Choosing a nursing program

[Debsdogs]

Hello:

I'm so thankful for this site! My daughter and I want to go to Nursing School together. Any advise on how programs differ would be helpful. Does it matter if it's a degree program, (Associate) vs. a diploma program, a hospital program vs a Community College program etc.

Any advice on how we can be successful would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks so much,

Deb:rolleyes:

[ptnurse]

Welcome to the bulletin board. I see that you are from Memphis. I went to nursing school in Memphis. There is not much (if any) difference in the starting pay for nurses in the Memphis area as far as the kind of degree that they have. Univ of Memphis offers a bachelor's program as does the Baptist hospital. I believe that Methodist Hospital still has a diploma school. Shelby State (now combined with State Tech) under a new name (that I can't think of at the moment) has an associates program. Many nurses start out in the associates program to get into nursing and then do an accelerated bridge program later to get their BSN. I hope that I have told you something that helps. If not pm me and I will try to give you any information that I can.

[memphispanda, RN]

I'm in nursing school in Memphis. If you'd like to pm me for more info about the school I go to or why I chose it instead of one of the other schools, please do!

Your options are:

STCC for an ADN. It's ~2 years in length, next class will be admitted in August.

U of Memphis for BSN. 4+ years in length. Probably can admit for the pre-reqs in Summer semester.

Methodist for Diploma. 2 years in length, next class admitted in May.

Baptist for BSN. 4+ years in length. Probably can admit for pre-reqs in Summer Semester.

From what my research, your pay is pretty much the same no matter which degree you choose. Your options for furthering your career may be limited if you don't go BSN, but you can go BSN after you get your RN if you decide to. Your major differences will be the amount of non-nursing classes required for the BSN programs, and the amount of clinical time is greater in the hospital programs. There also is reputation of the schools to take into consideration.

[mario_ragucci]

lol, consider moving to portland, move in with me, pay my rent and in return i will tell you exactly what to do, what to say, where to go, and how to dress. My full time task since Spring 2000 has been to be an RN. I'm making progress. What really launched me was 1) getting my CNA (took months) then 2) getting accepted to a 2 year program. Then I just picked the best hospital and applied. Now all I gotta do is stay in this holding pattern until I NCLEX in Spring 2004.