I am a military wife stationed in Europe right now. I am able to start my education here but they do not have a nursing program. I have searched the net far and wide and contacted my education counselors but haven't found the info I seek.

What courses can I take now while earning a general education associates will meet my pre-req's for LPN or RN? I would prefer RN. I want to go into end care nursing. I have wanted to since I was 10 years old and I am just trying to figure out where to get started.

Any information and assistance would be lovely. This is so very important to me and I would like to get as much schooling done now that I can and finish the rest state side when I go back in 2 1/2 years.

Thank you for any assistance you can give.

You need a base, like algebra, your anatomy and physiology, English or writing courses, psychology, sociology.... just to name a few. Get on-line and find the school you think you might attend when you get stateside. They may even have an on-line distance learning program you can start right now. Maybe not. But even so, if you have an idea where you might be going, you can find out their requirements and see if the courses you take in Europe will transfer. It's a start. Good luck.

I am schooling with University of Maryland both classroom studies and distance learning. It's pretty much my main choice here. Being military I have no clue where I will end up. Hoping for Maryland though.

Are there base courses in sciences? I know the basics sich as english and history will be knocked out with my General Edu Associates. But as for specific sciences can you list some. As well as SOC and PSYCH. Since there is no assurance as to what school I will attend state side I just need the most common courses required. Thank you for your answer thus far :)

Go online to several nursing schools to find out what courses they require. The problem is, you can take a course, such as "biology" then find out later it counts only as an elective rather than toward your degree. That is why you need some idea of what school you might attend. The University of Texas offers many courses online and the University of Phoenix is well known for it's online nursing courses. Start there. See what they require, then look at the course catalog to get more info on that course. I would even try emailing the nursing school or some staff member.

1. Take General Chemistry with a lab.

2. Human and anatomy and physiology 6-8 credits with a lab

3. microbiology with a lab.

4. Freshman english 1 and 2

5. A college level math class.

6. Human Nutrition.

7. General Psycology

8. General Sociology

9. One Psycology course that covers the lifespan.

Not every school requires all of these. But you can bet most RN schools WILL.

If you are thinking of LPN then skip the labs. Skip microbiology all together and you can probably get by without Chemistry. You can get by with fewer Anatomy and Physiology credits provided you covered all body systems.

American History may be useful and then maybe not depending on the school.

Some school not all require a general biology class.

If you stick with the first 9 classes I listed you won't be far off from the requirements of most any stateside nursing school.

There are others of course if you intend to get a Bachelor degree. Howerver, I am guessing that because of your military ties that will not be practical and an associate degree will be more realistic so those are the pre and co req's I listed. If you intend to get your BS you will need these anyway.

Having studied with U. Maryland overseas I know the lab courses will likely be hard if not impossible to come by.

You might consider a local school off base offered by a university of your host country. Often foreign credit is transferable as long as the instruction is comperable.

Talk to the edu. counselor on base there are a LOT more on line options than just U. of Maryland. If you get no where then you are likely talking to a rep for U. of Maryland. Ask to talk to someone who is not representing U. of Maryland.

For Univ. of Maryland, the following are required:

http://nursing.umaryland.edu/admis/index.htm

English composition 6 credits

General chemistry with laboratory 4 credits

Human anatomy and physiology with laboratory 8 credits

Microbiology with laboratory 4 credits

Introduction to psychology 3 credits

Introduction to sociology 3 credits

Social Science elective

(sociology, psychology, anthropology, political science, economics, geography,history, social work) 3 credits

Human growth and development 3 credits

Statistics 3 credits

Mathematics (College algebra or higher) 3 credits

Humanities

(literature, language, art, history, mathematics, philosophy, speech, music) 9 credits

Nutrition 3 credits

General Electives 7 credits

Thank you all so very much. That is a lot of the info I found along the way and some is new to me. It is great to have people like you to help me get started. I know that if I do my LPN I can later go through an online LPN to RN program. But I would like to get as many courses knocked out over here as I can.

Thank you all so much.

for a comprehensive list of nursing schools across the USA

(and access to info as to what they require and the type of nursing programs they offer), see:

http://www.allnursingschools.com

from one military wife to another, GOOD LUCK!