Advice on route to take

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I'm sure this has been asked countless amount of times, but I wasn't able to find anything recent so I hope someone can shine some light on my situation.

I graduated with a Bachelors exactly two years ago from a UC and I live in SoCal. After graduating, I attended Pasadena City College to complete some of the nursing school prerequisites. My experience at the CC was great. I have since put my aspirations aside to help my parents out. I've been working for the past 20 months but I'm looking to quit soon so I can go back to school.

Now, here are my options:

Option 1. Get into a CC program -> get my RN license in 2 years -> find a job / enroll into rn-bsn online. This route is cost-efficient and I can commute to the college so that means I don't need to relocate (I live with my parents at no cost to me). Maybe even find a part time CNA position? But everyone tells me that BSNs are required to find work nowadays and that will be the case in 2020.

Option 2. Get into an ABSN program -> get my RN license + BSN in 2 years -> find a job. I'm obviously saving time with this route but it'll cost somewhere between 70k-80k total for relocation costs and school tuition.

Is it weird that I'd rather stay close to home? If I attend an ABSN it will be away from my family, girlfriend, and friends. I'm not completely sure if my parents are okay with me leaving either. What I'm sure of is that they would like me to stay and continue helping them out. I don't mind doing it. But I just don't want to regret taking the longer route and end up not being able to find a job in the future.

Does anyone have similar experiences to mine?

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Specializes in CICU, Telemetry.

a BSN is nowhere near required to work as a nurse. That said, it is going to be very difficult to get a job in SoCal whether you have an associate's or a bachelor's degree. The job market there is supersaturated, they pay well, and you're going to need to be well-connected to get a job there without experience. If you work with an associate's, you'll likely be moving away from home to do so, and you may need to do so to get a BSN job as well.

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You can't help others if you don't help yourself.

Are you willing to sacrifice your future/good job options to stay close to girlfriend/mom and dad? I am NOT trying to be condescending, but you need to take care of yourself. This isn't selfish, it's common sense. At one point in your parents life, they likely had to make the same choice, and you'll need to continue to make this choice for the rest of your life.

My husband and I were distance for THREE years before we even got engaged. We were this way because he was in PA school and I was moving for my job. We made it work. It CAN work if you are both willing to accept it. She may not, or you may not.

Being close with your parents is nice and all, but you need to make your own way. You can always move back home and find employment. I can't pretend to know the situation where you are, but if jobs are really short, you will be selling yourself short, and then NOBODY wins.

In the end, you must make the decision. I will say that I do NOT believe in giving up on education for girlfriends or boyfriends. I do believe in postponing things for the needs of your children, but that's really it. Parents may need care, but I honestly feel they need to be understanding and encouraging. I know this varies by culture, but in my culture, it's selfish of a parent to not want their child to better themselves. If they need hired help, they need to take care of that (and you could absolutely help them with that as well!).

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@crazydoglady89

You make very valid points. It's not just my support group being there for me if I attend a CC, but it's also because I feel like I would have a better chance of finding a job where I do my clinicals. As for connections, I wouldn't say I don't have any. My gf's family owns several large uniform stores. They have made friends with many nurse managers lol.

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Specializes in Critical Care, Education.

There's an important factor missing here..... the difficulty of actually being accepted to a nursing program. There has been a great deal of information here on AN about problems gaining admission to a SoCal nursing program. So OP may not even have an option - he'll have to relocate in order to move ahead with nursing education.

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Specializes in GENERAL.
@crazydoglady89

You make very valid points. It's not just my support group being there for me if I attend a CC, but it's also because I feel like I would have a better chance of finding a job where I do my clinicals. As for connections, I wouldn't say I don't have any. My gf's

family owns several large uniform stores. They have

made friends with many nurse managers lol.

I sense a "pay to play" situation here.

Nudge, nudge, wink, wink.

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