Samford's online RN to BSN: courses, terms and a practicum close to home
Samford's RN to BSN is fully online, runs in 8-week terms and finishes the 120-credit bachelor's in a four-semester plan for nurses with an associate degree. It includes a practicum, and Samford encourages you to complete it within your current health community, so the setting and the nurse who guides you are yours to line up.
Set up your RN to BSN practicum
Tell us where you live and work. We find a practicum setting near you that fits what your course asks for.
The program in brief
The RN to BSN is offered through Samford's online professional studies programs and is 100 percent online. Admission asks for an associate degree in nursing (AS or AAS) with a 2.50 GPA and an unencumbered RN license. The program page listed October 19 as the next start date when we checked, which matches the start of the Fall B online term.
The 120 credits come from four sources: 30 credits of ECRN nursing core, 9 credits of continuing studies courses, 42 to 45 credits for your ADN and RN license, and 36 to 39 credits of general education. The ADN and license block comes with you, and much of the general education may too, depending on your transcript, which is how the Samford coursework fits in four semesters.
The degree is a BSN. If your real target is a nurse practitioner role, compare this route with the ADN to MSN, which moves an associate-degree nurse straight into a master's and awards no bachelor's on the way.
The four-semester plan
| Semester | Courses (credits) |
|---|---|
| I: fall | ECRN 330 Nursing Roles and Concepts (3, Fall A); ECRN 340 Health Assessment (3, Fall A); ECRN 360 Technology and Informatics (3, Fall B); ECCC 300 Vocation and Calling (3, Fall B); ECRN 232 Statistics (3, 16 weeks, if needed) |
| II: spring | ECRN 380 Scholarship for Nursing Practice (3, 16 weeks); ECRN 390 Population Health for RNs (5, 16 weeks); ECRN 386 Capstone I (1); ECRE 101 and ECRE 102 Bible I and II (3 each) |
| III: summer | ECRN 430 Leadership and Management (5, 10 weeks); ECRN 426 Capstone II (1) |
| IV: fall | ECRN 492 Transitions in Care (5, 16 weeks); ECRN 486 Capstone III (1) |
The capstone runs as a one-credit thread through the last three semesters. Fall and spring courses use 8-week A and B terms or a full 16 weeks, and summer uses the 10-week Summer III term. By our arithmetic, spring is the heaviest semester at 15 credits, with ECRN 380 and ECRN 390 both running the full 16 weeks beside Capstone I and the two Bible courses.
The practicum: what Samford says and what it leaves to your course
Samford's program page puts it in one sentence: "The program encourages students to complete their practicum requirement within their current health community." That is the whole public description. The page does not say which course carries the practicum, how many hours it takes or who supervises it, and the catalog descriptions of the later courses, ECRN 390, ECRN 430 and ECRN 492, give no hour counts.
The details live where your course lives: the syllabus and the course site in Canvas, and the program's RN to BSN Coordinator. Read them as soon as each term opens, because a practicum inside an 8-week or even a 16-week course leaves little room to find a setting after the course starts.
"Within your current health community" is a sensible default for working nurses. Your own hospital, a public health department, a clinic or a school nurse office nearby may all be candidates, depending on what the course asks you to do. Whether your own employer or unit may serve as the site is a question for the course faculty before you plan around it.
License states: two Samford lists that disagree
Samford restricts which RN licenses it accepts for this program, and its two public lists do not match.
- The RN to BSN program page says Samford "cannot accept nursing licenses" from Arizona, California, Colorado, Iowa, Louisiana, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New York, North Dakota, Oregon, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Wisconsin and Wyoming.
- The Bachelor of Science in Nursing licensure disclosure marks the same states with one swap: Nevada instead of Missouri.
- Neither list matches the 16-state list on the nurse practitioner pages, which includes Nevada and Missouri but not Wyoming.
If you live in, or hold a license only from, Missouri, Nevada or Wyoming, ask the RN to BSN Pathway Coordinator before applying and keep the answer in writing. Samford's state authorization sets out the disclosures in full.
