Advice please - new to nursing

Craziness! Mikejjmay and bikelola, this thread popped up in the front and I am a former Target HQ employee, too. Bikelola, I spoke with you a little bit in another thread but didn't realize we had that many similarities. Small world. Maybe Target does that to people, turn them into nurses, hehe. When I put in my notice, word got around, and another Target employee wanted to do an informational with me...for nursing! Go figure. We should stay in touch either through here, email, facebook, even coffee Not sure if there is a private way to send that info, but I think it would be a great support network.

Good luck to you all!

esunada, that is TOTAL craziness! I think I might even know who the person is...did you used to work in toys, and is she a SWAT MS? This is actually my last week at Target--4 more days. Woohoo!

Wow, we definitely to form some kind of group and stay in touch. I'll send you a private message with my email. Mikejjmay, let us know if you're interested

I was wondering the same thing about the PM. I looked it up and found out that you have to post 15 times before you can PM. Bikelola PM me and we're now connected through facebook which has my email, too. She could probably give both our info through PM to you.)

I'm just taking my second and third prereqs at the U of MN. School part-time, waitress part-time. I just left Target last month. I'm hoping to take a CNA course eventually so I can get some healthcare experience, too. I have to have the majority of my prereqs done in order to apply to the programs I'm looking at: U of MN, Metro State, Mankato, and UW-Eau Claire, maybe out of state, too. So I won't apply until next fall. They are all accelerated BSN, MN entry level programs that take generally 15 months. It's sort of expensive and highly competitive, but the quickest way to get a Bachelors/MN degree. I was looking at St. Kates too but how they're set-up and the fact that they are not accepting application for next fall would mean it would take me a very long time to become a nurse. So ultimately I'm taking a gamble, but working hard and hoping for the best

It may be difficult to get a job at a hospital as your first job as a CNA...at least that's the trend I was seeing from most of my classmates when I was at the tech college. The economy is slow right now of course, but working your butt off in a nursing home for 6 months and then applying to a hospital may be worth it to you. My classmates that held hospital CNA jobs got paid $14-16 an hour depending on the shift of course (not bad!) but they had started in LTC beforehand.

My class at MN State-Mankato had a 100% NCLEX pass rate among the accelerated students...

Very good program and well worth the investment of time/money...

Hi Mike
Sorry, just found this thread, and so you may no longer need any input- but here's my two cents....

I would advise against going the LPN route..the jobs simply aren' t there, unless you are okay with LTC being your only option.

The major trends in hospitals are not taking on LPN's anymore, and in some cases LPN's are being laid off en masses, even if they have been there for decades.

In fact many hospitals are even lowering the numbers of or flat out not hiring ADN RN's- many require a BSN to even get your foot in the door.

Like you, I also hold a B.A in another field, so when I graduate in May I am hoping that although my nursing degree is ADN, the combo of the two will sway prospective employers to overlooking my lack of BSN.

We'll see.

So in short, skip LPN, go directly to an RN program, and if you start in an ADN program, plan on finishing at least the BSN program some day- if you know that you are intrested in higher practice, nurse practioner, let me tell you a secret:
more and more MSN programs are admitting ADN graduates who have a BA in another field- so don't bother with the BSN, unless you know for sure that's where you want to end.

Hope this helps!