Please tell me your story about your journy becoming a nurse?

registerednutrn, BSN, RN · Sep 16, 2008

It took me 5 or 6 semesters to get my prerequisites done but I was going part time. Since i completed all prerequisites prior to applying to the program I was able to start right away. There really is no waiting list at the college I attended but they go completely by your grades and how many prerequisites you have completed. The average student that was accepted in the program I was in had a 3.85 GPA and all prerequisites done. Nursing classes took a total of 5 semesters from intro to graduation. The program I attended was very hard and there were many times that I was ready to quit but with support from my family and friends I was able to make it through. All I can really tell you is don't give up. It may take time but you will reach your goal. Good luck in school.

Kurious RN · Sep 16, 2008

My story is short. I studied like a maniac for 2 years to get my Nursing degree. I graduated Cum Laude, passed the NCLEX-RN on my first try, and now I can't find a job.

Most hospitals required at least six month of experience and other hospitals are not hiring new grads at the moment. I have never had this problem in my life. I have great references and I'm a good employee. I'm so dissapointed....

smagana1436 · Sep 16, 2008

Thank you very much for answering I though I was never going to get an answer from anyone! You are so lucky to not have waited on a wait list!

Best of luck

Sara

NightshiftRN69 · Sep 16, 2008

I passed NCLEX 20 years after dropping out of high in the 11th grade because I was pregant. I dreamed of being a nurse but never really let myself believe I would ever become one. As I said I dropped out of high school half way through the 11th grade because I was pregant. I did get my GED by the time I would have had my deploma but, the first 18 years after that were so hard. 10 years in an abusive marriage, even homeless at one point. In 2003 after having to move a thousand miles away from our family my husband(#2) would not allow me to just talk about going to college any more. I went to the local community college and said "I want to be a nurse". The signed me up for A & P I and II for the summer session. Some how we managed to pay for it and child care and I passed both. I then began to believe maybe I might be able to do this after all. I took all the basic classes over the next two semsters and applied for the ADN program (once each semster) even though I knew and hoped I couldn't get in. Then I a month before classes were to start for the fall of 04 I called to find out if the letters had been sent out because I didn't even get the "sorry but" letter. I found out that I had been choosen and I had only til the end of that week to accept or I would have lost my place. I was one of 300 who had applied and only 75 were picked. I of course accepted and then began to try to figure out how I was going to pay for the books and school and everything. I had been told about a program that the fed and local goverment had called WIA it is a work force improvment program to help build the economy by improving the education of citizens (you have to go through the unemployment office to apply for it and you must already be accepted to certain degree programs). Then school was only a week away and had not heard from the case worker so I called her and again found out I was the last to be picked for the program they would pay my tutition and booksuntil I graduated as long as I didn't fail at any time. Well at that point I knew I was meant to be a nurse. Some how while basicly being a single parent (my husband worked a job where he was away more than at home) with no family around and no friends except one or two girls I met while I was in school and care for my 4 yr old son and traveling cross country multiple times to care for my mother who had a terminal illness I managed to maintain a 3.0 in my program. I walked the stage in May of 06, my mother passed in June, I passed NCLEX and moved 1000 miles back to where my husband and I started in july,and started my first job in Sept as a RN. I believe if I was able to become a nurse anyone can if you are truely meant to be one. Good luck to you.

elizabeth8503RN, MSN, EMT-B, NP · Sep 16, 2008

I was in 4th grade when I descided I wanted to be a doctor. My mom was very supportive...when I was a junior in high school she told me...maybe I should go into nursing...that way if I decided that being a doctor wasn't for me I would have something to fall back on instead of a 4 yrs wasted and no career. I took a college apititued test and passed, and a compass test that was scored and entered into a computer...and two days after I graduated from high school I started my LPN year...I was 17 and the youngest in my class. I had no friends...but the support of my mother to help me through my classes. I won't lie to you it was hard.