The 2026-2027 online terms
| Term | Dates | Withdraw by |
|---|---|---|
| Fall A | Aug 24 to Oct 9, 2026 | Sep 14 |
| Fall B | Oct 19 to Dec 4, 2026 | Nov 11 |
| Spring A | Jan 11 to Feb 26, 2027 | Feb 3 |
| Spring B | Mar 8 to Apr 23, 2027 | Mar 31 |
| Summer III | Jun 1 to Aug 5, 2027 | See the full calendar |
Short terms move quickly. Fall A's withdraw-by date comes three weeks after classes begin, and a practicum question left until week three of an 8-week course is already late. A 16-week course spans both halves of its semester, so its practicum work can overlap two different sets of 8-week classes.
The full calendar, including registration dates, is on the academic calendar page.
How we help RN to BSN students with the practicum
Samford points you toward your own community; we make that community work for the course. Your placement advisor starts from the practicum requirements in your syllabus and finds a setting and an experienced nurse nearby who can support what the course asks of you.
- Read the requirement with youWe go through the course's practicum instructions and turn them into a short list of the kinds of settings that fit.
- Find the setting near youYour advisor contacts sites in your area, confirms they can host an RN to BSN student for the course's purpose and, where the course calls for one, identifies the nurse who will work with you.
- Prepare what your course asks forSite and mentor details are gathered in the form your faculty requests, so approval does not stall mid-term.
- Look aheadIf an NP program is next, we map what the FNP MSN or PMHNP MSN will ask of you, and the connections you will need then.
Your faculty and Samford make the practicum decisions; our work gets you a ready, fitting option in time. Tell us about your course.
Questions Samford students ask
How long does Samford's online RN to BSN take?
The published plan runs four semesters: fall, spring, summer and a final fall. That pace assumes your ADN, license and general education credits cover most of the 120 total, leaving 30 credits of nursing core plus continuing studies courses. A statistics course is added in the first fall if you still need one.
Does Samford's RN to BSN include clinical hours?
Samford describes a practicum requirement rather than listing clinical hours by course. Its public pages give no hour count and encourage you to complete the practicum within your current health community. Your syllabus and the RN to BSN Coordinator give the exact requirement for your term.
Do I need an Alabama RN license for Samford's RN to BSN?
Samford's admission requirements ask for an unencumbered RN license and do not name Alabama. What matters is which state issued it: the program page lists 16 states whose licenses Samford cannot accept, and the licensure disclosure's list differs by one state, so check yours against both.
Is Samford's RN to BSN the same as the ADN to MSN?
No. The RN to BSN awards a bachelor's degree through Samford's online professional studies programs. The ADN to MSN is a graduate nursing program that takes an associate-degree RN into the FNP or PMHNP master's without awarding a bachelor's. Choose based on the degree you need at the end.
Can I go on to a Samford NP program after the RN to BSN?
Yes. Samford's BSN to MSN (FNP or PMHNP) admits in May with a March 1 deadline and a 3.0 GPA, and the FNP BSN to DNP follows the same calendar. Those programs add 750 or 1,050 clinical hours, and Samford's NP pages call your own connections essential to placements near home, so start building outpatient contacts during your BSN.
Related pages
Last checked 2026-09-25
We check these pages against Samford's own program pages, plans of study, the 2026-27 Graduate Nursing Student Handbook and Alabama rules. Your course, your program coordinator and Graduate Student Services have the final word.
Samford says connections are essential. We are the connection.
Tell us your Samford track, where you live and when your next clinical course starts. We find preceptors near you who fit the course and prepare the details Samford needs to approve the rotation, including a new affiliation agreement where one is needed.
- Preceptors matched to the course: adult primary care for
NURG 723, family practice across the lifespan forNURG 724, psychiatric care forNURG 788 - Preceptor, license and site details ready for your clinical rotation request
- In your own community, anywhere Samford accepts you and your RN license is valid
Start your placement plan
Program, city and start date is all we need to begin.