Published Jun 28, 2014
akt09b
2 Posts
I just graduated with a BA in biology and recently decided I want to pursue a career in nursing. I originally thought that doing the accelerated bsn track would be my best option but even though I was a biology major and have pretty much all the nursing pre-reqs it looks like I still have to take a bunch of pre-reqs like American history and politics. I have no need for these and don't want to take an extra semester taking a bunch of pre-reqs that don't even apply to what I want to do.
Any advice on other options or programs that might better?
RNperdiem, RN
4,592 Posts
Community college, but the ADN has its own downsides in today's job market. Accept that BA college degrees are not as uncommon as they used to be and therefore have lost some of their market/competitive value.
If you could do a survey of the students in my nursing school, most of them had college degrees.
Owethu123
70 Posts
akt09B
Try Nurse Corps website, like them on Facebook. They have lot of information about non nursing Bachelors and Masters degree - BSN or MSN. You won't have to waste your time on ADN.
jadelpn, LPN, EMT-B
9 Articles; 4,800 Posts
There may be some other classes that you took for your bachelors that would apply. I would see the guidance counselor at the school you would like to attend, and see exactly what you need to take to get your BSN.
There may even be a testing out option.
An accelerated program may SOUND like a great idea, but it is not always a great option for many.
Best of luck in your future endevours!
Check this out "GWU nursing program offers clinical training and a job.
The George Washington University School of Nursing is starting an accelerated bachelor's program for second-career students that promises clinical experience at MedStar Washington Hospital Center and a job when they graduate. Jean Johnson, the school's dean, said the hospital sees students in the accelerated BSN program as being motivated, mature and highly likely to be committed to the profession. "Nurse.com (6/18) http://news.nurse.com/article/20140618/DC02/140617007#.U66KQNq9KSM
I got the link form my AWHONN SmartBrief. Turning graduates in other fields into nurses us trending. It is one of the recommendation by the Institute of Medicine to curb shortage and turnover of nurses. Nurse Corps is raven offering scholarships. I know and I worked with several nurses who have accelerated. One of them is a CNM who went from Business to Nursing. She did not even work as an RN. She went straight for Midwifery
RNsRWe, ASN, RN
3 Articles; 10,428 Posts
akt09bI got the link form my AWHONN SmartBrief. Turning graduates in other fields into nurses us trending. It is one of the recommendation by the Institute of Medicine to curb shortage and turnover of nurses. Nurse Corps is raven offering scholarships. I know and I worked with several nurses who have accelerated. One of them is a CNM who went from Business to Nursing. She did not even work as an RN. She went straight for Midwifery
I wonder what shortage that would be?
Shortage of Nurses. Shortage of nurses is a major concern in health care these days. Major players in Future of Nursing (FON) have joined forces to implement the IOM recommendations. The goal is to increase BSN prepared nurses by 80% and doubling nurses with doctorate by 2020. The overall objective is to have an educated health care workforce. As a result, schools are implementing the Non- nursing Bachelors and Masters-BSN or MSN initiative.
I know you meant shortage of nurses
My point is, I'm sorry to say, that a shortage of nurses is absolutely NOT a major concern in healthcare these days. MOST of the country has an over-abundance of nurses; California, in particular, has nearly a 50% new grad unemployment rate.
Nurses with debt from pursuing higher education often carry that debt for years, unable to repay the student loans they shouldered because of the lure of fast employment in a "shortage" profession. Many MANY new BSNs struggle to find jobs, only to find that the newest crop of new grads is fresher than they are....and also unemployed.
And still more and more people enroll in nursing programs, believing in such nonsense as a 'nursing shortage'. Then are shocked to find there are no jobs waiting.
Why on earth would increasing BSN grads by 80% HELP that situation??
hope3456, ASN, RN
1,263 Posts
Scary how many people out there still believe there is a "shortage."
All driven by schools that are MORE than happy to have students fork over more and more money for ever-increasingly-higher degree programs. Like the "initiative" for non-nursing bachelor graduates Owethu spoke of: yes, they'll be more than happy to have people with degrees (like BAs, and even MBAs) in withering professions take a crack at nursing when they don't even have a background IN nursing. So they join the profession of nursing at entry level, but with advanced degrees.
And then they wind up adding to the unemployment numbers, when they were led to believe their newly-obtained degrees were somehow 'needed'. Oh well.
panic36
85 Posts
I still think unemployment rate has a lot to do with peoples unwillingness to relocate out of saturated areas than their really being a lack of jobs available. I find that a lot of people feel that just because they live somewhere that they have the right to have job availability, but in all realism it doesn't work that way.
Anyways not to hijack your thread. All your science prereqs should be done, and your English, mathematics. Are you sure that Politics and History are required to enter the nursing program? Most the 4 years that I'm aware of only require it to graduate, and you could take those during the summer while you're in your nursing program.