Re: How to be an APN in ten easy steps....or how to spend oodles of $$ on your educat
Well, I started out as a social science major in college. I fell in love with anthropology. I fell in love with archeology, worse yet. I pushed through all my major requirements, was finished with all requirements for graduation by my junior year, just didn't have the credit hours done. So, as a senior, I was accepted in the Integrated Graduate Studies Program; I start grad school as a senior. After a semester or two, I realized that I couldn't do my MA at that university, I needed to go elsewhere. Applied AGAIN to grad school, got accepted done with all my credit hours and moved south to my new grad school. My advisor, as it turned out(and it took me awhile to figure this out), didn't like opening his field to women. He was not much of a supporter, gave me no encouragement, and after two semester, I needed to start working on my thesis. I couldn't figure out where to start..which should have told me to find a different area in anthro to do grad work...Oh well. I quit grad school, got a job in Mississippi doing archeology. Met my now ex-husband. When he graduated, we moved to where his job was. There was a community hospital within five minutes of the house, and I figured that as a nurse, I'd always find a job.
I applied, and was told that it was too bad, I'd applied too late for the coming school year. About 2 weeks later, I got a call, asking if I were still interested. I had a week to get measured for uniforms, purchase them, get a dentist and a doctor to let the school know that I physically capable of doing nursing school and wasn't going present with any horrible medical problems.
I started nursing school in Aug of 1979. Everyone in the room, that first day, had to introduce themselves, talk a bit about their background, education, and the reason we'd picked nursing school. Out of 67 people, 66 answered either they loved reading about Florence Nightengale or they wanted to help the world! Number 67, me, answered with," I want to be a nurse so I can get a job". OOOooOOOoOooooo. EVERYONE'S heads turned to glare at me; the rest of my fellow students and the entore faculty of the school. I thought it was kind of funny that just wanting a job was so offensive to them! They, of course, wanted jobs, too!
I graduated with-yuppers-a Diploma in Nursing. I worked hard to get it, too. Of course, as soon as I got out of nursing school, the local college and the hospital announced the development of the joint BSN program, starting with encouraging the recent grads to get their BSN's.
Got my first job, thought about becoming a BSN or a CNRA or something else. Well, the new BSN program was going through all kinds of changes, so the curriculum they quoted to you at the beginning of the year wouldn't be the same at the end of the year. Granted, they were learning their way along, too. However, I kept taking classes and then be told, "OH NO, you didn't need that one, you needed this one!" After doing that for three semsters, I lost complete confidence in every getting my BSN from there.
Next bright idea was Massage Therapy School- cost $$$$. I got through that, was good at it, and suddenly became very ill. My private practice never had a chance to take off....sigh.
So, now, at the age of 56, I would like to go back to school. I do regard the need for someone who graduated magna cumme laude from college, who was able to start Master's work as a senior in college and then take a year of grad courses elsewhere to get a BSN as absurd. I especially dislike the fact that despite having all those credit hours(creaking and rusty taht they may be), and years of experience, why I can't be admitted directly into a MSN program without taking a number of BRIDGE courses, or having to do some kind of semi-BSN make up classes.
So, now that I want to go back to school, I'm soooo torn about what kind of graduate education I should try. I could look into becoming some kind of MSN, or a Legal Nurse Consultant, or a PA-MS. And of course, I would have difficulty working fulltime and going to school fullltime- a number of graduate degrees suggest that you can't work at all while pursuing, say, a CRNA(and I can understand why, from what I've seen), or having to do an 8 credit hour clinical several semesters in a row or doing the PA.
Anyone have any suggestions? Not trying to whine here, just having trouble figuring out what would be a good direction to go in, so now that I've thought about it, and can't come to a resolution, perhaps y'all could help me???
And yes, lots and lots of money spent!
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