hesitant - making a big change into nursing?

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Hello.

I'm new here and a bit desperate for advice or opinions, so please throw absolutely anything you've got my way... :twocents:

My background is... I'm 27 and at a crossroads in my life. I graduated from Columbia University undergrad in 2004 with a BA in political science. My undergrad academic credentials are heavy on poli sci (obviously), international relations, philosophy, and writing... College was a tumultuous time for me to say the least and I didn't apply myself as I should've. Finished with a 2.9 GPA overall, 3-something in my major.

Followed that up by pulling myself together and spending 2 years in the Peace Corps, then another 2 years working in international relations in Asia. I'm now back in the US, living with my parents in Utah, where they retired to from the midwest while I was overseas.

A logical next step for me would be law school. I've taken the LSAT and gotten an excellent score. I'm certain that I could get into a decent law school despite my less than stellar GPA.

What I'd rather do though, I think, is become a midwife. The birthing process and mothers and babies are just simply what I want to be around. I prefer the hands on humanness to being chained to a desk/computer, and I'm naturally a nurturing type.

I've been looking into second career in nursing programs. Apparently I will be shut-out of places like Cincinnati or UCSF that require a 3.0 GPA, but I guess I have a chance at others, like UMich:

http://www.nursing.umich.edu/academics/second_career/index.html

There are so many prerequisites (some of which are courses that weren't even offered at my university) ... it's almost as if these programs aren't really designed for people pursuing an entirely new direction as I would be. Why don't they just include all of the necessary courses in the programs themselves?

I also balk a bit at the fact that there's no gold-standard set of pre-nursing courses as there is with pre-med -- every school seems to have a different set of prerequisites. So I guess the way to go about this is to pick ONE school, enroll in undergraduate prereq classes there, then bank everything on being accepted into their nursing program. Is that right? It just sounds sooo risky. I feel like I'd really be up a creek if this didn't work out.

On the other hand, it sounds so promising that I could potentially become a midwife in 3 years in a combined program.

My dream is to work in California, but I'm afraid of (1) liability being a problem with midwifery, (2) not earning enough to stay afloat, and (3) being shut-out for not being bilingual in Spanish...

Can I make this work? Is it likely that I could be catching babies in 3-4 years?

Or are my chances too slim? I'm single and don't have much money or extra time to gamble on this, so I only want to give it a go if I have a decent shot.

Thoughts?

Anything I'm failing to see?

Thanks!

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Specializes in Neonatal ICU (Cardiothoracic).
Hello.

Can I make this work? Is it likely that I could be catching babies in 3-4 years?

Probably not. By the time you finish up all your prereqs and make it through a direct-entry Masters program, it will be longer than 3-4 years.

Most biological science majors can get into direct-entry Master's programs. You however are pol sci, which is not based in biological sciences. So you may even have to get your BSN first, then go for your MSN. Or you may be able to do all the prereqs are do a masters entry program. Either way you are looking at a significant time investment. This is assuming you can afford to do this full-time. Part-time will take longer.

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Thanks for the feedback. I would be able to study full-time for up to 4 years.

I guess what initially lead me to believe it was possible was the FAQ here...

http://www.midwife.org/faq_for_students.cfm#q6

The UMich Program makes it look like it's possible to get a BSN in a year (and then directly enter the midwifery masters) ... but I'm a bit of a doubting Thomas...seems too good to be true. Their catch is that they have quite a lot of pre-reqs. UCSF, by contrast, requires only 3 courses.

http://www.nursing.umich.edu/academics/second_career/index.html

The Michigan Board of Nursing has approved the University of Michigan School of Nursing Second Career 12-Month Accelerated program. The Second Career Program started at the UM School of Nursing (Ann Arbor campus) in Fall 2004.

The Second Career Nursing Program is ideal if you already have a bachelor's or advanced degree in a field other than nursing, and you've decided you want to make an important career shift into nursing. You can complete a BSN degree and prepare for the Registered Nurse licensing exam in 12 months.

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Specializes in Critical Care, Education.

hyggeligt,

Just wanted to address your question about the pre-reqs - as to why they aren't rolled into the nursing curriculum. We (nursing) have very specific faculty requirements for clinical courses.. including faculty qualifications and ratio of students to faculty. Basic sciences, on the other hand - can be taught by any that meets the college/university requirements.

If you've been lurking around this list for a while, you understand that one of the most critical challenges facing us now and in the future is a lack of qualified faculty. So - you see why we are so picky. In order to spread our very teensy faculty resources - we have to limit access to those courses to ONLY people who can make the grade - literally and figuratively.

So sorry about the BA-BS issue, but it is a common one. Anyone making the switch pretty much has to start over because - although we can appreciate a broad knowledge base - life sciences are the basis of our profession.

Just out of curiousity - what convinced you that midwifery was your calling? Me - I have stayed as far from OB over the years as humanly possible.

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I see what you are saying. Of course becoming a nurse shouldn't be easy, but I sure do wish it was more accessible than it is from my angle, ie for people who really want to make a career shift and are willing to invest the sweat and brain power.

Since the second career in nursing programs are run by major universities, it seems like it would be sensical for them to offer an option where upon matriculation in the program you start off with studying whatever they deem to be the necessary life-science core, taught by science professors at that uni (alongside regular undergrads), then presuming that you do well enough, you move on to the specific nursing courses taught by nursing faculty. I mean, what non-nursing BA/BS holder has taken courses like "family concepts" or "lifespan growth" ? (Those didn't even exist at my university.)

The way things stand... theoretically I could I move to Ann Arbor and enroll in the undergrad prerequisite courses at UMich with hopes of getting into the Michigan program cited above, be getting 4.0s in all of them, put in an application, and still potentially be rejected... and then if that happened, I couldn't do anything but wait and apply to UMich again, since every program has different pre-reqs. That's a major deterrent. I don't think it's affordable for most people who already have degrees/careers.

These second career in nursing programs advertise how they're open to people with any BA/BS, but their set-ups appear as if they're really only looking to collect med school flunkies.

----------------------

As for why, hmm... I've always been instinctually drawn to it. Always watched the TLC shows obsessively. Back when I was in HS I was sure that I wanted to go to med school and become an OB. Volunteered at a hospital and worked in an internist's office every summer. But every time I got a female doctor to talk to me honestly... she basically said RUN, don't go to med school, being a doctor sucks.

I ended up pursuing another direction academically. Then while working over the past 4 years I had the chance to both be very involved with the nurturing of women and children, and to sit at a desk in an office pushing papers from 8-5. Greatly preferred the former. Being with a close friend through her pregnancy last year solidified that midwifery was what I wanted to pursue.

I also like that it might allow me to do more aid work abroad at some point and that it's a career where it wouldn't be a problem for me to have several children of my own.

* FWIW, I've found that Yale actually has no absolute pre-req courses:

http://nursing.yale.edu/Academics/GEPN/admission.html#admission

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