Hello and good morning peeps (EST), I am now a LPN! I am happier than ever, BUT I want to ask those of you who became RN's when is the best time to go back to school? How did it work out for you? I don't want to wait too long but I also want to go get some experience somewhere as an LPN. If you have any advice, it will be appreciated!
I have heard a lot of people who wait to go back to school for a while cannot pass the exam!
Congratulations on your LPN! I'm excited to hear that you are already looking into RN school too!
It will ultimately depend on what type of RN program you are looking into and what their time requirement is as far as being face-to-face. You might have a program that will have a few "off days;" that would allow you to work. My story is that I went from EMT to LVN then to RN/BSN and then NP/DNP, and each time I worked through each program. It worked out well for me because I was getting the "nursing experience" of what I was trained for while going back to school. This helps as once you go for your job interviews as an RN, you can come in with "nursing experience." I recommend to go continuously without a too long of a period of time in between programs. But only do this if you think you can handle working and going to school as you don't want your grades to slip. Depending on what specialty/unit you can find a job in, maybe working three 12 hour shifts will allow you to go to school the other 4, even though, as you already know, nursing school is a 7 day a week (with ample breaks) gig. :)
Were you able to work and go to school? I'm thinking you must have to have a good support system to do both.
I work 36 hrs/week working every weekend and then 1 day through the week that I'm off from school. I have a very supportive family but would still have no problem getting by paying bills if I didn't have him. I guess if I had kids I'd be a different story.
Thank you guys. I really appreciate your insight. I don't have much of a support system right now so it might be tough on me. I am going back as soon as I can because I'm so ready to learn more. I want to know as much as I can! I'm 20, so I have a little time!
Specializes in Critical Care, Med-Surg, Psych, Geri, LTC, Tele,.
Hello and good morning peeps (EST), I am now a LPN! I am happier than ever, BUT I want to ask those of you who became RN's when is the best time to go back to school? How did it work out for you? I don't want to wait too long but I also want to go get some experience somewhere as an LPN. If you have any advice, it will be appreciated!
I have heard a lot of people who wait to go back to school for a while cannot pass the exam!
Thanks guys!
I went straight into my final semester of RN prereqs as soon as I graduated from LVN / LPN school. (3 month gap)
The way the 1st application period and start date for the LVN-RN program worked out, it was approx 18 months later that i started the LVN/LPN-RN program. I'd worked for about a year.
School is hard. But I'm a good student, so the academic portion isn't that difficult.
The hardest part has been learning to be a student. In school, the focus is writing up good cart plans and case studies and chart reviews. As a working nurse, I'm more used to getting pt care completed. These are not the same!
I tried to go back for my RN as soon as I could, unfortunately when I transferred from the tech program to my community college, I had to do some pre-reqs (even though I was on the "fast track LPN to RN".. which really was kinda BS anyway). So, it took literally a total of four years to get my RN and just ADN (I was done with pre-reqs in a year and a half but then had to wait like another 6 months before I could even get into the program). Though I would have made some changes, I think it was kind of nice getting that much experience as an LPN in between. In all honesty, I think it helped being an LPN because you kinda get the basics down. For when us LPNs transferred into the program, I think only maybe 2 out of 10 had to re-take NCLEX.
DrJamesMorganDNP
1 Post
Congratulations on your LPN! I'm excited to hear that you are already looking into RN school too!
It will ultimately depend on what type of RN program you are looking into and what their time requirement is as far as being face-to-face. You might have a program that will have a few "off days;" that would allow you to work. My story is that I went from EMT to LVN then to RN/BSN and then NP/DNP, and each time I worked through each program. It worked out well for me because I was getting the "nursing experience" of what I was trained for while going back to school. This helps as once you go for your job interviews as an RN, you can come in with "nursing experience." I recommend to go continuously without a too long of a period of time in between programs. But only do this if you think you can handle working and going to school as you don't want your grades to slip. Depending on what specialty/unit you can find a job in, maybe working three 12 hour shifts will allow you to go to school the other 4, even though, as you already know, nursing school is a 7 day a week (with ample breaks) gig. :)