Bradley's RN-to-MSN: the bridge courses before your specialty
Bradley University offers registered nurses without a nursing bachelor's a direct path into its online MSN rather than a separate RN-to-BSN. Four bridge courses come first: NUR 300, NUR 303, NUR 404 and NUR 407. Only the last of them needs a preceptor, for 50 community health hours, and then the FNP, PMHNP, AGACNP, AGPCNP or leadership specialty begins.
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Tell us your Bradley program and where you live. A placement advisor replies with the preceptor and site options that fit your course.
Who the RN entry is for
Bradley's 2026-27 catalog admits two groups through RN entry: graduates of a diploma or associate nursing program accredited by CNEA or ACEN, and RNs whose bachelor's degree is in some other field. Applicants also show an unencumbered license that is current and a nursing GPA of 3.0, and NUR 300, the first bridge course, itself requires a current LPN or RN license.
Five MSN tracks take RN-entry students: Family Nurse Practitioner, Psychiatric Mental Health NP, Adult-Gerontology Acute Care NP, Adult-Gerontology Primary Care NP, and the leadership MSN. Bradley's doctoral NP tracks expect a BSN at entry, while its certificates and the leadership DNP expect a master's, so an associate-prepared nurse starts with the MSN.
The bachelor's step is folded in rather than skipped. On the undergraduate side, Bradley now offers just two nursing degrees, the traditional BSN and its accelerated version, and the old RN-entry BSN page no longer loads. NP applicants also discuss potential clinical mentors in the application itself; the preceptors at application page explains what to list.
The four bridge courses
The bridge opens every RN-entry plan and carries undergraduate credit; the online pages count 9 undergraduate hours inside each RN-entry total.
| Course | Title | Catalog credits | Preceptor |
|---|---|---|---|
| NUR 300 | Conceptual Bases for Professional Nursing (theory) | 3.0 | None |
| NUR 303 | Research in Nursing | 3.0 | None |
| NUR 404 | Community Health Nursing - Theory | 2.0 | None |
| NUR 407 | Community Health Practicum RN-MSN | 1.5, with 50 practicum hours | A qualified preceptor in a community setting |
Credit values are not identical across Bradley's pages, as the second table shows. The 2026-27 catalog raised NUR 407 from 1.0 to 1.5 credits, and the course requires RN-MSN status with NUR 404 taken earlier or alongside it. Your Program of Study is the version that counts.
Credit values by source
The online program pages were not all updated with the catalog, so the two community courses carry different credit figures depending on where you look:
| Source | NUR 404 | NUR 407 |
|---|---|---|
| 2026-27 catalog | 2.0 | 1.5 |
| Online FNP and AG pages | 3 | 1 |
| Online leadership page | 2 | 1 |
| Online PMHNP page | 3 | 1.5 |
None of this changes the 50 practicum hours, which every source agrees on. It does change how RN-entry credit totals read, which is why the catalog shows 59.5 credits for the RN-entry FNP where the online page shows 59. When two documents disagree, check which catalog year each one reflects before you plan terms around it; the Program of Study your advisor keeps in MyOnline shows the version Bradley applies to you.
NUR 407: the bridge course with a preceptor
The catalog gives NUR 407 50 practicum hours under a qualified preceptor in a community setting, and the Graduate Student Handbook lists a separate Community Health clinical packet for it alone. Course faculty approve the preceptor before any hours count.
Bradley's 2017 webinar for this course is the most detailed public guidance. Suitable settings it named included school nursing, health departments, occupational health, long-term care or assisted living, and hospital wellness programs. The preceptor did not always need a master's degree: nurses with a BSN, and once someone with a related bachelor's, had been accepted, with experience and state rules weighing in. Students were told to check with faculty before preparing a packet, and the program director of the time offered to pre-screen names by email.
Today the packet is signed through DocuSign by roughly the middle of the semester that precedes the course. The NUR 407 page covers settings, the packet and scheduling in detail.
RN-entry totals by track
Adding 50 community hours to a specialty should be simple arithmetic, yet Bradley's sources land on different totals:
| RN-entry track | Catalog credits | Catalog hours | Online page | Course hours add to |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| FNP | 59.5 (text says 59) | 750 | 800 hours, 59 credits | 800 (50 + 750) |
| PMHNP | 60.5 | 800 | 800 hours, 60.5 credits | 800 (50 + 750) |
| AGACNP | 56.5 | 750 | 600 hours, 56 credits | 800 (50 + 750) |
| AGPCNP | 56.5 | 750 | 600 hours, 56 credits | 800 (50 + 750) |
| Nursing and Healthcare Leadership | 49.5 | 500 plus 50 community | 350 hours, 39-40 credits | Not stated per course |
For FNP and both AG tracks, the catalog's RN-entry totals equal the specialty hours alone, while its own course descriptions add 50 for NUR 407. The online pages add those 50 for FNP and PMHNP but still carry the older 600-hour AG figure, and the online RN-entry PMHNP list includes NUR 655 Diagnostic Reasoning, which the catalog's PMHNP plan omits. Your clinical packet and academic advisor settle which number applies; the clinical hours page compares every track.
