Considering Nursing School - Questions

snovbunny25 · Jul 29, 2006

I am in my 30's and I am ready to start a new career. I have been considering going to nursing school for ADN. Here are some questions I have:
1. Are all ages represented in nursing school?
2. Are the students respectful of eachother?
3. I have seen postings and job announcements that BSN is preferred.
Do ADNs get passed over for BSNs usually?
4. What type of presentations does an ADN and a BSN student make while in school? Are there group presentations? Are there many individual presentations? Are audiovisuals used, etc?
5. How many students are allowed in a classroom?
6. Why do I read and hear of a nursing shortage?
Why do the schools have wait-lists while there is a nursing shortage?
I have heard that there is a shortage of instructors and funding.
7. Are hospitals biased to certain community colleges and hire from a select few?
Thanks for any info for these questions!!

Hi, I dont think i know all the answers to your questions, but i might know a few. Yes, there are all age groups in nursing school.......sometimes majority are younger girls, but there are a few that are in their 30s as well, entering their 2nd career.(Me being one of them-soon) I dont know if the students are respectful of each other, but i hope soo.

I have never heard that ADN are being passed up over a BSN , depends on the situation and the job. But there are plenty of jobs for ADN.

There are a great shortage of nursing, and believe me i have been wondering why there is always a wait list in all the colleges i have checked into, but it could be for funding reasons as well as other unknown reasons to mankind.

Well i have been in the medical field for many years, just havent pursued nursing yet......so i have seen many things. Good luck, i think it's a career worth pursuing.

Trauma Columnist · Jul 29, 2006

Okay here goes, I'll try:

1. Are all ages represented in nursing school? Yes, there are usually younger folks as well as older ones.

2. Are the students respectful of eachother? Yes, I think for the most part.

3. I have seen postings and job announcements that BSN is preferred.

Do ADNs get passed over for BSNs usually? No an entry level RN is an entry level RN.

4. What type of presentations does an ADN and a BSN student make while in school? Are there group presentations? Are there many individual presentations? Are audiovisuals used, etc? Usually PowerPoint presentations are the preferred methods. There are both individual and group projects.

5. How many students are allowed in a classroom? Varies by school.

6. Why do I read and hear of a nursing shortage?

Why do the schools have wait-lists while there is a nursing shortage?

I have heard that there is a shortage of instructors and funding. The nursing shortage and waiting lists are due to the shortage of instructors. When you consider that instructors are at least masters' prepared and get paid less than staff nurses, that explains it.

7. Are hospitals biased to certain community colleges and hire from a select few?

Not that I'm aware of.

happygrad06 · Jul 29, 2006

I am in my 30's and I am ready to start a new career. I have been considering going to nursing school for ADN. Here are some questions I have:
1. Are all ages represented in nursing school? In my class there were - we had anywhere from 21 to 48 years of age. 22 students started, 13 finished.
Attrition rates (either drop outs, and/or folks who just didn't make it and stayed to repeat etc, are the reasons for this, we had more folks drop back and repeat than quit)...
2. Are the students respectful of eachother? DEPENDS. Sometimes yes, sometimes you will see jouvenile stuff going on. But, your goal is to just get through and not necessarily to love the class Some classes are well behaved, others crack dirty jokes all day long, etc...it just depends where you fall into the classes - luck shot.
3. I have seen postings and job announcements that BSN is preferred.
Do ADNs get passed over for BSNs usually? DEPENDs....one of our instructors told us that the magnet hospitals (those who are supposedly voted as the best to work at ) hire only BSN...but I dont know if it's true and I've seen some ads for BSN only - however I can tell you as a new grad RN (not BSn) I had several job offers and took my pick of them; not at magnet though.
4. What type of presentations does an ADN and a BSN student make while in school? Are there group presentations? Are there many individual presentations? Are audiovisuals used, etc? We had all a couple groups and one or two individual...we used different methods to choose from. Probably most schools will have some type required. You also have to be able to be confident enough to do lab skills demonstrations during a skills test on more than one occasion in your lab; things you are taught to do once, practice and then demonstrate - you pass skills exams. You also have to be able to do assessments on patients in front of your instructor and be more or less pass/failed on them...so if you are shy, you will have to overcome that :)
5. How many students are allowed in a classroom? Depends...our average was about 22 students starting... but some schools are more I heard...but again credentially has something to do with it - how many are allowed at each clinical etc to be under one instructor...etc.
6. Why do I read and hear of a nursing shortage?
Why do the schools have wait-lists while there is a nursing shortage?
I have heard that there is a shortage of instructors and funding. There is a shortage to be sure, when you see nurses handling 8 to 10 patients to one nurse...there is a shortage..... nursing isnt an easy profession = some people dont realize the stress...others don't like the schedules, etc...so some leave the job after going onto it a short time... other times..it's the problem w/getting INTO nursing school which is HIGHLY competetive and they say this is due to the space available (i.e. lack of funding) and the teachers don't make that much money either .... so you have this packed tunnel INTO school...and then ...you have an attrition rate of probably about 40 percent.... who either drop/don't make it..or quit..etc. So they dont GRADUATE that many..... and again in larger cities or more desirable areas you may not see shortages.... so it has to do where ppl desire to live, also...alot comes into play. Another thing is people are living longer, etc...so more folks trying to get into the docs..or need healthcare etc as technology keeps folks alive longer!
7. Are hospitals biased to certain community colleges and hire from a select few? I doubt that very much! I think they'd take them from wherever HOWEVER..... if you work as a student at clinics at a certain hospital and they don't LIKE you they sure as heck aren't gonna hire you as a nurse.
Getting your prereqs out of the way is also a challenge...basically you have to be pretty darned determined to make it through......but I can tell you that I was highly surprised! I went into it for the money and stability...but then found out nurses are UNDER paid fo what they are expected to know.... and be legally responsible for... and that drives some nurses out too I bet.... but what I learned is that I love to help people. The first time a family told me (out of the blue...) that I was going to be a good nurse I broke down in tears.....and THAT made it all worth while. I just graduated and got my RN and I turn 40 this year. So if it's what you want, go for it.

