CMA to RN???

[jillhunter98]

I am a Certified Medical Assistant with 10 years experience and an AS in liberal arts from Excelsior, along with many other certificates. I am looking to eventually get my RN, but keep hitting brick walls at every school I try. Of course, there is a ton of controversy about CMA's vs. LPN's and I am not here to dicuss that. I cannot find a school that will accept the CMA credential and let me finish a nursing program without starting from scratch, basically saying I have no clinical experience/education which is crazy! The frustrating thing for me is that I have as much experience if not more than my friends who are nurses. The job I have now is the same exact one as an RN had for 20 years. I was also thinking of trying to get an LPN by equivalency. I was wondering if there is anybody out there in my situation?

[javadic]

I have been a CMA for 40 years. In that time, I obtained a BS in health education and a MA in counselor education. I wanted to be an RN but I always had to work and was never able go to school full time, therefore I could not do it. There was once a CMA-to-ADN program, but it lost its accreditation. I read, I study on my own. I have a great deal more knowledge about health than any other counselor I know, and I surprise members of the medical community with my knowledge. They typically think I am a nurse instead of a CMA. I was once enrolled in a nursing program, and I got expelled due to malicious lies told about me. I tried to fight it legally, and ultimately drove me into bankruptcy. It devastated my life. There is a saying, "Nurses eat their young." It is so true.

[OrthoRN09]

I was a CMA for 10 years before going back for my RN. As far as I know, there are no bridge programs for CMA to RN. And whoever is telling you that there is has no idea what they are talking about. I did not get credit for any of my CMA classes and had to start over from scratch.