All previous college credits older than ten years

[jabele]

I'm running into some snags with my plan to return to school for a nursing degree. Many years back (over ten) I was in college and a nursing program. I left school, did many other things but now I have a family and need to focus on a solid career with a future. My plan is to go back to school and finish my nursing degree. I originally wanted to go for the BSN since I already have so many college credits. I took some classes at a community college where they informed me that my math and science cannot be older than five years. OK, I understand that and will retake those classes but now I am reading on the college/university websites that I was planning to transfer to that they will not accept classes older than ten years for a BSN degree. I just don't think I have it in me to retake all those classes like lit and speech and that kind of thing. My question for all of you, would it be beneficial to retake those classes to get the BSN degree or should I just work toward an RN degree? What are the pro's and con's. I have a little girl that's about two and twin boys on the way. My husband has a good job but no real advancement so I feel I need to prepare myself for the best possible career I can. And that includes growth, advancement, cont. education, etc... That being said, do you feel nursing is still a good option for a stable career and is the pay still good? What should I expect for salary for either a BSN or RN degree starting out and up?

Thanks

J

[coast2coast]

If you applied to an accelerated/second-degree BSN program you would only have to re-take the nursing prerequisites. This would likely include microbiology, A&P 1 and 2, nutrition, maybe a psych class, and maybe biology or chemistry. No need to repeat every gen-ed credit you ever got.

That being said - it is a very bad job market for new grad RN's right now (just browse the site to get a feel for this). This seems to apply to both BSN and ADN-prepared new nurses. If you are counting on having a salary immediately after graduation to support your family, becoming an RN in the near future may not be the greatest plan. It can take months to get hired, and your first job may have terrible shifts, terrible work environment, etc. There are just no guarantees in the field right now !

You could also consider a direct-entry NP program - the job market might be a bit better and the salary would be higher. Same pre-requisite situation would exist and they tend to be expensive. Depending on location most NP's start around 75-80k/year and expect to pass 6 figures once you get some experience.