happygrad06 · Jul 29, 2006

By the way, another reason for the problem getting INTO nursing school is b/c everybody and their dog is trying!! See about 5 years ago, the news started to broadcast the average wages for nurses and that there is a shortage...so everyone decided hey, I'll become a nurse, I'm tired of making walmart wages.

And so...a huge number begin their prereqs. Now don't forget other health professions require similar prereqs so those classes are HARD to get into... then, once you finish that...... you have this huge amount of ppl trying to enter nursing school and very few spaces avail (there you have the funding lack of, and teachers lack of/space lack of etc).... there just aren't that many nursing schools around and the hospitals etc can only handle so many students running around their floors at one time, also.

that explains your tunnel "into" school. Before five years ago, you will hear from nurses, that they went in right out of high school many of them.....there was plenty of space in the schools - no wait lists, etc..you just went in. Now, it's different...in fact now, many schools are not even having wait lists anymore...they are simply saying "yes" or "no" and then you have to reapply every quarter. Even the straight A students are not necessarily getting into the spots b/c there are just too many applicants..depending on where you live, probably...I had to move 3 hours away to go to school..and now I'm moving back to where I came from now that I have my RN. But I could not get in where I was...and now, MY school has become even more in demand and has gone to the harder entrance requirements that other schools in my state have...so I got in just in time. By the way I was not a straight A student! Before, or during..I was a B student..I was a B student in NS too....

So there you have it...the 'tunnel' and then...the attrition rate...... and then the folks who dump the profession due to truly, being underpaid for their skills and'/or the stress....and that all equals a nursing shortage.

Reno1978, BSN, RN · Jul 29, 2006

i'm starting nursing school this fall...i'll give this a shot.

1. are all ages represented in nursing school?

i would say so. during my orientation there was a wide range of ages represented. i'd say from early 20's to mid 40's.

2. are the students respectful of eachother?

i can say that throughout my prerequisite classes, everyone was really helpful and showed a lot of respect.

3. i have seen postings and job announcements that bsn is preferred. do adns get passed over for bsns usually?

well, i know the nurse recruiters at our local hospital go to both the local community colleges (adn grads) and the university (bsn grads) to talk about their facility. from what i've read on these boards, bsn nurses tend to have more opportunities to advance through management positions in the nursing field.

4. what type of presentations does an adn and a bsn student make while in school? are there group presentations? are there many individual presentations? are audiovisuals used, etc?

i've only completed my prerequisites, but i've had to do both individual and group presentations. audiovisual requirements seem to depend on the teacher. some prefer it, others don't.

5. how many students are allowed in a classroom?

like others have said, it really varies. where i'm going, there are 48 people in my graduating class. classes that are specific to 1st semester students have 48 people. our university does two semesters of pathophysiology/pharmacology. half is taught in the spring and half in the fall, so the 1st and 2nd semester students take this class together for 96 people in the class. i notice some of these classes are facilitated by multiple instructors. also, during clinicals, there's a limit of 8 students per instructors by the nv board of nursing, so we do clinicals in 6 groups of 8 at various facilities around town.

6. why do i read and hear of a nursing shortage?

why do the schools have wait-lists while there is a nursing shortage?

i have heard that there is a shortage of instructors and funding.

from what i've read, it is mostly a shortage of funding and nursing educators. i know that my school of nursing received in recent years a few substantial grants to be able to accomodate more students each spring and fall and continue the program through the summer so it's a fall, spring, summer, fall progression.

7. are hospitals biased to certain community colleges and hire from a select few?

i couldn't imagine the ones around here being that biased. their job listings for nursing is usually pretty high.

Daytonite, BSN, RN · Jul 30, 2006

i just answered these questions of yours on another forum. have you done any real research into what nursing is. i think that if you read the information in the links i've provided for you below you will have a lot of your questions answered. there is, in general, across the country a rn nursing shortage. that may not be so in your area if you are in a highly populated urban area. here is la you can pretty much get a job as an rn anywhere. but the situation is different up in san fransciso. i recommend you do searches and read some of the older links in the forums. there is a lot of answers to the questions you've asked that have been answered many times over there.

http://www.discovernursing.com/

http://www.nursingsociety.org/career/cmap.html

http://www.collegeboard.com/student/csearch/majors_careers/42226.html - "thinking about nursing school? consider your many options" from the college board.

http://www.wetfeet.com/content/careers/nursing.aspx - about nursing from webfeet.com

http://stats.bls.gov/oco/ocos083.htm - about registered nursing from the u.s. department of labor

http://stats.bls.gov/oco/ocos102.htm - about lpn nursing from the u.s. department of labor

http://www.collegeboard.com/csearch/majors_careers/profiles/ - can get short profiles of what the various types of nurses do. click on "health professions and related clinical sciences" to expand the menu. click on "nursing". click on the various options that are listed.