Corpsmen & Medics, Become an RN in 9 Months

[PMFB-RN]

I was an army medic rather than an navy corpsman but I challenged the LVN boards in California and passed first time no problem.

For those who are interested in becoming an RN here is the way I became an RN and you former medics and corpsmen can do it too.

Challenge the LVN boards in Ca and after you have your LVN license come here to WIsconsin and enter one of our technical colleges. The Wi Technical college s (16 of them) offer LPN to RN in one year or less. I had zero college credit to my name, just my army training and my LPN lcense and I became an RN with an associates degree in nursing and a licensed RN in only two semesters. I CLEPT lot's of classes (with zero study time) and passed. I had a 16 credit course load for those two semesters and had no trouble.

I started school in Aug 2005 and graduated in May of 2006 with an ADN-RN. I now work in a level I surgical/trauma ICU and make $69K/year. You medics and corpsmen can do it too. If you have any questions feel free to ask or PM me.

[LLLovely, BSN, RN]

Possibly you are baffled by it because there was no condescending tone in the first place. I'm somewhat surprised that you took it that way, however, it is your perogative to do so.

Cheers,

Gen

I saw it too. The bold below seems condescending to me. Just sayin'.

Hi,

Let me get this straight, you are advising folks to join the Navy, go through the request and wait to balance being accepted to the corpsman training program, fulfill your service obligation, (three or four years?) and then to move to California, set up residence in order to petition and challange the boards, (what, another year or so) then to move to Wisconsin, set up residence and apply for and go through the hoops to join a junior college/technical college associate's degree granting school, then to clepout of many of their tests and then in 9 more months you can complete the bridge to associate's rn degree?

There are more routes than one towards the RN license and if someone is interested in your route, good for them, however, I wanted to be an RN prior to commissioning in as an officer. Oh, wait, as an associate degree nurse a person wouldn't be able to be in the Military, (unless it was Army Reserves) so, possibly the Military nursing forum isn't the best place to post this.

Gen

To the OP, thanks for bringing another possibility to the attention of the board. Surely this information will be helpful to at least one person who is looking to move from medic/corpsman to nurse.

[antibrandon]

sir,

when you were studing your pharmacology for LPN, what was your focus? did you just commit your self to learning the book or was there key factors you need to take away from the information? i.e. do i need to know every anticolinergic drug or do i have to know the actions of the drug and the nursing assesment related to the drug?

sorry to be so needy. sadly i am deployeed with only medics and docs. while the docs are a great help, they are a little clueles about the nursing process.

[dandalora1]

PMFB-RN

I hope that you realize how much your input is appreciated and the impact you are going to have on LPN's or even those military who may decide to go this route.

Thank you. I have been an LPN for 20 years. I have searched and searched for colleges that will appreciate my contributions and my 3.72 GPA from my college that back then, did not issue us college credits.

I am moving to Wisconsin. Thank you again so much and good luck to you.

P.S. Thank you for serving!!

[dandalora1]

Wondering how strong scholarship, grant possibilities are? I would have to get an apartment and the colleges discourage working while pursuing adn

[PMFB-RN, RN]

Wondering how strong scholarship, grant possibilities are? I would have to get an apartment and the colleges discourage working while pursuing adn

*** I don't know about scholarships and grants but certainly you could get student aid. Even at out of state tution rates the technical colleg program is pretty reasonable in cost. I worked 24-36 hours a week while I was in the ADN program, seems like everybody else in my class was working as well. I know that some where working full time. Depends on how much you can handel. They also have a two year, part time LPN to RN evening and weekend program for those who must work full time. No waiting list for it either last time I talked to them.

http://www.swtc.edu/gray.aspx?id=516&terms=evening+

[mikey8404]

hey bud, i was an fmf corpsman in the navy for 4 years/i called the board of lvn's and was told that all i needed was my dd214 with an honorable discharge and my military transcripts to challenge the exam.Does that sound accurate to you based on what you did to become an lvn?thanx

-mike

[PMFB-RN, RN]

hey bud, i was an fmf corpsman in the navy for 4 years/i called the board of lvn's and was told that all i needed was my dd214 with an honorable discharge and my military transcripts to challenge the exam.Does that sound accurate to you based on what you did to become an lvn?thanx

-mike

*** If I remember right I had to provide my DD214, transcripts of all army training and well as a notarized letter from an RN supervisor stating actual work in different hospital units.

