CNA VS LPN

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I'm looking for any help to get me going in my nursing career. My aim is to have a RN-BSN like my mother who nursed for 40 years. I have no college degree whatsoever right now and I initially wanted to go to school for 18 months get my LPN work as an LPN and do my transition classes for RN then BSN online as much as I can while I work. But my question is this, should I start even lower as a CNA so I can have working references in the medical field once I have my LPN? I'm scared that going back to school at 30 is going to lower my chances of being hired on faster than those younger than me fresh out of school.

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While work experience as a CNA can be helpful in getting that first LPN job, it is not absolutely necessary. Try to find a community college LPN program where the CNA course is part of the credits toward the LPN portion, that will help you get the most bang for your buck (also for less bucks than the run of the mill proprietary courses out there).

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Specializes in PICU, Sedation/Radiology, PACU.

You may find that starting out with an ADN program and then advancing to your BSN is more cost effective than LPN > RN > BSN. You'll also have more job opportunities as an ADN and likely an increased salary.

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Specializes in Critical Care, Education.

Agree with Double-Helix... the skills/knowledge acquired in your first clinical semester of an ADN program will qualify you to work as a nurse tech, which is approximately the same as a CNA. Many hospitals have these types of jobs designed to be filled by nursing students.

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Depending on your state, you may be able to challenge the CNA test once you've passed fundamentals.

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What do you mean by challenge the test? Use it for class credits?

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What do you mean by challenge the test? Use it for class credits?

Either or both. You might be able to challenge the test just to get the certification, or you might be able to challenge the test to get both the certification and class credits at a school that supports that option.

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