Another newbie looking for advice....

[snoocharoo]

Hi everyone I'm new here and found this forumm as I was looking into nursing schools in my area. I was so relieved to find many people in situations similar to mine.

I'm a 33 yr old single mom and have 9 yr old daughter. I've been in a long term realtionship but haven't gotten married because it would kill us on taxes, we're married "in spirit". I have no college education, my family didn't have the money to send me and honestly I was too immature to realize the value of an education. Now as an adult I'm stuck in a low paying, mind numbing job as a secretary. My company is unstable and my brain is turning to mush from lack of use, the writing is on the wall...time to move on.

Two very close friends of mine are RN's and they absolutely love their jobs and find them challenging and fullfilling at the same time. Their hours are flexible so they get to be with their kids. After thinking seriously about it I've decided to go to school to become a nurse.

I have some questions that I'm hoping some of you can answer. Because I have no education, I'm starting at the bottom and would like to attend a local community college. I'm fairly confident that I can test into college level English and with some tutoring I think I can test into Algebra ii. 12 years of all-girls catholic school wasn't entirely a waste :)

My questions are:

1. Should I apply to more than 1 school?

2. How realistic is it to work fulltime and go to school?

3. If it is not feasible to do both, do you have any suggestions on income opp's?

4. LPN or RN? Is it advisable to start as an LPN and test for RN later?

5. How long did it take to finish school?

I have a distinct advantage with community college because my boyfriend is the manager of the bookstore (can you say FREEBIE?) The college I want to go to offers an LPN and is THE place to go for this program in my area. My concern is that I have heard the program is difficult to get into, any tips on improving my chances?

I'm sure that this board gets posts like this all the time, if there is a particular thread I should refer to to have my questions answered please let me know.

Thank you all so much.

Stephanie

[Stitchie]

Go for the RN. You won't regret it, and I can tell you that I worked while I went to school at a boring, mind numbing secretary job too and realized that I was going nowhere fast. I had the advantage of having a degree already, but in Political Science b/c I wanted to go to law school. I had many of the prereq's already but had no science or math. School was difficult to manage in that it was time consuming, and my school was DISORGANIZED, but i did very well on boards. I worked part time in the ED/Critical care as a care tech and it made a huge difference.

Don't let anything hold you back. And get your BSN; it's literally your ticket to a whole new career if you decide you do "hate nursing". There will be days and patients that drive you nuts, and you hate it; other times it's the most wonderful feeling in the world when someone kisses your cheek or tells you how kind you are; there will be days when you're hanging IV's or charting and just letting the tears run down your face...I've had them all!