Graduating!!!

I am a 2nd degree student who has changed careers. I have a B.A. in another field and went through an ABSN program. I'm skipping both our Nursing Commencement ceremony (called Honors Commencement, which includes BSNs, MSNs, DNPs, & PhDs) earlier this coming May and the entire school Commencement (which includes the Med school, Nursing depart, Health Sciences, etc, etc.) which is later this May.

I plan to go back for my MSN, so I'll go to my Commencement for that achievement. Right now, attending Pinning will suffice.

I live up North and before we graduated, our class time was spent getting advice from a nurse manager. She told us that she receives hundreds of resumes and she will not hire a new grad nurse without their license over a new grad who has their RN. Jobs are tough up here. So, she advised us to apply when we've passed our NCLEX. Some students who graduated the previous semester had their jobs saved for them because they were working as a PCA/tech in their hospital. So, yeah that's what I'm doing now. This may not be the case everywhere else around the country, but in my area, that is the best route unless you have connections.

Well best of luck to you! Not sure if you know this or not but the AACN is advocating a doctorate degree to practice as a nurse practioner by the year 2015! I think I've heard some states have already adopted this practice!

I've heard about it since I a pre-nursing student. My school just started a BSN-to-DNP for peds this year. They eventually will open it up to different specialties. The program is 4 years part-time and they award the MSN half way through the program. This type of program is something I will be very interesting in doing in the future. Some schools have gotten rid of their MSN programs. I'm not worrying about it until I've crossed that bridge.