Any suggestions?

The questions you asked are very much like I asked myself in 1970. I had completed two years of college majoring in Liberal Arts then Education. My life took a crazy twist and I enlisted in the Navy and became a Hospital Corpsman assigned to the Marines in Viet Nam. Four years later, at age 24, I had to decide where I was going.

With my medical experience and training in the service, I found out that it did not even qualify me for a Nurses Aid position. With persistence and luck, I landed an on-the-job training position as a Dialysis Technician. The job was pretty much dead-ended and low paying. I enrolled in a community college to get back my matriculation and subsequently decided to go into Nursing. In New York, you can sit for licensure with an AD degree. With the credits I had already taken I needed only 32 credits for this degree. 24 credits had to be in Nursing, while the remaining 8 were electives. Prior to my graduation, I was offered a RN position that would be held for me until my scores arrived. The advantage of going to work with an AD degree is that The Hospital I worked for paid for continuing education to get my BSN. It allowed me to start paying off my student loans and put a roof over my head. Although an AD degree will get you in the door, you immediately are dead-ended. The starting salaries for new graduates today are approximately $50,000 - $60,000 with a differential for working off tour (aprox. 10%). Depending on your aspirations a BSN or MSN is required for administrative or nursing education positions. Most hospitals in our area offer some form of tuition reimbursement. You also have the ability to get your BSN with distance learning on-line. Due to the aging demographics you will not have to look very hard for employment. The Nursing Shortage is real both here and internationally. You have portability with this profession. Good luck on all your future endeavors.

ADN will get you in the door and allow you to sit for boards and get RN behind your name and work most anywhere as a nurse. BSN will get you the same thing but you can use it as a springboard for a much wider field of options carreer wise. Starting out now the ultimate goal for anyone considering nursing should be a BSN. Thats not to say an AD is not good. It allows you to support yourself earlier and make the same salary you would with a BSN but all the independent practice areas of nursing require a BSN or higher degree.

I recommend BSN just to make your resume more flexible.

ADN grads have more clinical time than BSN grads. There is often no difference in pay, and the opportunities available depends on the area. It used to be that you needed a BSN to work in admin or public health or school nursing, in many many places that is no longer true.

I disagree with TazziRN about clinical time. Perhaps it varies from state to state, but in Texas all RN's must have the same minimal clinical time. I was ADN first. When I did the BSN program I had extra clinical time for management and other projects besides bedside care. However, the "generic" students (never had ADN program) had the same requirements as I had with the ADN and BSN combined. Having been an instructor I will say that the minimal requirements are the same for bedside clinical hours but each program has the right to add hours. This is true if you take your courses online as well. You will be required to do the same number of clinical hours as every other nursing student (RN).

Maybe it is regional. Here the ADN grads hit the floor running compared to BSN grads on the first day.

I agree Tazzi,...I'm in the midwest,.most of our ADN programs are affiliated w/a hospital and have way more clinical/hands on time than the BSN programs,.with that said,.the OP will already have a degree going into Nursing,.I had a BS in BIO et Psych,.getting a BSN from there didn't take much,.but the ADN got me in the door, working and able to support myself while I finished the BSN. BSN "clinicals" consisted mostly of reading charts, interviewing pts et managers,.much research, lots of papers to write,.lots of theory, almost no actual bedside pt care.