on your individual schedule, so discuss your actual shift pattern with an advisor before enrolling.
Do the graduate courses in the curriculum count toward a master’s degree?
That is determined by the transfer and residency policies of whichever graduate program you later apply to, not by Cambridge. Ask an advisor for specifics and confirm directly with any graduate program you are considering.
What accreditation applies to the RN to BSN program?
Cambridge College of Healthcare & Technology is institutionally accredited by the Accrediting Bureau of Health Education Schools (ABHES). The RN to BSN program is approved by the Georgia Nonpublic Postsecondary Education Commission and by ABHES, and Cambridge participates in the State Authorization Reciprocity Agreements (NC-SARA). Full detail by program and campus is published on the college’s Licensure & Accreditation page.