Pre-nursing or nursing?

[manofbess]

Good evening ladies and gentlemen,

I'm a rather young career switcher...just shy of turning 24. I am a teacher and I have always wanted to work in a field where I feel like I'm making a difference. I just chose the wrong majors in college! At the time I decided to go to college, I had a thing for journalism. I graduated with a BA in Journalism in 2004 and went into education. I'm soon to complete my first year as a teacher. I don't feel as if teaching's really "doing the trick" either, so I'm going to spark up my brain cells and apply to nursing school. I'm interested in a particular ADN program in my area.

I'm applying now in hopes of turning everything in by the early bird deadline for the semester I want to get in. The application included a table that describes the average SAT scores, high school GPAs, and college GPAs for prospective students in each program. I feel kind of confident that I could get into nursing without going through pre-nursing, but I am not a certified Nurse Aid. Should I apply for the pre-nursing program solely because of that class, or should I say to go for the gold and apply for nursing? I think that you can become certified to become a NA anyway early in the program.

I'm really excited and nervous about this. In undergrad, I often took 18 hours and worked nearly every year, usually about 20 hours a week. I understand the long hours that are about to be presented. I'm more nervous about my application than the grueling work! I guess the coursework will make me nervous after a while if I get accepted.

Having said all this (and I apologize for rambling as I tend to do), and based on your experiences, do you think I'd be a good candidate for pre-nursing or nursing? Thanks, ya'll. I'm enjoying this site already!

[Megsd, BSN, RN]

What you need to do is figure out the requirements for the specific school(s) you're thinking of attending. Usually the "pre-nursing" bit is a series of classes that are required for entry into the nursing program. This generally includes courses like anatomy, physiology, microbiology, chemistry, statistics, etc. If you haven't taken these classes in your undergrad, you will most likely need to in order to be considered for a nursing program. Becoming a nurse aide is sometimes a requirement for nursing programs as well.

Since you already have a bachelor's, you may want to consider doing an accelerated BSN program. These programs are pretty intense, but are shorter than traditional programs because they are designed for people who already have a bachelor's in something else. I am beginning such a program this fall but had to be nurse aide certified to apply and take anatomy, physiology, organic chemistry, abnormal psychology, human growth and development, microbiology, pharmacology, nutrition, statistics, and biology before applying.

So basically, unless you've taken a ton of science classes with your BA, you will most likely not be able to "skip" pre-nursing.

[SuesquatchRN, BSN, RN]

My school didn't require college-level prerequisites. However, if you got good grades in math and science in particular your entry directly into a nursing program is more likely. I had a lot of college credits and B's in math, A's in science, and A's in everything else, so I got in without being waitlisted. I'm now taking the "prerequisites" along with my nursing courses. And if you've had developmental psych - as you must have if you're a teacher - you won't have to worry about that.

Go straight for the ADN.

Oh, my school requires no chemistry or nutrition. Bio, Micro, Pharm, Anat & Phys I & II, Intro and Developmental Psych, English and college-level math if you don't already have them.

And freakin' gym.