I went through my classes with not alot of difficulty...it was the clinicals that I had the most trouble with...at the very last of my clinicals...my instructor told me that I had not passed...that I should have expected this...and that "Maybe you should choose a different profession"...She all but told me that I was too young to be a nurse and that I needed to grow up...I was heartbroken...for about three weeks I cried...then I got mad...so I took prerequesits for my RN/BSN year...then I took my final clinical over again... and passed.

During the 9 months that I took my prerequesits for my RN/BSN year...I did some "growing up"...and I did mature some...I worked as a CNA...but I never let what my instructor say stop me from keeping me from doing what I wanted to do....and...when I took those clinicals over again...I had that exact same clinical instructor that flunked me...SHE NEVER SAID A SINGLE WORD TO ME WHEN I WENT IN TO SIGN MY PAPERS THAT SAID I PASSED

My next obstical that I had to overcome: Trying to get into my RN classes...

While taking my final clinicals over again....I reapplied for my RN...(I got accepted during my first go around before I flunked my clinicals)...I never got any answers...yes...no...maybe...waiting list...nothing...

I called the head of the nursing program several times...left messages...no callbacks...untill...finally...she answered and said that the reason that I didn't get into the RN program was because I had not taken the compass test...I told her that I had taken the compass test back in 2003 and that the scores should be in the computer....She couldn't find the results...I had to call the number of the place where I had first taken the compass in the first place...have them re-enter the results...call her back...and hope that there was still a spot in the RN program...IT WAS A MESS

Luckily I had my dad (you have to remember that I was only 18 at this time...) went directly to the President of the college...he said "I have some questions, complaints, and concerns, CALL ME BACK." Within two days of the phone call I had my choice of the day or night program.... The day of the phone call it was a week before classes started...

But those were only a few of my obsticals that I faced during my nursing school...

IF YOU BELIEVE IN YOUR HEART THAT YOU SHOULD BE A NURSE....THEN DO IT...DON'T LET ANYONE STOP YOU...IT IS YOUR CHOICE AND YOUR CHOICE ALONE TO MAKE THAT DECISION...GO FOR IT...

whipping girl in 07, RN · Sep 17, 2008

1992-95: I bounced through several majors before settling on nursing. Then I got into my second choice school (RN, BSN) unexpectedly but hadn't completed 2 of my prerequisites, micro and world history. I went to summer school (1995), micro in the first session and nursing classes in the second, and didn't have any time off or enough time or motivation to finish my world history correspondence. My husband was in the army reserve at the time, in basic training and then AIT when I was going to summer school and I got cold feet and quit nursing school on the first day of the fall semester. There was a full time opening in the admissions office where I worked, I took it and by Christmas I was regretting it and decided to apply for nursing school again. Joe was home and working full time. I got in again, and they had dropped the requirement for world history. The second day of the fall semester (1996) my grandfather died. The second week I found out I was pregnant. I was taking 7 classes and working 4 nights a week and struggling with morning sickness and basically blew off a 1 credit hour class. I figured I wing it, but I made a D so I couldn't continue. I was going to have to sit out the next semester, retake the one class the next and then be a year behind my class. But we got into some serious financial problems and had to move in with my husband's parents after the baby was born. My husband went to work for his brother-in-law, on the road, and I applied to the local community college ADN program (1998). I had just found out I'd gotten in when my husband told me he'd been offered a promotion but we'd have to move out of state to the city where the home office was. More money...so we moved. I looked into the nursing school where I was moving, and signed up to take one of the two prerequisites they required in the fall. The day before school started, my baby sitter quit and I did not have time to find anyone to watch my kid, so I had to drop my class. I found someone by November and took both prerequisites in the spring and was able to start nursing school in the fall semester 1999. I graduated December 2001. It took me nearly 10 years. I had nearly 200 credit hours and over $30K in student loans. It was a long road, but it was worth it, and I would not change my experience. So if you want it bad enough, you'll find a way.

Good luck to you.

