CNA and MEPN questions =)

I noticed that you posted this a few months ago, but I am in the same boat. I just got laid off from a finance company, but I have always wanted to get into nursing. I thought I would never be able to do it while working full time and having a young son, but I feel like this is a good time to re-start my career in a new direction.
My college has a long wait list for the nursing program, so while I wait to be accepted, I am planning on completing a CNA course at my local Red Cross. I have a few friends who are nurses, and they recommend that as a good way to get your foot in the door, get experience, and find out if you really want to invest the years and years for a nursing education.

I have a Bachelors degree and I'm a CNA at the moment. I've just gone through the VN program and plan on applying to the LVN-RN program at any JC that will accept me. Do I recommend you taking the CNA course? ABSOLUTELY!. It will only help you get your feet wet, and you will learn so much as an aide. Excuse me, but I'm unfamiliar with MEPN, so I can't comment on that.

Right now community colleges and major universities are impacted for nursing. I'm a very impatient person when it comes to education so I opted to do the LVN first and then bridge to RN. At the time that I decided to go back to nursing I had to redo all my sciences because they expired. Well now, that college got rid of that rule sometime after they made me retake them. Since I had to retake all my sciences and even though I passed all of them with decent grades, the school will still take off points for retakes. Even though it was their stupid rule, they were going to take off points anyway. Your minimum science GPA had to be 2.7 overall. So even if I received all A's my GPA wouldn't be 4.0 it would have been 2.95 which is good because I can apply, but not good enough because others will have better science GPA's. That's the reason why I opted to do LVN first because they didn't look at my science GPA, all they cared about if I had some of my prerequisites done already, if not then I could take them in the program. I wanted to do straight RN, but couldn't. So if you have to do LVN first and then bridge over to RN I would do it. Don't just apply to the RN program, if you can apply to the LVN program. The RN program is very impacted and very competitive. If you really want to become a nurse I highly suggest that you look at all options. There is nothing wrong with LVN's. We learned so much in VN school, we did everything but push IV meds. We got IV certified at the expense of the school, but we still can't push IV meds. I have a friend who has been waiting to get into a RN program and she hasn't gotten in. She finished all her prerequisites before I entered the LVN program and has been applying to almost every program around and she still can't get in and her science grades are decent. Now I'm getting ready to bridge over to RN and she's still waiting to get into a RN program. Either way I will have my RN before she does. So keep that in mind when searching for a program.

Since you have a bachelors degree you also have the option to apply to ABSN but keep in mind that it might not be accepted everywhere. If you have plans to travel out of the country and work as a RN it might not be accepted. There are ELMSN programs out there and that's an entry level masters degree program. You can go that route too after you've completed all your prerequisites. Had I known that I would have done that first. But now you know it's out there for you.

So I started out as a CNA and am working my way up. That's my experience and I wish you all the best of luck in your nursing education. Starting at the bottom is a great way to work your way up. You will learn so much and you will learn to appreciate your CNA's once you're a nurse. I hope I was of help to you both. Good Luck and wishing you all the best!