High interest. Little knowledge. Please help!

[ERIC Matthew]

I am brand new to this site but after reading many posts and comments, I realized this is my best bet to get the questions and input I desire.

I am 26 and am finishing my 8 years of military service in 4 months. That being said I have been out of school for quite a while. Although I have gained some life experiences on several different levels, I am 100% new to beings a "civilian". I often spent many sleepless nights laying in bed starring at the ceiling trying to think what I wanted to do with my life as I watched friends on Facebook go to college, graduate, get jobs, and begin their lives. I often questioned myself on where I sat in life. After sitting down with a career counselor and taking a variety of tests, nursing was the one career that stood out the most. The more I thought about it the more interested I became and am now dead set on wanting to become one. It has eased my anxiety of not knowing what I wanted to do when I got out but as the date of separation approaches I am starting to become anxious. Ive been getting anxiety and again I lay here, another sleepless night realizing I know very little about the process. So as of right now, I know I will be moving to Arlington, Virginia area. I was looking at applying to Northern Virginia Community College trying to get into their ASN program, and after two years they guarentee acceptance to a large amount of universities. I am hoping 1.) that I will be accepted to the ASN program and 2.) when I do transfer to a university they accept me in their BSN program. What other advice do you guys have as far as advice, knowledge, guidance, what to expect, am I getting ahead of myself or skipping steps, etc.

Also I am just now learning about the TEAS exam. At what point do I need to take it, when and how should I prepare for it. I am hoping to start school in the fall of 2017. Again, I am highly interested in this career, I just know so very little about it and this site seems the best at helping others.

Thanks!

[angeloublue22, BSN, RN]

Thank you for your service. Yes, you are getting ahead of yourself. The best thing to do is to contact the school you want to go to and ask about the steps that are needed to get in. Then make a checklist (believe me, checklists are nurses' friends anyway, so you might as well get started now) with all the steps you need and do them one at a time. For the TEAS test, I just looked up study help online. I knew my problem was going to be math so I used a website meant for middle schoolers to refresh myself, took notes and did all the practice math tests. Your school advisor should walk you through what you need. It may seem overwhelming at first because it was for me but I learned to break things down into steps, which another good nursing skill. It makes the big task not as overwhelming. Congratulations are your decision, try to take it easy on yourself, changes can be hard and scary but also exciting. I hope I helped. Good luck!