[scrumsh]

Hi everyone! I'm a recent graduate from the University of California Davis with a BS in Psychology and a BA in Communication. Just last week I celebrated my graduation with my family and friends. I talked with a few people who recommended I get into nursing. (My plans before any of this were to take a year off, find a job, take my GREs and apply to a Masters in Public Health program.) I volunteered at the Maternity Ward in Kaiser for 3 years during high school and absolutely loved it. I've decided to take my family's advice and pursue nursing, but I have a few questions I was hoping you veterans can answer for me.
#1:
Since I have non-nursing bachelors I am applying to the accelerated MSN a.k.a Direct entry MSN program. I prefer to stay in lovely CA but I have heard that our state is overflowed with nursing applicants. I have 3 remaining science classes to take at my local junior college. Since they are all demanding, upper division courses I will be spreading them out between 2 semesters. I would therefor have to apply in 2009 for the 2010 academic year. In this time, what do you recommend I do to make my application stand out from the rest? I've signed up for CPR (BLS) certification classes but I just learned that most schools require that. I plan on volunteering again at Kaiser or another nearby hospital, but is there anything else I can do? I feel like I'm barely making the minimum.
#2:
My best friend's Dad is an Anesthesiologist and recommended that I shadow a CRNA. I researched it a bit and it turns out to be the best paying nurse job in the nation! I'd love the money but I'm not sure if I'd like the job. Are there any CRNAs out there that can tell me a bit more about what they do?
I LOVE LOVE LOVE kids and would love to apply to a pediatric or neonatal program but my advisor at UC Davis tells me that these, in addition to the nurse practitioner programs, are really impacted and could therefor make it harder for me to get accepted. She said that acute care was less impacted.
This brings me back to the CRNA. In order to be considered for the program you need 1 year of full time acute care experience. Should I get my MSN in acute care and then apply for a CRNA or would I be in school forever?

Sorry for the horribly long post. I promise to be shorter in my responses. Anyways, I would love any help I get. Thank you!

[HealthyRN]

First, I recommend that you do lots of shadowing. Since you weren't thinking about pursuing nursing at the time that you volunteered, this will allow you to directly observe nurses at work.

I think your decision to do the direct entry MSN program is great. However, if you do this program you should still work as a bedside nurse for at least 1-2 years. Nursing is a profession that values experience much more than education and you may have a difficult time getting a job that will allow you to directly use your MSN without that bedside experience.

#1: Do as much volunteering/shadowing in health care that you can. This will help your application, but it's more important that you get good grades in the classes that you are taking.

#2: I'm not a CRNA and can't give you advice on the career choice. However, you may want to check out the CRNA forum. The money is good, but it's not a career for everyone. You do need at least a year of critical care experience before applying to a program, but most applicants have more.

[scrumsh]

Originally Posted by HealthyRN

First, I recommend that you do lots of shadowing. Since you weren't thinking about pursuing nursing at the time that you volunteered, this will allow you to directly observe nurses at work.

I think your decision to do the direct entry MSN program is great. However, if you do this program you should still work as a bedside nurse for at least 1-2 years. Nursing is a profession that values experience much more than education and you may have a difficult time getting a job that will allow you to directly use your MSN without that bedside experience.

#1: Do as much volunteering/shadowing in health care that you can. This will help your application, but it's more important that you get good grades in the classes that you are taking.

#2: I'm not a CRNA and can't give you advice on the career choice. However, you may want to check out the CRNA forum. The money is good, but it's not a career for everyone. You do need at least a year of critical care experience before applying to a program, but most applicants have more.

Yea, you're definitely right. I need that experience. I just don't know what department to shadow. My advisor tells me that they want to see you shadowing in the same field you want to specialize. I don't want to waste time moving form one volunteer position to another....I guess this question is one that I have to answer myself. Thanks for your help though. What kind of a nurse are you, if you don't mind me asking?

[HealthyRN]

Part of the problem with the direct-entry programs is that the MSN typically builds upon prior experience and a person entering a traditional MSN program usually (but not always) knows what they want to specialize in. It is difficult to know what area of nursing will best suit you before you are even a nurse. Once you become a nurse, it may take you years to figure this out. I'm not trying to discourage you, but just know that it can take awhile to find your niche. Unless you really have a strong inclination toward a particular specialty, I would recommend going with the more general MSN program. You can always do a post-master's if you really want to specialize or become an NP at a later date.

Shadowing is different from volunteering. Shadowing is when you ask a nurse if you can observe them at work for a day. If you contact local schools of nursing or hospitals, you may find that they have a program in place for this. It gives you the opportunity to ask a lot of questions. In my opinion, you should take advantage of as many shadowing experiences that you can arrange. I really regret not doing this before I entered nursing school.

I've been a nurse for 2 and half years, so I'm still fairly new. During this time, I've worked in ER, med-surg, and community education. My current position is working as a rep for a homecare organization, which does not require a nursing degree, although it did help me to get the job. I'm also working on my master's degree, but it's just a stepping stone to get out of nursing.

[puresass]

i would recommend doing an accelerated 2nd bachelor's program. that way you'll be in & out pretty quickly & then you can see which specialty you'd prefer & see if you'd rather do peds or ICU & then CRNA.