Getting around the 18 y.o requirement

[npaar]

My 14 y.o daughter has 21 college credits and is currently enrolled full time in a community college. She would very much like to be a nurse but does not want to start an Associates degree in nursing at 18. ( All AS nursing degrees require you to be 18 to start clinicals) We know she can complete the handful of non clinical classes before 18 but is there a beneficial avenue in which she can complete a bachelor's degree before 18 and go back for a limited time after 18 to get the nursing done?

What is the best bachelors that will let her transfer to a BSN easily or is there another method to best utilize her time in college before she turns 18?

[LovingLife123]

I'm sure there is a lot the OP hasn't thought about here and even though they haven't responded, I hope you are still reading as I think you may have read some things you may not have thought have.

I would never want my young daughter to shoulder the responsibilities of being a nurse. At the ripe old age of sixteen, a girl should be going on her first date, experiencing first kisses........... not worried that she could be assaulted, screamed at, and degraded by pt and their families. She won't be emotionally ready to deal with the senseless tragedy we see on a daily basis. I won't ev n begin to describe what I saw the other night, but I had no idea one human could be so horrible to another human. No young girl should ever see that.

Trying to deal emotionally with the things we see takes a lot of emotional maturity. And while I'm sure your daughter is smart and has a good head on her shoulders, the fact of the matter is she is 14. Her brain will not be fully formed and fully working for a long time. You can't push brain growth. She will burn out if the job quickly and will be at risk for depression. There are days I can't deal with what I see. Many of my drives home are filled with good cries to help deal with it all.

While I would never have my 14 year old enrolled in college, she is your child, not ours. But please rethink pushing her into such a highly complex field at such a young age. Some programs won't allow adults until they turn 21 into nursing. Much of it has to do with the logistics of Liability Insurance. I know I'm my program, certain facilities would not allow anybody under 21 to do clinicals.

Good luck and I hope we have given you some food for thought.

[AliNajaCat]

Not an attorney and don't play one on the net. However, my very first thought was that unless she's an emancipated minor (a particular legal status, for which in many states you have to be at least sixteen) she may not be able to enter into the contracted legal status encompassing a student nurse's responsibilities.* An argument could be made that if, say, she made a medication error she could not be held accountable because of her lack of majority-- and we can't really have that, now, can we? We need to have students with attitudinal, parental opinion, AND legal ability to undertake the role.

* and no, students do not "practice under their instructors' licenses" - they are legally responsible for adhering to the scope and standards of their student status as defined by their schools and the affiliated clinical placement venues)

[/username, BSN, RN]

* and no, students do not "practice under their instructors' licenses" - they are legally responsible for adhering to the scope and standards of their student status as defined by their schools and the affiliated clinical placement venues)

Thank you! Nobody practices "under anyone else's license" ever for any reason.

[mercurysmom]

I know a nurse who was licensed at 18, as in she graduated BEFORE she turned 18.

This was me. I entered a hospital-based LPN program at 16 and proceeded to have the stuffing knocked out of me. I grew up...FAST. I graduated at 17 and sat for my boards the day after my 18th birthday. If my birthday had been even a day later, I would've been forced to wait the 4 or 6 months until state boards were held again. Yes, this was in the 80's, which makes me a COB.

My first job was on a Med-Surg floor of the hospital that offered the LPN program. I wanted to work 3rd shift as a GPN, but couldn't, as I needed a work permit. Yes, I was embarrassed.

I went right into an ADN program immediately after I finished the LPN program in July. My birthday is at the end of September, which means I was 17 for the first few weeks of the ADN program. I vaguely remember discussing it with my first CI, and I think I was able to start clinicals because I had already graduated from the PN program. If I hadn't passed my boards on the first try, however, I think I would've been jettisoned from the ADN program pretty quickly.

If I had the opportunity to start over, I probably would have taken more courses at a community college, perhaps studied abroad for a semester, or any one of the exciting things that I could have done in those "pre-mortgage/relationship/marriage/kids/life/etc" years. I don't regret going into Nursing, but I do wish that I hadn't been so gosh darned impatient.

