Achieving Long term goals as a young man in Nursing School?

Esme12, ASN, BSN, RN · Nov 1, 2013

moved to male nursing student for best response.

TrevyRN, BSN, RN · Nov 8, 2013

It's never too early to think far ahead. People start saving for their children's education before they're even born. At the same time, you have to live well now and stay focused on the task at hand. It's always good to have short, medium, and long range goals. If you don't have goals, how can you exert effort in the right direction? Goals beget organization. Now, how you get to your goal isn't always the path you plan - sometimes opportunity knocks somewhere or some-when unexpected and you have to jump on those opportunities.

For instance, before I got into nursing school, I knew I wanted to be an ER nurse and eventually a teacher and nurse practitioner. I wanted to travel also. Before I even got into nursing school, I did my EMT-B cert to get some experience and see if the ER was really for me.

Volunteering in a hospital or other medical institutions is an excellent idea. If you have time, you can get EMT-B or CNA certified. Tutoring is excellent experience as well. If you're really bright, you might even be able to tutor nursing students with medication dosage problems and chemistry, anatomy, etc. Some nurses struggle at the academics and are very experienced. I was very academic and lacked experience, so I had others help me brush up on physical skills. I wish I had more work exprience when I got out of school!

I also struggled with trying to do too much at once and became overcommitted and exhausted at times before, during, and after nursing school. Pick the things that you're genuinely interested in more that you can stick with. Also, you might want to ask nursing professors or admissions people what would help you to succeed in their program.

Planning with flexibility in mind... hehehe.

Knowing I wanted to pursue higher education kept me motivated to keep my grades up during school so I could apply to more programs for a masters. I pushed for an ER preceptorship for my last semester of school, which was granted. That ER preceptorship helped land me a job in an ER. The job was quite far from home, so I'm traveling ... :-)

After I get some experience under my belt, I'll move somewhere I can finish my masters. In the meantime, I'm getting teaching and tutoring experience on the side while working as a nurse, keeping my teaching goals in mind and skills fresh.

Goals are great! However, things can change and you have to be realistic. For instance, I was accepted into a masters program at the same time as getting my ER job far from home, and I knew I couldn't do both because the program didn't transfer to the other state. So, I have two competing goals. I know I will achieve both goals because I'm motivated and hungry to get it done. Sometimes you have to be patient. I think that's the hardest part - believing in the long term goal and continuing to invest in it. It took me a few years to get into nursing school with the prereqs and accursed application process, but I kept on keeping on and now it's done! Wooohooo! I love my work and I'm looking forward to accomplishing more in the future.

Best of luck to you and WOW - looks like you got your stuff together. I'm convinced you can do anything you want to. Just keep at it!

- Trevor

tigo · Nov 19, 2013

Best advice to get ahead would be to get your CPR/BLS and try to be a CNA, unit secretary, or tech at a hospital while you're in school.

smalltownhero · Nov 21, 2013

Volunteering is always a good idea. It got me a job!

sjalv · Nov 21, 2013

I am 19 and the youngest person in my nursing program, and I am also a male. I started doing concurrent enrollment my junior year of HS, when I was 16. It sounds like you are on the right track, and being very proactive. If you don't get the internship, I would recommend volunteering, though I personally didn't. Experience helps at first, but eventually you will be on the same field with your colleagues in school. It was obvious who had experience and who didn't in the beginning of the semester, but we just finished our last clinical today and I think we're all pretty equally skilled.

My endgoal is to become a CRNA as well, and to prepare for that, I am focusing on my grades in nursing school. Many people say "C's get degrees!" but if you plan on pursuing grad school, this is a terrible mentality. My advice to you would be to maintain that 4.0 as well as possible, even throughout nursing school. Don't be fooled, though. Nursing school is very different from "regular college". I will be ecstatic if I get all A's this semester but I'll likely end up with one B. You have to learn to not be so uptight.. or at least, I did.

You can always make up for past mistakes once you reach the point of wanting to pursue grad school. Average undergrad grades can be made up for with graduate level science courses. Good interviewing skills and a good GRE score can make up for average undergrad scores. Making less than an A is not the end of the world and you will rip your hair out constantly throughout nursing school if you don't accept that.

I understand becoming a CRNA is your ultimate focus, but be sure you establish short term goals. Right now, that would be succeeding in the rest of your prerequisite classes while getting internship or volunteer experience. Once it's time to apply for the nursing program, getting good grades should be your focus. Most hospitals will allow student nurses who have had a year of education to work as 'nurse techs', where you basically work as a nurse under another nurse's supervision (with some restrictions of course). Getting this experience usually only counts for much if you seek employment where you were a tech, but the most important part of it is it will make you feel more confident once you are seeking employment as a licensed RN.

As you may well know, you'll need at least a year of ICU experience to apply to virtually any CRNA school in the US. I would recommend getting 2 to be competitive. Once you're working in an ICU, it's advisable to see about getting your CCRN. This looks good to schools.

All in all, you have a long road ahead of you.. but hey, so do I, as a 1st semester RN student. But, it's these short and long-term goals that keep us on track. All you can do is your best, and hope that life doesn't throw major curveballs at you.