Accelarated programs

Music in My Heart · May 28, 2008

Hello everyone,
like some of you I'm on a change of my career.
I have a BS in IT+Electrical Eng. Working for a few years. But want to go in the medical field and become a nurse so like I wanted when I was 16 y.o. but listened to my parents and went to study languages and technical things. It was interesting though but the mostly jobs in my field don't fill up my life and don't give me the feeling I do something really meaningful in my life.
I'm 28 and want to start nursing school next year summer.
I'm looking for any information from people who went through accelerated programs in a nursing school. Where did you get the prerequisites: I heard it's possible to do it even online with virtual labs, but I couldn't find anything in the Internet. I want to use this year to work and save some money and do my prerequisites: Microbiology, A&P I+II, Biochemistry. Has anyone heard about that anything?
Besides I wanted to ask those who got the prerequisites: what kind off books would you recommend for the mentioned above classes?
Did you hear anything about how easy is this to get enrolled to the Rutgers school or William Paterson school in NJ?
Thanks for the help.

I'm leaving engineering for nursing and I'm in an accelerated DEMSN program. From what I've seen, your engineering education and experience will be a great asset -- not in terms of subject matter but in terms of critical thinking, reasoning, evaluation, and problem solving.

To your questions:

1) Prereqs - As a postbaccalaureate I had taken a ton of chemistry and also anatomy. When I decided to apply to nursing school I knocked out microbiology, physiology, statistics, and human development in one semester at the local community college.

My program would accept online classes for chemistry and statistics but I'm not sure about the others. I preferred taking them traditionally, anyway. I find face-to-face interaction to be beneficial. Before heading down the online path I would make sure that the programs to which you'd like to apply are OK with online classes.

2) Recommended books:

Micro: A lab atlas (e.g. 0-8053-2732-0) and a Q&A guide like 0-9719-9963-5. I also found useful the study guide that was published along with my text book. I didn't get it until I was done with micro but I'm very impressed with 0-7817-8215-5 (I have all the Lippincott's Illustrated Reviews and they are uniformly excellent).

Physio: I really valued this review guide (0-7817-7311-3) as well as my medical dictionary (I use Stedman's but there are others).

Anatomy: Get a good atlas...I like Netter but there are other good ones. I also got a photo atlas that was helpful (0-7234-1915-9). I've been considering one of the clinical anatomy texts marketed to med students but haven't pulled the trigger.

3) Regarding the ease of getting into Rutgers or anywhere else... It won't be easy. The competition is quite stiff. But then again, getting into a good engineering program is no piece of cake, either, so I wouldn't let that slow you down.

Best of luck to you.

Quickbeam, BSN, RN · May 28, 2008

I am an accelerated grad from 21 years ago so I'm not much help on the internet front. However, I was in NJ at the time and got almost all of my pre-reqs dirt cheap through the county college system. I had to go to Drew for one class and Fairleigh Dickinson for 2 others. For both of them, I made appts with the college dean, explained my pre-req situation and was allowed to take the classes without having to enter as a traditional student. The county colleges were vastly cheaper as they still must be today.

Good luck.

krolik · May 28, 2008

Thanks a lot. But I'm still working in Germany and trying to use the left time reasonable through getting done something already online.

But that's a good tip I'll have to consider that too. Thanks.

krolik · May 28, 2008

Thanks! This helps a lot!

mcs1505 · May 28, 2008

I'm an accelerated BSN program right now. You won't find anything online except RN to BSN programs because in order to do clinicals you need to have a preceptor since you don't have a license to practice under.

Pre-reqs: I took A&P 1&2, Microbiology, Chem 1&2, Nutrition, Medical Terminology, Statistics, and got my degree in Psychology. Half the classes I took at the school where I got my first degree, the other half I took at a community college after I graduated.

Books: Just what the profs tell you you need. If that. I rarely ever read my books except for A&P and Microbio.

Faeriewand, ASN, RN · May 29, 2008

There is a forum here dedicated to online learning. You might want to visit that. I've researched a bit on taking classes online and if memory serves me right the community colleges in Kansas are all linked and you can take online anatomy and physiology, chemistry, microbiology. They do not show up on your transcripts as an online class. It's called EduKan. There are others as well. Oregon State University has many many classes and bachelor degrees you can get online.

Just Google it, its there :)

birdgardner · May 29, 2008

I took many of my prereqs at the NJ county colleges. Although there is a waiting list for the nursing classes there is not for the prereqs. I was able to take statistics, ethics, sociology and psychology on line at the CCs. It's certainly the least expensive way to go and they were acceptable to all the accel. programs I applied to. The lab courses - micro, organic/biochem, A&P - were not available online.