[PMFB-RN, RN]

sir,

when you were studing your pharmacology for LPN, what was your focus? did you just commit your self to learning the book or was there key factors you need to take away from the information? i.e. do i need to know every anticolinergic drug or do i have to know the actions of the drug and the nursing assesment related to the drug?

sorry to be so needy. sadly i am deployeed with only medics and docs. while the docs are a great help, they are a little clueles about the nursing process.

*** Sorry I didn't see this. I know it was a long time ago. What I did was contact a local community college in Ca (Palomar in San Marcos) and ask to speak to the dean. I left a message and she returned my call later that day. When I explained my situation and what I wanted to do she gave me the contact number of the college's pharm instructor. She was happy to mail me a copy of the silibus for their nursing pharm class. I used that as a study guide and just used book I got out of the local college library.

[PMFB-RN, RN]

PMFB-RN

I hope that you realize how much your input is appreciated and the impact you are going to have on LPN's or even those military who may decide to go this route.

Thank you. I have been an LPN for 20 years. I have searched and searched for colleges that will appreciate my contributions and my 3.72 GPA from my college that back then, did not issue us college credits.

I am moving to Wisconsin. Thank you again so much and good luck to you.

P.S. Thank you for serving!!

*** I am wondering how you are doing and what you decided to do in the end? FYI much of the nursing program with the exception of A&P I&II, micro, skills lab, and clinical can be done online. They also accept CLEP credits for required classes.

[kellita]

hi!

thanks OP for the post!

did you mention that you are a EMT-P? do you think being a paramedic helped you along the path? or do you think just a EMT-B would be sufficient enough (as far as challenging the LVN-board).

Do I also have to wait till after my enlistment contracts ends, since I saw from previous post that it requires a 'honorable dicharge'?

thanks in advance!

[PMFB-RN, RN]

hi!

thanks OP for the post!

did you mention that you are a EMT-P? do you think being a paramedic helped you along the path? or do you think just a EMT-B would be sufficient enough (as far as challenging the LVN-board).

Do I also have to wait till after my enlistment contracts ends, since I saw from previous post that it requires a 'honorable dicharge'?

thanks in advance!

*** I used to be an EMT-P. I let it lapse years ago. I don't think being one was at all helpful for studying nursing. What was helpful was having so much hands on patient care experience. It made me very comfortable in clinical. I don't know about the discharge as I was already discharged when I first started looking into it.

What was most helpful to me was working in the army hospital. My CO was a nurse corps officer who arranged for me to spend some time working on various departments in the hospital.

I would not get EMT-P for nursing. You could go the technical colleges website and see what classes from the nursing program you can take online, I think it's most of them. Also if you can take micro, A&P and any other general education classes you can. The college will accept transfer classes from any accredited college. Their website:

http://www.swtc.edu

[ellies]

I was an army medic rather than an navy corpsman but I challenged the LVN boards in California and passed first time no problem.

For those who are interested in becoming an RN here is the way I became an RN and you former medics and corpsmen can do it too.

Challenge the LVN boards in Ca and after you have your LVN license come here to WIsconsin and enter one of our technical colleges. The Wi Technical college s (16 of them) offer LPN to RN in one year or less. I had zero college credit to my name, just my army training and my LPN lcense and I became an RN with an associates degree in nursing and a licensed RN in only two semesters. I CLEPT lot's of classes (with zero study time) and passed. I had a 16 credit course load for those two semesters and had no trouble.

I started school in Aug 2005 and graduated in May of 2006 with an ADN-RN. I now work in a level I surgical/trauma ICU and make $69K/year. You medics and corpsmen can do it too. If you have any questions feel free to ask or PM me.

I am glad you put this article on the board, I will pass it on to some of my young corpsman and medics looking to enhance thier careers on the outside. Another route is an EMS degree program, but you still have to get the necessary prerequisite for the nursing programs out there. I really appreciate your post and like I SAID i WILL PASS THIS ON, THIS IS THE ANSWER I HAVE BEEN LOOKING FOR!!!

Thank you