How important is experience?

[hellosun]

Hi everyone! I'm a new member but have been reading many of the threads on this site for a while now and LOVE how helpful it has been!

Anyway... I have a weird situation. I have always thought about nursing but for some reason never really felt like I could take "the plunge" and become a nursing or pre-nursing student. I just didn't know enough about nursing in high school and thought it was too late to change my mind once I got to college.

After pursuing a pre-veterinary track for the past 3 years I have FINALLY decided to go with nursing! I just couldn't get over my desire to work with people (more than animals) in the medical field and on a personal level. I will be applying to ABSN and Direct Entry programs in the Boston area starting this fall (graduating with my degree in my current major spring '13) and hopefully starting a program next fall '13!

My question is this.. How important is experience for getting into a program? I currently have a 3.52 GPA, plenty of experience shadowing veterinarians and will be shadowing several nurses this summer for about 10 hrs/week. I don't have any hospital volunteer experience, but will my experiences shadowing nurses be enough? I also consider my experience shadowing vets important because it introduced me to the medical field and communicating with clients is what showed me that I want to be helping people.

Any advice!?

[lovedijah]

I think it all depends on what program you apply to. I've seen direct entry programs that won't consider you unless you are a CNA. I've seen some applications where there is no space to even write that you have experience.

I think it all depends on the program. Since you are ahead of the game you can always look into specific programs and see what they want and go from there. You can also just flat out email them and ask what they look for and what they consider. A program I applied to only takes the highest TEAS scores. They don't care about anything else (besides 3.0 GPA).

[hellosun]

Thanks for your advice! A couple of my top choices strongly recommend it so I will definitely follow up with them. Do you mind me asking what state your from? All of the programs I have been looking at don't mention the TEAS, they ask for the GRE scores to be sent instead. I'm wondering if it's a regional thing?

Thanks again!