B.S. In Psych. and want to pursue RN Path- please advise

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I am new to this site and have found the information very useful and terrifying at the same time. I have my undergrad degree in Psychology and Philosophy (92) and have had a really successful sales career over the last decade (top %3 in my field). But I've always found sales to be really empty on a spiritual level. Several personal heroes of mine are RN's and I want to pursue this path. Where does someone with a B.S. in another field begin? I didn't have ANY bio, chemistry or anatomy for my first degree. I just paid off all my debt from the first half of my life and am not willing to incur a LARGE student loan so I guess schools like Columbia and NYU are out.

I use the word terrifying because several threads have mentioned that getting into schools like Hunter are next to impossible. I just turned 40. Am I too old for these shenanigans? Would I be looking to acquire a BSN? Would I be able to continue to work and work on this degree? What would be the first step? To take the pre-reqs like anatomy, ect. at a local school? How would I know if they would transfer? Sorry but please help. I know there will be a karmic reward in it for you for sharing your wisdom and time.

Cheers.

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There's a couple routes you could go. Going for an ASN or BSN would be your best bet. Either can be hired for basic nursing jobs and both take the same licensing exam. Go ahead and get Anatomy and Physiology 1&2 done along with Microbiology as those are standard staples of nursing pre-requisites. Others may include Chemistry 101, Developmental Psych, speech and basic English (hopefully some of these your previous Bachelor's would take care of). You could take these at your local community college. Your best bet is to find one or two nursing programs you'd like to attend, such as in your immediate vicinity, and look at their prereqs and get those taken care of. Whether or not you get the ASN or BSN is your own personal choice. Since you already have a Bachelor's degree that may be considered for managerial positions if you are interested in those, but non-nursing Bachelor's is a gray area for those higher level positions, as some will accept it and some won't.

I have a non-nursing Bachelor's and decided to pursue a ASN because I did not want large debt either, and the tuition was only around $70 per credit hour at that time, so it was manageable for me and I graduated debt free. I worked part time during school which was manageable, but nursing school is very time consuming. Also, I was lucky to have an accommodating work place for my ever changing schedule. Nursing classes are much less flexible in the times that are offered than other classes.

Be prepared for a possible wait list for nursing school too, and good luck!

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Specializes in US Army.

Another option is a MSN bridge program, like the one offered at Vanderbilt University: http://www.nursing.vanderbilt.edu/msn/options.html

There are also a few other universities that offer this option. Good luck to you, Kierkegaard (love the name and the philosophy).

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