junior in highschool trying to become RN

trynabenurse · Jan 1, 2015

I'd like information on tea tests? And selection process of community colleges for nursing

what must my grades be? How long will pre nursing class take along with actual nursing classes , how do I up my chances of being selected . Can I start now? Should I take ap classes or do classes at a local college over summer?

guest769224 · Jan 1, 2015

Yes, you can start now! Nursing school admissions are very completive, so try your very best to keep your grades up. You're already doing great!

If you'd like to become an RN soon as possible, I recommend taking some college prerequisites during your senior year of high school. That's what I did! You will be ahead of the game. Do not take advanced placement, as I have heard they don't not count as prerequisites for nursing school. Might as well take them now!

Basic English, stats, human development, etc.

You could take A/P over the summer, just make sure you get at least a B+ in them. That will keep you competitive. And don't take them at the same time! It's too much to handle.

If you begin now, you can likely become an RN within 3 years from now. Go into the programs that interest you, and ask them what classes to take and how to be considered a competitive applicant.

You can do it if you're dedicated! It's awesome you are preparing so young.

trynabenurse · Jan 1, 2015

Thanks a lot! So what you believe I should do is keep up grades , and then over summer I can do prerequisite classes so that I get into nursing quicker?

My #1 choice is Glendale community college because it is very nearby to me so I should begin prerequisites there correct?

guest769224 · Jan 1, 2015

Yes I think that's a good plan.

I also recommend you take college classes during your senior year.

And yes head over to Glendale college and ask to speak to their nursing admissions director and see how you can get ready.

nurseprnRN, BSN, RN · Jan 1, 2015

Every nursing program is different. Your high school guidance counselor should be able to help you connect with the admissions counselors at the different schools, and you should NOT skip the vital step of going to visit several (not just one or two). By all means take AP courses, specially science and math-- getting into nursing schools is very competitive and you want to demonstrate your love of learning and willingness to work hard towards a definable goal, traits you will definitely need in nursing.

Now to the big one: If you have the familial support, don't waste your time with an associate's degree (and yes, it will be). Go directly into a 4-year BSN program at a college or university and get it done all at once. Why?

First: Think beyond the bedside. Not to do so is a common shortcoming in many students. It's completely understandable, because all they see on TV or in clinical is patient care at the bedside, and you will probably also hear snarky remarks about BSN and MN nurses who left the bedside as if that were some sort of failure to care about what's really important. However, you will have a long working life ahead of you and the culture of nursing is not what it was when those TV programs were made or the adults in your life learned what they think they know about it.

This is one of the most contentious issues in nursing: the level of education needed for a profession. As many of the AN'rs know, I come down squarely on the side of a BS in Nursing or BSN as entry-level educational preparation. When I had smaller kids and they asked me a question, I always asked them, "Do you want the short answer or the long one?" Since I can count on the fingers of one hand the number of times they ever said, "Short" and still have enough left over for the Boy Scout salute, here it is again.

(Disclaimer: Have worked as a staff nurse, inservice/staff development, instructor, NCLEX prep course instructor, case manager in multiple settings, and other stuff too numerous to mention. In short, been around, seen that, done that.)

What's a profession? Is nursing a profession? What's the basic educational prep for people you think of as professionals? Would you want your chemistry research done by someone with an associate degree? Your child taught high school math or English? Your income tax advising? Sure, there are good people with lower level education who succeed in life, but don't let that "we all have the same license and sit for the same exam" fool you. Better education makes you better at what you do. There are any number of people who can give you examples of BSNs or MNs who don't know how to take a rectal temp (why does everyone focus on that and bedpans when they think of nursing, anyway?) and marvelous crusty old LPNs who saved the resident's butt one dark and stormy night, but for every single one of those I will see your anecdote and raise you half a dozen godawful errors made by nurses who didn't take the coursework and didn't get exposed to the idea of autonomy in school.

Time: The bachelor's degree takes four years. The associate's degree (AS or ASN) takes ... three and a half, once you count all the prerequisites you're going to have to take before they admit you into the nursing program. (It's not like the associate's degree in English or whatever that is only two years.) And those who say you can work on your BSN while you are working as an RN with an AS don't tell you (and maybe don't know, to be charitable) that many of your course hours from the AS program are not transferrable, so it won't just be a matter of a semester or two or three. AND working as a nurse is HARD, almost as hard as nursing school ... think you'll have the mental, physical, social, and financial energy for more education at the same time? Oh, and in most jurisdictions you can't sit for the LPN exam and work as one while partway thru a AS or BSN program anymore, either.

And "there are only a few differences, just a leadership course and a research course, I don't need that." Well, if hospitals are hiring more BSNs than anything else, and making up the staff with unlicensed personnel, you'd better have some theory at least in management, because you'll be managing every day even if you aren't a charge nurse. And evidence-based practice gets more important every year in this health care milieu, so you'd better be able to recognize the difference between good and bad "research."

