The College of Nursing & Health Sciences at UMass Boston offers a variety of nursing programs, including several undergraduate programs with both traditional and accelerated options. For those looking to enroll in graduate programs, UMass Boston has four different graduate degrees available. The school's primary nursing program, a Master's Program in Nursing, offers three areas of concentration: family nurse practitioner, adult-gerontological nurse practitioner, and acute/critical care clinical nurse specialist. Full-time students graduate in two years, while part-timers take three to four years to earn their degree.
The Boston College Connell School of Nursing offers baccalaureate, master, and doctoral programs for prospective nurses. A graduate of the baccalaureate program is trained to be a general practitioner. Those who graduate from the master program are prepared to work as nurse practitioners or clinical nurse specialists, and a graduate of the doctoral program is trained to contribute to the field through research and theory-building. The school also offers a dual degree program and charges slightly over $1,000 per credit as of 2011, with an enrollment of 377 total students.
Massachusetts General Hospital has been at the forefront of nurse training for a long time. The school offers six nursing programs. People with a bachelor's degree and no previous nursing work experience have two options. The accelerated Bachelor of Science in Nursing is a 14-month program that prepares students to become registered nurses. Those with more ambition or more time can pursue a Master of Science in Nursing, a three-year program lasting six semesters that allows students to pursue a career as a nurse practitioner or clinical nurse specialist. Registered nurses can enroll in post-professional programs, allowing them to become nurse practitioners, clinical nurse specialists or obtain a doctorate of nursing practice.
The Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Services (MCPHS) has three locations, in Boston, Worcester and Manchester, NH. The Boston branch has an accelerated BS in Nursing program that requires a three-year commitment totaling 32 months for its main nursing program. The program requires 125 semester hours and at the end graduates are able to sit for the National Council of State Boards of Nursing Licensure Examination for Registered Nurses. The program is expressly for freshmen or transfer students without a prior baccalaureate degree who wish to become registered nurses.