Admission Help

[chtdrmn]

Hello everyone. I am posting to reach out for advice or suggestions. I will start off by asking for forgiveness for asking another CRNA question as it appears everyone, for good reason, is asking about CRNA admissions. I hope that my question may be different than the rest as I have a specific circumstance that I have yet to see be asked or answered.

A little about myself to aid in the question I am searching an answer for. I am currently a BSN RN. I graduated with a cumulative GPA of 3.2 with my last 60 credit hours attaining a 3.4. My last two semesters of nursing school, 28 credit hours, I attained a 4.0. After graduation, I got accepted into a nurse residency program for the burn ICU in my area. Currently, I have logged in roughly 18 months in the burn unit with 12 months left as I'm contractually obligated to be there for 30 months since I received tuition reimbursement. I recently became CCRN certified to add to my ACLS, PALS, and ABLS.

With all of that, here is my dilemma. Even though my GPA is reasonable and my GRE score is over 300, it took me 10 years to get my BSN. The first 6 years I was in school, I was just enrolling and dropping or failing just because I had no motivation or desire to get a degree. During that time, I suffered a life threatening emergency that hospitalized me for two weeks and then underwent rehabilitation and therapy for the next year. That experience was my driving force of motivation and passion for nursing.

My transcript is difficult to explain and is something that admissions cringe at during first glance. I have contacted various admissions offices with little help as to what I should do. Do I need to take graduate level courses as a non-degree seeking student to show that I can potentially handle the more challenging courses? Should I focus on more experience even though I will have 2.5 years of Burn ICU experience at time of applying? Is there a way that I can present or sell myself as is without having to pursue grad level courses or more experience? I just don't know what path I should take. Is there any advice that anyone may have to guide me in the right direction.

Thank you all for your time.