Some schools also require nutrition which is available online from the CCs as well.

mydaughter · May 29, 2008

I attended an accelerated nursing program and graduated from Fairleigh Dickinson University in 1994. My undergraduate degree was in Biology. I too listened to my parents and ignored my instinct to go to nursing school the first time.

Because I already had a science based undergraduate degree, I only had to take Microbiology and Pharmacology. I took those at FDU just for the ease of it all. They were easy to me because of my previous degree.

I would HIGHLY recommend doing the accelerated degree. I must tell you to this day it was the hardest thing but the BEST thing that I ever did. I was truly grueling at times and my Friday nights consisted of a hot bath and a glass of wine to de-tox from the stress. I needed to allow myself a moment to myself before I went back to studying.

Before I attended school I gathered or spoke to all of my family and closest friends and explained to them that I would be out of touch with them for a year. I would try my best to contact them, but I couldn't make promises. I needed not to be bogged down with any commitments as school really was a heavy load. By no means is it not doable it was just A LOT.

My suggestion is to see how well the schools have done on the NCLEX passing rate, (because you want them to prepare you well enough to pass FIRST shot out). Then I would see how many accelerated classes they have had graduate. Is the program a new one for them or have they graduated many accelerated classes? What hospitals do they use for their clinical rotations? Does that work for you? Can you get there? And of course cost, can you afford their program are there scholarships available for accelerated students? FDU did when I was there.

I wish you all of the best. As I said before, it is the best gift and the most challenging gift you will ever give yourself. I never regretted it, my only regret is not doing it earlier. (But maybe I wouldn't have appreciated it as much!) Best of luck on your journey.

koolau · May 29, 2008

Hi Krolik,

I'm 27 and decided to finally go after my dream of becoming a nurse. I have a Bachelor's degree from my prior career, and as a result chose an LPN program that is a year long. With no medical experience at all, I felt that starting with this would be more beneficial to myself and my patients.

The school I attend has no pre-req's, but you also don't receive a degree. You get to sit for your boards after completing all the hours, and they have a high pass rate. If you do a bit of research for where you wish to settle down there are tons of these technical schools, but it is a personal choice you need to make.

Do you want the BSN, RN, LPN? All of the above?

Hope this helps, Im new

krolik · Jun 17, 2008

I attended an accelerated nursing program and graduated from Fairleigh Dickinson University in 1994. My undergraduate degree was in Biology. I too listened to my parents and ignored my instinct to go to nursing school the first time.
Because I already had a science based undergraduate degree, I only had to take Microbiology and Pharmacology. I took those at FDU just for the ease of it all. They were easy to me because of my previous degree.
I would HIGHLY recommend doing the accelerated degree. I must tell you to this day it was the hardest thing but the BEST thing that I ever did. I was truly grueling at times and my Friday nights consisted of a hot bath and a glass of wine to de-tox from the stress. I needed to allow myself a moment to myself before I went back to studying.
Before I attended school I gathered or spoke to all of my family and closest friends and explained to them that I would be out of touch with them for a year. I would try my best to contact them, but I couldn't make promises. I needed not to be bogged down with any commitments as school really was a heavy load. By no means is it not doable it was just A LOT.
My suggestion is to see how well the schools have done on the NCLEX passing rate, (because you want them to prepare you well enough to pass FIRST shot out). Then I would see how many accelerated classes they have had graduate. Is the program a new one for them or have they graduated many accelerated classes? What hospitals do they use for their clinical rotations? Does that work for you? Can you get there? And of course cost, can you afford their program are there scholarships available for accelerated students? FDU did when I was there.
I wish you all of the best. As I said before, it is the best gift and the most challenging gift you will ever give yourself. I never regretted it, my only regret is not doing it earlier. (But maybe I wouldn't have appreciated it as much!) Best of luck on your journey.

WOW! THANKS A LOT! It does encourage so much! But also tells me the truth:)

krolik · Jun 17, 2008

Hello koolau,

look, but if you don't receive a degree then you can't work and can't apply knowledge you gathered. Or was it for you just to get prepared for the next degree???

I want to go for a BSN or RN. I'm still lost in this system of degrees:banghead:

If I want to do an accelerated program then the schools say it's equal to BSN. Once you have BSN you can sit for RN exam... So I don't get what is the difference to go for a BSN and be eligible to take RN-exam or to do RN-study right away... What is the difference between RN and LPN? As far as I was able to understand an LPN has less challenging tasks and gets less money; some other people say that both LPN and RN do the same but there is a difference in the paychecks. So what's the point in all this?? Very confusing... :eek: