Junior in high school, interested in becoming a nurse but confused!

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I want to be in a traditional 4 year program, preferably in Stony Brook. I don't think they have a specific "nursing program" (maybe they do, extremely confused) so I don't know I am to start my path to becoming a nurse :( Any help is appreciated, thank you!

Specializes in Med/Surg/Tele.
Ashamed? The economy and the job market will not be the same, if will be worst. We are already in hock to China and Japan. Hospitals will continue to cut back on staff. Hospitals of yesterdays non-profit are today's big business. How many nursing schools in this country turning out how many graduates. There is no nursing shortage. There is a nursing surplus. I told the OP to try and get a degree in business and computers. Then is she still wants to be a nurse go. She will be in much greater demand if she has some business along with nursing.

These are the hard facts. So OP follow your dream but keep in mind some reality about the business.

Yes, as I said you should be ashamed that you are discouraging a high school junior from pursuing their interest in Nursing.

Nursing is not the only job sector that is having trouble, the WHOLE COUNTRY AND ALL JOB FIELDS are stumbling right now. The chances of it being significantly better by the time the OP would be graduating are good. Getting a degree in Business is not going to be any more helpful than getting a nursing degree. How do I know this? I have a BA in Business Administration/ Management and a minor in HR. I have been unemployed for a year which is why I decided to go back to school to pursue my dream of becoming a nurse. (Good to know that you feel I will be in greater demand because of my business degree)

The OP is not going to finish Nursing school for at LEAST 5 years.... you, as a nurse have no way of knowing what the economy or job market is going to be like in 5 years unless you are also the head of the U.S Dept. of Commerce Bureau of Economic Analysis.

You are claiming that your post is the "hard facts" but there is not a nursing surplus everywhere in the country.

I think that anyone (not just you in particular) who discourages a high school student from pursuing a dream should be ashamed.

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Okay, I'm not comfortable with the personal judgments going on in this thread, everyone is entitled to their own opinion. This forum is not, contrary to popular belief, about exchanging harsh judgments. Sorry, OP, that you're seeing this- shouldn't happen. Let's all stop throwing around the criticism and nasty tone, shall we?

Here's my experience on the job search: I graduate in 5 weeks and was hired into a spectacular position last week. It's not in my ideal area (I'm a Californian, this job is in the northwest), but the pay is excellent, the unit ideal, and the cost of living very, very low. I will have no problems at all paying off my loans and starting an independent life- and I'm only 21. Years ahead of most of the people I graduated with!! This said, I'd already put out 20 applications in California, of which half were ignored and half got immediate (like, ten minutes later) rejection letters. The economy was just beginning to crash when I went to college, and we thought it would get better by the time I graduated...well, it didn't. But it didn't necessarily hurt me any, so I think your chances are good, even if things stay crappy. If you want to be a nurse, be a nurse! If you're looking at a program that'll require 2 years of prereqs, even better- work as a CNA and see if you like it. (Though, I didn't, and it worked out okay for me.) This is your call, and the beauty of being in high school is that you have all kinds of time to figure it out :) Just leave your options open while applying to colleges.

My experience in getting into nursing: I knew when I was a junior in high school that I wanted to be a nurse, too, so I applied only to schools with excellent nursing programs. If you're not sure that a school has a nursing program, you can check online under the majors they have offered. Or, if you're getting confused (I know I was!!), call and speak to the recruiter directly. They can tell you exactly how the process works, which classes you need to take before applying to the major, etc. I've found that the collegeboard.com was a great resource for me, but it has been 4 years since high school, so things may have changed! Your teachers and high school guidance counselor should be able to help a lot.

Ultimately, it's your decision, and you have time! Keep your options open by getting great grades, good SAT/ACT scores, and taking classes that may help down the line (like Anatomy and Physiology instead of Physics, for example, and Statistics instead of Calculus), and you should be just fine.

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Something else to consider- going out of state for your education. The college I am graduating from has an excellent nursing program, and it was not difficult to get into, if your grades are good. (I had a GPA of 3.5, I think, when I got in- minimum was 2.75, but no one ever gets into a program with that.) I know how impacted everything is in California, and I suspect it is the same, if not worse, in New York. Going out of state was the best thing I ever did, even if it means living somewhere that's not home for a few years. PM me if you want more information about my program! BSN, 4 year guarantee...

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What about volunteering and shadow nurses? This will allow the OP to take an informed decision. There is time for him/her to worry about different programs/admissions/etc. First thing first: make sure Nursing is the right path. I've talked with people that went into Nursing after being disappointed in other fields to discover that "Nursing wasn't what I was expecting either".

Just my two cents.

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I'd start by going on SUNY Stony Brook's website and reading about their nursing program. Do this with your parents so they can help you with how much it will cost, living in the dorms versus at home (if you're interested in SUNY SB I assume you're on Long Island?), and what the requirements are for a general SUNY application and what pre-reqs you need to take to be eligible for the nursing program.

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It may sound really harsh, but it's better to lay it on thick about some of the unpleasant realities and not give the OP a romanticized idea of how wonderful the nursing field is. Actually it IS wonderful.....however, telling a prospective student to ignore all the negativities is doing them a disservice and might set them up for serious disappointment at some point. It's going to take a tremendous amount of determination, focus, and dedication just to make it through nursing school and all that is required to become a nurse....after that it will take just as much determination to find a job. Better to know what to expect right up front than be surprised to find out later that it wasn't what they thought it would be like, so it's not a matter of discouraging a potential future nurse from going into the field -- it's a matter of getting them to research the situation and do some soul-searching about whether or not they REALLY want to do it. What the nursing field needs more than anything right now is people who really really really want to be there.

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Specializes in Peds Medical Floor.

When you graduate from high school, you should get a job and training as a CNA so you can get a good idea of what a nurse does all day. You can see nurses up close, see what they do, and you'll gain practical knowledge that will help you out. You can also earn money working PRN or 2 days a week while in nursing school. It will help you get a job after you graduate too.

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Specializes in General Surgery.
It may sound really harsh, but it's better to lay it on thick about some of the unpleasant realities and not give the OP a romanticized idea of how wonderful the nursing field is. Actually it IS wonderful.....however, telling a prospective student to ignore all the negativities is doing them a disservice and might set them up for serious disappointment at some point. It's going to take a tremendous amount of determination, focus, and dedication just to make it through nursing school and all that is required to become a nurse....after that it will take just as much determination to find a job. Better to know what to expect right up front than be surprised to find out later that it wasn't what they thought it would be like, so it's not a matter of discouraging a potential future nurse from going into the field -- it's a matter of getting them to research the situation and do some soul-searching about whether or not they REALLY want to do it. What the nursing field needs more than anything right now is people who really really really want to be there.

Couldn't have said this any better myself! It's going on eight years for me to get where I'm at right now in my third semester of nursing school. I am hungry for it, I WANT to be a nurse, I genuinely love it but it IS a hard job and profession, REALLY challenging more times than not but I find equally rewarding.

I agree with other posters to try and shadow/volunteer at a hospital to get a real sense of what a day in the life of a nurse is like. Then, it really helps to get a job at a hospital say as a CNA which of course will not guarantee you a position upon passing NCLEX, but it sure does help a ton.

Hope this helps!

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Specializes in ICU.
They still hire new grads in eastern PA with BSN's rather quickly.(I believe Stony Brook U in PA is where OP is referring to)

When the current bill gets voted down and as the economy slowly picks up, while the mean age keeps rising, their will again be a need for nurses like there always has in the past. This need will grow over the next ~10 years.

-jmo

I agree, the economy obviously had a large impact on jobs the last few years, but the population is going to continue to age, and all the older nurses who decided not to retire currently, eventually will have to, there will be a need again.

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