A fresh mind in need of any advice

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Hello,

I am currently a pre-nursing student at university of south florida. After this semester I have 1 more prerequisite to complete and then I am able to apply to the nursing program. However, it is highly competitive and I'm not sure if I will make the cut with a 3.2 gpa when the average accepted is generally around a 3.8! This competitive standard seems too extensive...hundreds of students apply a semester and they pick 30 people for the program I would be applying to. Do you guys think it really pays off to get a bachelors in nursing from a university, or would it be better to go to a technical school like Kieser or to a place like hillsborough community college?Will my jobs be more limited?? On top of being curious about where I should continue my education, I am curious on different nursing positions that you guys would recommend. I do not want to pursue anything lower than an RN. Do you guys also know of any separate certifications I could attain during school that would pay off later? What is the best starter job to get that could lead to being hired as an RN, nurse practitioner, or any other positions? Are there any places that are out of the ordinary that an RN could work at, besides hospitals? All of your guys help is GREATLY appreciated. Any advice thats not related to the questions would be fantastic and personal stories of how you guys made it to where you are would be perfect. Thanks!

:) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :)

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If I had just sucked it up and gone the university route and gotten my bsn then I would be a nurse already. My school is highly competitive and it took me three years to get in AFTER i had completed my pre-reqs .... im only a freshman 1 right now. I waited 3 years with a 4.0 gpa an "upper" 20s ACT (25 or 26? im having brain block i cant remember) and a VERY good TEAS exam result.

So yeah... lol. I should have gone the bsn way. then I would be working right now.

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It's a choice you have to make for yourself. I got in on my first try at my local community college, and I will finish in 2013 with my ASN. I can then go to work, and get my BSN online in 1.5 years. My friend went to a four year university, and started at the beginning of 2011. She can't apply for the nursing program until 2013, and can't start until the beginning of 2014 if she gets in. She won't graduate with her BSN until 2017. By that time, I will have ICU experience, an ASN and a BSN degree. She will be a new graduate with no experience, and I will be both an ASN and a BSN RN with marketable skills. Also, I am going to pay about $5,000 to get my ASN, and about $20,000 to get my BSN online. My friend is paying $37,000 a year to go to the school she is going to, and, when she graduates, she will have been there for six years. She will owe $222,000 when she graduates from school. Because of the low costs I am keeping, I can afford to pay as I go, and I will be able to remain totally debt free while getting both my ASN and BSN. I will also be able to start work faster. To me, the ASN was the best way to go. 99% of hospitals in my area pay no mind to whether you have your ASN or BSN when they hire you, and a lot of them, I'd say about 75% will pay for you to go back and get your BSN if you commit to work there for five years after you get it. I think the ASN route makes much more sense, but that's just my opinion.

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After I wrote my first post, I realized that you also wanted more information if we had it, and I do have a few more words of advice. I'm a nursing student in North Carolina, and in our state, you are required by law to have your CNA I certification before you can begin nursing school. It's been tremendously helpful to have the CNA I license because we already know so many things that most nursing students don't. In CNA school you learn things like bathing a patient, turning a patient, giving enemas, taking vital signs, basic charting, medical language and abbreviations, feeding patients, cleaning catheters and emptying drainage bags, doing range of motion, helping a patient walk, transferring a patient, making an occupied bed, and so many other things. Most CNA programs are a few months long, and they can be hard to get into, but having your CNA will give you a definite advantage over your classmates. As far as certificates that you can get while you're in the nursing program, there aren't any that I know of. Once you graduate and have your RN there are tons of certificates that you can get. For instance, I want to work in surgical ICU when I graduate, and there are tons of programs like CCRN, ACLS, etc that I can take. CCRN is critical care registered nurse and it's a course that caters to nurses working with critically ill and injured patients. ACLS is advanced cardiac life support and it advances the role a nurse can play when a patient's heart stops or when a patient stops breathing. There are tons of programs, CEN is certified emergency nurse and it caters to ER and trauma nurses. TNCC is trauma nurses core course and it is specifically designed for nurses working with trauma patients. There are tons of certifications available to you once you get your RN. The specific department that you work in will have information regarding any certifications you can get. Once you get your RN, the entire medical field is open to you. In my area, hospitals hire new graduate nurses in every department, so there isn't anything that you can't do. In some states and cities, hospitals won't hire a new grad in the ICU or ER, so you will have to get online and do some research about the hospitals in your area. The best thing to do is go to the hospital website, search for RN careers, and try to find one in ICU or ER (if either of those departments interest you). Then look on the job and see if any prior nursing experience is required. There are places that are out of the ordinary that RNs can work at besides the hospital. You can be a flight nurse and work on a helicopter transporting critically injured and ill patients to trauma centers and larger hospitals. You can work on an ambulance as a nurse paramedic or a critical care ground transport nurse. You can work in a jail or prison as a correctional nurse. You can work in a school as a school nurse. You can work in a doctor's office or nursing home. You can work in an all psychiatric facility caring for the mentally ill. You can be a travel nurse and travel across the US working in different hospitals. There are so many options available once you get your RN. Good luck!

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Specializes in Critical Care, ED, Cath lab, CTPAC,Trauma.

This subject has been discussed at length more time that I can count. It depends on your circumstances and needs.

The following link are all those discussions...

https://allnurses.com/gsearch.php?cx=partner-pub-9350112648257122%3Avaz70l-mgo9&cof=DIV%3Acacaca%3BBGC%3AF8F7F5%3BFORID%3A11&ie=UTF-8&as_q=which+is+better+ADN+or+bsn&sa=Search#1452

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