MissAnthrope · Sep 17, 2008

I consider my journey to be nothing less than divine intervention - seriously.

I went to LPN school at the age of twenty while I was living with my boyfriend (later husband) who was an albatross around my neck, in every way imaginable. You never see that at the time, though. I was dirt poor at the time, supporting myself, this man, and my 14 year old brother. I guess to my credit I kept the same CNA job I'd had for 2 years and didn't let my personal life affect my career too much. Basically I allowed my codependence on this man to overshadow my goal of becoming a nurse, and I flunked out, because I stopped caring. Looking back now I'm glad it happened this way, because I then got married to this man and we had a child, and I did a lot of growing up over the next three years.

My husband went to jail, yes, jail, for probation revocation for a solid year...and during that time I started taking my prereqs when I discovered that my employer would pay for prereqs and nursing school 100% with a post graduation contract. I started school in Jan of 05, and five days later told my husband I wanted him to move out and that I wanted a divorce. If that's not timing, I don't know what is, haha.

Consequently, I had to work every available hour I could. I got no child support - didn't go after it, really because I knew he wouldnt pay anyway - and I went to school 40 hours a week and worked 24 hours. I would go to school from 8 to 4, work from 5-9 or 5-11, then come home and study until perhaps 1 or 2 am while squeezing in laundry, time with my son, housecleaning, and some part of socialization just to keep me sane. Even then there still wasn't enough money to pay the bills. My landlord was a family friend so to speak and allowed me (whether out of pity or resignation, haha) to pay him what I could. After my first semester, my mother asked to move in with me in an attempt to straighten her life out while in addiction recovery and my little sister came along with the process...I couldn't say no - I needed the in house 24/7 babysitting too badly. But that was not without its own stresses as well.

My third semester of school my car was repossessed (the one with the broken driver's window and brakes that barely worked LOL) and let me tell you, if you think nobody misses you, try missing two car payments. It was tax time and it just so happened that my refund was, lacking ten dollars, the exact amount I needed to get my car back. Add to this in my stress and loneliness I became semi-involved with another Mr. Wrong, yet again.

Despite all this, I indeed graduated that year with Honors and I daresay a lot of admiration from my friends, classmates, colleagues, and family. And I took my first RN paycheck and spent it all on myself and my son..haha...I don't know that many other moments besides the birth of my son can compare to my forking over that money at the Wal-Mart register...the feeling of having and doing something for myself finally, and knowing that I had SURVIVED on strength of will and courage of conviction.

I don't write this to show off or brag on how great I was...the emotional hell of those two years really showed me where my weaknesses lay more than anything....but I wanted the OP and others to know that it CAN be done. If you can push all excuses and self-pity aside, acknowledge your mistakes and learn from them, and find even a single crumb of self esteem in your sorrowful body, then you truly can do anything, and I feel that I am living proof. I'm happy to say shortly after I graduated that I met the most wonderful man in the world who treats me like a goddess, and loves my son, and I make good decisions, and I am fully committed to my patients, my job, and my own well-being (for a change, LOL).

Nursing school is hell, plain and simple, but two years is a very short time compared to the "afterlife" of financial and emotional security you will achieve. Best of luck to you and everyone walking this road!

Virgo_RN, BSN, RN · Sep 17, 2008

I was a high school dropout and a teen mom. After the birth of my second child, I got my GED and went to community college and got an Associate's, then went to work in local broadcasting. I tired of that job when I began to feel that my work made no bit of difference to the world in general. It took me nearly five years from when I made the decision to quit my job and go back to school to become a nurse until graduation day. I worked as a CNA during nursing school, went through a divorce, raised two teenage daughters, and kept a roof over our heads even though I couldn't afford to. My ex-husband always told me how smart I was and how he believed in me and supported me, yet his actions told me otherwise. He would not lift a finger or do anything even slightly inconvenient for himself in order to take any of the load off of me. I made it through sheer force of will, and it was the hardest thing I've ever done. But I did it, and you can too. Good luck!