My son is in a similar situation, as he participated in a dual enrollment program at the community college where I currently teach. Starting in his sophomore year in HS, he took college level courses and received both HS and college credits. He graduated from HS in June 2016, and had enough college credits to transfer to an Engineering program...if he wanted. Instead, we've encouraged him to take courses that "sounded neat" as well as pursuing anything that he had ever thought to himself, "I wonder what it would be like to..." He took an introductory piano class...and quickly learned that he's better suited as a music aficionado rather than a musician. He took an ASL class and earned himself a "therapeutic F" by ignoring the syllabus, and replaced the F with an A by repeating the course (paid 100% out of his own pocket, too.) This semester, he's taking a heavy math and science course load, as well as a fencing class. I'm doing my best to encourage him, but inwardly cringing as well. All of these experiences are helping him develop skills and insight that are setting him up to be a much more successful, well-rounded Engineering student.

I understand your daughter's desire to forge ahead and finish college as quickly as possible. I felt the same way. However, she has opportunities available to her that are quite unique, given her age. My suggestion would be to choose some situations she had never imagined experiencing...and experience them. She has the time to take classes for the sake of satisfying her curiosity, trying something entirely new, without worrying about completing a degree on a strict timeline. (I agree, however, that she needs to be aware of any financial aid limits, and consider taking courses through a community college or utilizing private scholarships.)

Good luck to her!

Mercury's Mom

[Libby1987]

As a mom I'm trying to think if I would ever encourage my kid to go to nursing school in today's healthcare regardless of intellect, but a kid like OP's? Nursing school?

[db2xs]

do all the rite of passage stuff one needs to do in order to become a young adult, much less a nurse.

Please consider that there is more than one way to live a life, and these social "norms" of going to the prom, crushing on people your own age, etc., they're just what the majority does. I did not go to the prom, I didn't go to a traditional university, etc., and I am totally okay that I didn't do any of those things.

[roser13, ASN, RN]

This thread makes me sad.

[caliotter3]

On more than one occasion in elementary school they told my mother that the reason they did not advance me to the next grade ahead of my peers was because I would reach a point around adolescence where I would pay the price for being out of touch with the others, so I was out of touch anyway. Believe me, sitting around bored in class does not make for a challenging or pleasant time at school. I finagled my own catch up plan by engineering my early high school graduation. I still was not socially up to par and still paid the price in college. No matter what the situation was, I have always felt that no one ever took a good look at my emotional needs nor did they effect changes that were beneficial to me. Think long and hard about what is truly in the best interests of your daughter and don't go pushing like a freight train just because it seems like the thing to do. Problems in childhood and adolescence have a funny way of lingering on into adulthood. Just saying, from experience.

[Alex_RN, BSN]

I envy your daughter's focus. When I was 14, I wanted to be a Warrior Princess.

Probably not a problem, but keep in mind that many of the science pre-reqs have a 5 year shelf-life.

[applewhitern, BSN, RN]

I just wanted to point out that in many countries, the standard age to graduate "high school" is 15 or 16. Here in the US, we generally go thru 12 years, but that isn't the case everywhere. Also, a standard college degree here is approximately 4 years; in many other countries it is 3 years. Oh, and medical school is only 3 years in some places.

[khammond25]

I would consider pushing a premed, nursing informatics, or social work bachelors degree (age 14-18) and then at 18 a direct entry masters program to MSN where she can pick a specialty. She would spend the first year doing her RN and then 1-2 years doing Masters level work. She could have her Doctorate (several specialty options DNP, informatics, teaching) by the time she is 21.

On in a simpler note, any bachelors degree can be followed by a 1 year accelerated nursing degree, and 1-2 term of BSN coursework to complete a BSN.

My BS is in Sociology & Communications, I did a 10 month accelerated ADN program afterwards, and now I'm in a 2yr NP program that had a 1 term BSN bridge requirement. (I'm a far cry from 18 though.)

Good Luck!

[Wile E Coyote, ASN, RN]

We've all been just talking to ourselves, OP hasn't been back on AN since the day of her post.