Getting into nursing school(scared)

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Hello:

I have a bachelors of arts in psychology and looking to change my career to nursing. I worked about five years in social service and the money was less than 23,000 a year. I am a single mother of three children under 10. I would like to go into mental health nursing because I love psychology.

I am a little scare that I am not smart enough to go to nursing school. I am not good in math. I love science, but not the math part. I am a little scare of taking board exams.

The start salary of a RN is more than I will make in 3 years of social service employment. I know that I will make a good nurse because I know how it feels to be sick. Some nurses are not very caring to the sick.

I am thinking about purchasing the NCLEX-RN study guide by Peter Morrison founder of NCLEX-RN Secrets. Is the study guide worth purchasing for the pre-exam?

Should I go to the LPN program first?

Need Help,

moon30

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Specializes in ER.
Hello:

I have a bachelors of arts in psychology and looking to change my career to nursing. I worked about five years in social service and the money was less than 23,000 a year. I am a single mother of three children under 10. I would like to go into mental health nursing because I love psychology.

I am a little scare that I am not smart enough to go to nursing school. I am not good in math. I love science, but not the math part. I am a little scare of taking board exams.

The start salary of a RN is more than I will make in 3 years of social service employment. I know that I will make a good nurse because I know how it feels to be sick. Some nurses are not very caring to the sick.

I am thinking about purchasing the NCLEX-RN study guide by Peter Morrison founder of NCLEX-RN Secrets. Is the study guide worth purchasing for the pre-exam?

Should I go to the LPN program first?

Need Help,

moon30

There are a lot of study guides out there - unfortunately, only a few are for the entrance exams. I'm still anticipating my first attempt at the entrance exam, but I have found that the NCLEX-RN study guides are a little too advanced to understand at this point, so they aren't really very helpful. Most of the testing is based on word problems - to test for critical thinking. If the critical thinking section is full of terminology you don't yet understand or have experience with, it could make your score come out way lower than it should be. NCLEX study guides assume that you have already been through nursing school - and you haven't. There are a few nursing entrance exam study guides though - do a search at barnes and noble or whatever your favorite book store is. Also, check with the nursing program you want to go into, my program has several NET test study guides on reserve in the library that you can check out for a week at a time. I took one out and went to kinko's and made copies of the whole thing so I could write my own notes and scribbles all over it, and could study longer. Check about what test your school uses too - it would be horrible to study really hard for the wrong test. I got a study guide at B&N that was really complex, for pre-RN and allied health entrance tests. I studied for a while, and got kind of overwhelmed. Then I got the NET study guide, and took their practice test - and aced it. Apparently, the NET is easier than the tests in the guide I bought. I lucked out, but I would hate for it to go the other way. Good luck, believe in yourself. You have a degree in psychology - you are definetly smart enough to make it in nursing!

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Go for it ! Don't be scared. I suk in math too. :)

Z

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Specializes in NICU.

Well, I know just how you feel - literally! I too am employed with Social Services (I'm an eligibility tech/case mgr. for a tiny county where I handle all cash assistance, food & Medicaid progs.) and know that I am supposed to be a nurse. I was headed for a Bachelor's of Science in Human Services/Management - but figured if I'm going to spend the time and money in school, it might as well be to attain something I love. :) Luckily, I have made it through 2 Algebra classes and, although I consider myself to be horrible at math - I actually pulled A-'s. The trick is to study, study, study! I think it gets easier as we get older - things that were too complicated for our minds are no longer. If you can work at Social Services, you have a good brain and you will survive. Perhaps we can drag each other through this - I have 3 prereqs I have to complete before I can apply to the ADN program, but hope to by next year. ;)

Hello:

I have a bachelors of arts in psychology and looking to change my career to nursing. I worked about five years in social service and the money was less than 23,000 a year. I am a single mother of three children under 10. I would like to go into mental health nursing because I love psychology.

I am a little scare that I am not smart enough to go to nursing school. I am not good in math. I love science, but not the math part. I am a little scare of taking board exams.

The start salary of a RN is more than I will make in 3 years of social service employment. I know that I will make a good nurse because I know how it feels to be sick. Some nurses are not very caring to the sick.

I am thinking about purchasing the NCLEX-RN study guide by Peter Morrison founder of NCLEX-RN Secrets. Is the study guide worth purchasing for the pre-exam?

Should I go to the LPN program first?

Need Help,

moon30

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Specializes in Med-Surg.

All you need right now is the will and the desire. You already know that you can handle youreself on a college level.

Many people who struggle with math made it through nursing and you can too. Good luck. :)

Since you have a BA already, you have some coursework that will be useful for the RN. I would go the RN route, rather than the LPN.

Good luck.

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