should i do the adn to bsn with no hospital experience?

[smartnurse1982]

Just wondering if you are a nurse out of the clinical setting do accelerated adn to bsn programs still accept ltc and home care as relevant experience? I know some adr to bsn want you to have exp in a clinical setting such as Pace University.

I was told in school I'm book smart,but since I've never worked in the hospital i lack the clinical skills.

Or do most online and to bsn have no set standard such as must have one year experience before appling to the school?

[smartnurse1982]

Another reason I asked is that I've never started an iv and have forgotten about some clinical procedures,such as how to read a fhr monitor strip,ekg strips,and know nothing about chest tubes other then the basics. Some of the "hands on" part of nursing is missing from my career.

[Moogie]

Check with your school. You might not have gotten to do IV starts in LTC or home health, but you have organizational skills because of the resident loads in LTC and you have teaching skills from home health. You can probably do a dressing with your eyes shut and you have had to deal with complex co-morbidities in an aging population. You've also had to deal with mental health issues including depression and all the behaviors associated with dementia.

Honestly, you won't be practicing clinical skills in an RN to BSN program because the schools really need to set aside their resources for the entry level students who need to learn, practice, and test out of different skills (like you did in your previous programs.) You will be learning some things that don't seem very practical (like nursing theory) but you will find that you will gain knowledge about community health issues and community assessment. You may also find that even the most abstract class (like theory) has an influence on the way you look at nursing. Even if you decide that some of what you are learning is hogwash, at least you can know why you think it's such and why you think differently.

Please don't let anyone tell you that you don't get clinical experience when you work LTC or HH. I think both settings are far more complex than people realize and that, instead of apologizing for our experience, we need to stand up and be proud of what we accomplish.

[llg, PhD, RN]

I teach in an RN-BSN program in which those types of technical skills are completely irrelevant. Those technical, physical patient care skills are emphasized in entry-level programs ... but once you have your RN, that is what the education is about.

I do think it helps to have at least a year or two of some type of nursing experience before entering an RN-BSN program. It will give you some practical experience that you can relate to the book-learning that you will be doing in the program. But LTC experience should be just as well-suited for that purpose as any other type of nursing experience.

The few students in my class who have no real-world experience as an RN usually struggle to interpret the class material and don't perform at the same level as the more experienced students.

[smartnurse1982]

Thanks for all your help,definitely motivated after reading about Pa.

[LookForward]

depends on the school....