How long the RN route takes
Bradley's online pages estimate 3.3 years over 10 semesters for the RN-entry FNP and PMHNP, 3 years over 9 semesters for the RN-entry AGACNP and AGPCNP, and 2.3 years for RN-entry Nursing and Healthcare Leadership. The catalog allows five years from enrollment to finish any MSN.
Clearance starts in your first term, even though the first preceptor may be a year off: Bradley expects your Viewpoint Screening file, covering criminal history, drug testing, vaccines, a physical and health coverage, complete by that term's midpoint. Registration itself is automatic each term, drawn from your Program of Study.
Because NUR 407 is usually your first clinical course, it is also where Typhon begins: Bradley sends access shortly beforehand, and from then on each practicum day is logged within a week.
Two preceptor searches that look nothing alike
The RN route asks for two very different kinds of preceptor. For NUR 407 you need a community-setting nurse for 50 hours, who may hold a BSN. For the specialty you need clinicians for several hundred more hours: primary care practices for FNP and AGPCNP, hospital teams caring for acutely ill adults for AGACNP, psychiatric settings for PMHNP, and seasoned nurse executives for the leadership courses NUR 631, NUR 633 and NUR 697.
In 2017 Bradley's FNP webinar accepted NPs and physicians, with NPs supervising most hours, and excluded PAs, CNSs and CNLs; the current packets in MyOnline hold today's rules. FNP students also travel to Peoria for the October FNP Bootcamp ahead of NUR 679, and AG students complete an on-site skills session before their final management course.
The overlap to plan for: the first specialty packet comes due around the middle of the semester before that course, which can fall while you are still in the bridge.
Why RN-entry students choose us
We take on both searches from the start. For NUR 407, your placement advisor finds a community preceptor near home, in school nursing, public health, occupational health, long-term care or a hospital wellness program, and collects the license, CV and site details the Community Health packet asks for.
While you finish the bridge, we are already lining up the specialty preceptors for your track, sized to the hours your plan lists and timed to each packet deadline, with the bootcamp dates blocked out. Bradley decides on every preceptor and site, and each packet goes to Bradley with nothing left blank. Send your track and start term using the form below, or reach us from the contact page.
Questions Bradley students ask
Does Bradley offer an RN-to-BSN program?
Not in the 2026-27 catalog, whose undergraduate nursing degrees are the traditional and accelerated BSN, and the old RN-entry BSN page no longer loads. Bradley's State Disclosures page still shows an RN-entry row, but the route Bradley offers registered nurses today is the online RN-to-MSN, which folds bachelor's-level bridge courses into the master's.
Can I enter a Bradley DNP with an associate degree?
Not directly. Every nurse practitioner DNP at Bradley is BSN-entry, and the only post-master's DNP, Nursing Leadership, requires a master's degree. An RN with an associate degree or diploma can start in one of the five RN-entry MSN tracks; the post-master's certificates and the leadership DNP become options after the MSN.
Do I need a preceptor for the bridge courses?
Only for NUR 407 Community Health Practicum RN-MSN, which carries 50 practicum hours under a qualified preceptor in a community setting. NUR 300, NUR 303 and NUR 404 are theory courses. The NUR 407 preceptor goes through its own Community Health clinical packet, and course faculty approve that preceptor before any hours count.
How long does Bradley's RN-to-MSN take?
The online program pages estimate 3.3 years over 10 semesters for the RN-entry FNP and PMHNP, 3 years over 9 semesters for the RN-entry AGACNP and AGPCNP, and 2.3 years for RN-entry Nursing and Healthcare Leadership. The catalog allows five years from enrollment for an MSN. The sequence you actually follow is the one in your Program of Study.
Does my RN license have to be from Illinois?
Not for admission, which only requires a current license without encumbrances from any state. Clinicals are stricter: Bradley links your license to the state where each site sits, and that state has to be one approved for you, meaning where you were admitted from or where you live. Check your track's row on Bradley's state table before you apply.
Related pages
Last checked 2026-09-25
We check these pages against Bradley's own catalog, online program pages and Graduate Student Handbook. Your clinical packet, course faculty and academic advisor have the final word.
Bradley lets you choose your preceptors. We find the ones worth choosing.
Tell us your Bradley track, your city and your next practicum course. We line up preceptors who fit the NUR course and gather the license, CV and malpractice details the DocuSign packet asks for, well before the midterm of the semester before you start.
- Preceptors matched to the course: primary care for FNP and AGPCNP, acute care teams for AGACNP, mental health settings for PMHNP
- Preceptor license, CV, malpractice coverage and the site address ready for the packet
- Every practicum in your sequence planned together, close to home in your approved state
Start your placement plan
Track, city and next practicum is all we need to begin.