I want to be a nurse, any advice will be greatly appreciated

[tykanna]

Hi everyone,

I attended a design school for my freshman year, but I took a risky step by deciding to take a year off to explore other options. I am interested in becoming a RN, then eventually getting my masters to become a nurse anesthetist. However, I have zero personal experience in nursing, and in Korea it is very difficult to do job shadowing/volunteer work for nursing without some sort of diploma or past experience! Can anyone tell me what it is like being a RN and nurse anesthetist? What exactly do you do?

And I realize that the road to becoming an RN is a longer than I assumed. And I didn't take any science classes my freshman year at design college. I am wondering if you guys know any good colleges where I could get my prerequisites? Am I supposed to apply as undecided? Or is there a special "prerequisite program for nursing" offered? Also, I wanted to transfer to JHU eventually. I know its hard, but a girl can always dream can't she? What is the shortest route to becoming an RN? What are the pros and cons of a career as a RN? How long would it take to satisfy the prerequisites for nursing school? Any other related advice would be GREATLY appreciated thank you!

PS- FYI I am 19 years old, I got okay grades in hs (took several APs), 1970 in my SAT, was in NAHS and NHS, tutored kids english, Varsity cross-country, etc etc. However the problem is I didn't get very good grades in science- biology I got B-s and Cs, and the school actually told me my grades were not good enough for chemistry, so they made me take physical science, but I got As in physical science and environmental science. For math, i failed pre-algebra (i think i got a C-) (i was going thru a rough period in my life) so i had to take 2 math classes one year to catch up (and i got A's and B's!) and took pre-calc (A+). Do you think I have what it takes to get into a decent nursing school? Thank you so much again!!!

[KeepnItReal]

There are core classes u have to take, go to the schools you are interested in and look up what classes are required in order to appy. Also find a local hospital and try to sign up to be a volunteer,that will be a good experience for you and look great on the application. I already had a degree so I had about half my pre-reqs done from this, but it took me about 1.5 years to get my other ones done and now I have 7 months to go to graduate from an accelerated msn program. Also once you get in start looking for an externship, if you can't get that then at least get a CNA/PCA/TP position(there are a bunch of names for this)..it's all about getting in the hospital system,opens up to you all the internal nursing positions for when u graduate..here in Southern CA the competition is fierce..ok if u have more questions I can shoot you my email..start digging around online on the school sites, nursing is hard work but really rewarding