Already have an Associates degree but want to be a nurse?

[ilovejose22]

So I have my general associate's degree was planning on transferring to a university for a bachelors in education. Since then my life has taken some turns, and I have started to look at my career path from a more financial stand-point and realized a teaching salary simply won't do what I need it to. I have worked in the healthcare field for years, and would love to be a nurse in either L&D or Peds. I work in a hospital now in Bed Control and work closely with the charge nurses so I know what the healthcare setting is like. That being said If I already have and associate's degree, what do I do now?? I have taken most of the usual nursing pre-reqs within my Associate's degree. I don't want to go back to the community college and have to start from scratch and go back through the Associate's RN program to become an RN. Do universities typically have Bachelor programs that are 'nursing schools' and accept students who have a normal associate's not in the field of nursing?

I live in central florida and am looking at at University of Central Florida, and University of Florida, but preferring UCF. If there are programs like this, what are they like? One year, two years? Intense? Can I work? Lots of questions! Whew!

Thanks in advance for any advice!

[NickiLaughs, ADN, BSN, RN]

Nursing schools will accept anyone who has completed the prerequisites, regardless of what your previous degree may be. Many also have supplemental requirements, like previous healthcare experience (which it sounds like you have) or preference for those who are bilingual, etc. Contact the school you are interested, many post their requirements on the webpage of the nursing applicants section.

[jjjoy, LPN]

Yes, some university nursing programs don't start until what would typically be the third year of a four-year degree. So this kind of nursing program takes 2 years, but the pre-reqs and gen ed coursework equals another two years of full-time coursework. Since you already have an AA and have taken many nursing pre-reqs, you may not need to take any further classes to apply to such programs. Unfortunately, the requirements for application to nursing programs can vary considerably from school to school, so you have to get info on each different school and it's requirements. Specifically having already earned an AA is neither here nor there as long as you have the required pre-reqs done. After you get that figured out, then there's the next question... how difficult is it to get each of the programs. The competition can be fierce and there are always more students applying than there are seats in the program.

[hatingthewaiting]

If you know which Universities you are interested in, go directly to their websites and search their nursing department website. Specific info on their programs should be listed. UCF has an info session on Monday (Feb 1) which is required from what I could see on their website. That's a great place to get most your questions answered that weren't answered on their website.

Good Luck :)

[jess767]

You can apply to UCF's nursing program with an AA as long as you also have the prereqs. they require. I know that a general AA does not have everything you may need unless you happened to pick the ones they want. I have a friend that has a bachelors and she still needs to do a few more classes to meet requirements, I almost have an AA + an AS in nursing and I still need 6 more classes to transfer there for my bachelors. I don't have the website or phone number off hand but when I need to reference it I look it up through googling ucf nursing which leads you to a direct site instead of going through the UCF website. Hope this helps.

[Florida_Mom29]

I am in the exact same position as the original poster, and it was explained to me that if I go through a nursing program, I will end up with two associate's degrees, rather than moving toward a Bachelor's. Ugh, could have saved myself a lot of time and money and picked the correct career field from the get-go. On the plus side, my class load will be lighter while going for my nursing degree, as I don't have to do all the gen ed classes at the same time. Please let me know if you find out anything different!