Mental Health and Nursing in Virginia...

[WCSU1987]

Hi, currently residing in CT. Have a degree in Criminal Justice in process of taking prerequisites planning on completing my associate's of nursing. Virginia always interest me and love to move down to the area. Preferably central or by the coast.

Currently working on a Psych Unit, been in the field for four year's. Interested in going to corrections or psych as a nurse in Virginia. Curious how the market is? Know a lot of correction facilities in Virginia. Any top psych facilities/unit's?

Our hospital's are predominantly BSN required know that's the way thing's are turning. Figure either get my BSN or MSN once become a nurse. How is VA is there some hospital's still hiring nurse's with associate's?

Appreciate the feedback.

[NEradtech]

Rural/small town Virginia is still adn friendly. Not so much around northern VA/DC, Richmond, Virginia Beach/south Hampton Roads, and Charlottesville. I mean, you can still possibly get an acute job in these areas but it will be more difficult. It's not as bad as New England or Cali. A lot of major hospitals like sentara, vcu, uva, and evms prefer BSNs.

The top psych hospital that I know of is Eastern State Hospital in Williamdburg. It's actually the first public psych facility in the U.S.

Overall, VA's community colleges has great nursing matriculation programs/agreements. If you enroll in most community colleges with a previous bachelors, you can concurrently enroll in bsn classes at Old Dominion University. You get your ADN and BSN at the same time (2 years). You can also get guaranteed admissions to George Washington university's RN to MSN programs if you graduated with a 3.0 or above. If you have a previous bachelors, you only have to do one bridge course.