Designed to be different: An MSN program built for a busy nurse’s schedule.
Competency-based education puts working nurses in the driver’s seat of their education. As a busy nurse, you need a nursing degree program that's more than simply online—you need an online nursing program that truly reflects the realities of your work life and experience.
At WGU, your progress is driven by your ability to prove what you’ve learned. How—and how quickly—are largely up to you. Once you’ve mastered the defined competencies (knowledge and skills), you prove what you know through tests, papers, projects, or other assessments. Demonstrating mastery is how you pass a course, so learning what it takes to be outstanding in your career is at the heart of WGU’s MSN – Education curriculum.
Other universities' online M.S. programs may give you the convenience of distance learning; WGU's competency-based online programs take that flexibility further—many steps further!
“I hadn’t been in school for so long, but having the work experience from being a nurse, I not only did well, I actually loved it. The courses were practical, and everything made sense.”
Keith Plant
B.S. Nursing
Designed for working nurses.
Day shift, night shift, or on-call; flu season or the onslaught of summertime injuries; 5-minute coffee breaks where you’re still on your feet… A nurse’s schedule is never predictable—and not very forgiving. That’s why we focus on making the best use of your time and experience and why we maximize the real-world impact of what you’re learning—so your years as a nurse can help you graduate faster, and the hours of study time you squeeze in actually pay off at work.
Efficient
Save time and money by focusing efforts where they matter the most.
No two students are alike—especially working adult students with nursing experience. Students come to school knowing different things, they learn at different speeds, and they have different amounts of time to spend studying. Competency-based education lets you prioritize where to spend your valuable time.
Flexible
Learn on a schedule that fits your needs.
Nurses' schedules are unpredictable. Online degree programs all offer some degree of flexibility, but not like WGU does! Whatever your week looks like, competency-based learning at WGU allows you to study and complete competencies when it fits your life—even if that means taking a proctored test online at 3 a.m. While you will be required to maintain a base level of consistent progress through your program, WGU is designed to empower you to maximize your personal schedule by allowing you to build a study plan that fits into your life—not one that requires you to rearrange it.
Results
Know you’re learning real-world skills.
You earn an M.S. Nursing degree for results—not simply to accrue credits. Competency-based education centers on competencies—the clearly defined knowledge and skills that leading healthcare employers are looking for. How do we know what they’re looking for? They tell us—and their input drives our curriculum.
Finish courses by proving what you know, when you’re ready.
With competency-based education at WGU, success is measured by actual learning, not class time. You advance by demonstrating that you've mastered the course subject matter—whether you learned it through your study at WGU or picked up that knowledge through years of work experience.
Your progress through a course is driven by you.
![How quickly you learn]()
How quickly you learn
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![Time devoted to studying]()
The time you devote to studying
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How much previous knowledge you bring
Your experience pays at WGU.
Why start from square one when you could use what you already know to help jump-start your journey to a degree?
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