Job opportunities: Although the old a-nurse-is-a-nurse-is-a-nurse attitude is fortunately fading away, at entry level for new grads, about the same, and I realize that people who are just starting out have a very incomplete idea of what it means to be a nurse. However, look around the place and see who's working. Are you planning to be older some day? Do you see older nurses working in those entry-level staff or charge positions? If not, where did they all go? Why do you care? Well, suppose you work on a general medical floor and get entranced by cardiac rehabilitation after following a patient who did it. A job comes up in the department, hooray! Oops, BSN only. Or you find your heart drawn to helping underserved women in a public health clinic for high-risk pregnancy. Sorry, BSN only in public health. After five or six years as a staff nurse you have become a resource to new hires and your peers and you realize you have a gift for teaching. You see that a position in staff development has come open, and you are first in line at HR to apply. You got it.... BSN is the minimum. School nursing? BSN. Hurt your back and want to go for a job in case management? BSN. You discover you have a gift for asking, "Why do we do it this way?" and are amazed to find you want to look into jobs in management or nursing research.....BSN minimum. And if you look at the regular old want ads for nurses in the paper, you will see more and more and more of them say "BSN preferred/ required." And if BSN is becoming "preferred/required," then exactly how is getting the BSN later going to help you now? You are starting to get the picture now. Also, many, many practice settings give you a pay differential for BSN. No, I know, not all, but hey. The BSN will also figure into decisions about promotions and professional growth (see below). One more factor.

Growth: The questions in the licensure exams (NCLEX) are developed from errors made in the first year of practice by new grads, and regardless of pass rates from different level programs, anyone in practice can confirm the research: In the first year of work all new grads perform at about the same level as they get their feet under them and get used to the idea of working as an RN. But after that year, the BSNs pull ahead in ways that are related to their higher level of education. Why? Because what we call in the ed biz "psychomotor skills," the things you do with your hands, can be done by anyone with enough practice. Hell, we teach lay people how to do peritoneal dialysis at home or suction tracheostomies. But the understanding of WHY some things are as they are is something you get in better education: more science, more sociology, more psychology, more history, a basic statistics class, exposure to more clinical settings (I doubt if you'll get a full semester in peds, psych, OB, or any public health at all in any AS program) give you the insight to ask better questions and make better decisions.

Well, I hear folks about the challenges of getting into and staying in nursing school. But if you really want to be a NURSE, don't you want to find yourself in the camp of folks who are grateful they learned more, rather than the ones who find they had to for advancement or competence and wish they'd done it in the first place? My answer is clear.

KelRN215, BSN, RN · Jan 1, 2015

I agree with GrnTea. Anyone who knows in high school that she wants to pursue nursing should go straight for the BSN. You don't say where you are located but there are public university BSN programs in most, if not all, states if the cost of a private university is prohibitive. I know every state in New England has public universities with BSN programs. Often people on here speak of getting their ADN first so they can work while obtaining a BSN which (they believe) their employer will pay for... and then they are disheartened to find that there are no new grad jobs for ADN new grads in this area and it ends up taking them longer going the ADN-BSN route than it would have had they just gone straight for the BSN.

Nienna Celebrindal · Jan 1, 2015

First kudos to you for seeking advice and planning ahead.

I agree with pps, sounds like you live in socal and let me tell you a BSN is a MUST. It's HIGHLY COMPETITIVE and they will chose a new grad BSN over a ADN every time.

Read these boards. Ask lots of questions. Even if you think they sound dumb.

Focus on school, you need the best GPA possible. I went to a near by Cal State and they say you need at least a 3.5 but it's really above a 3.75. You want as close to a 4.0 as possible.

trynabenurse · Jan 1, 2015

Thanks so much for the very detailed guidance.

Do you think CAL STATE NORTHRIDGE is a good school for this career? And when I apply, do I apply into "nursing" right away or will I get rejected since it is very competitive? Should I enroll as "undecided"?

KelRN215, BSN, RN · Jan 1, 2015

Thanks so much for the very detailed guidance.
Do you think CAL STATE NORTHRIDGE is a good school for this career? And when I apply, do I apply into "nursing" right away or will I get rejected since it is very competitive? Should I enroll as "undecided"?

I don't think your odds would be any better going in "undecided" and trying to transfer into nursing. The school I went to (a nationally ranked university) the competition was no more or less getting into the nursing program than getting into the university, you still had to meet the admission requirements set by the university. If you go in undecided and try to transfer, there will be even fewer spots in the program at that point. Let's say they have slots for 90 in the nursing program, they accept 120 knowing that not everyone will choose to go there. 87 people enroll. Now there are only 3 slots open for all the undecided students who decide they want to enter nursing. I know very few people who transferred into nursing after entering undecided and were still able to graduate on time in my school.

I don't know anything about this particular school as I am from the opposite coast. You are a junior in high school, from now through August should be spent researching/visiting prospective schools. You may think you like this school on paper and then hate it when you visit it or vice versa. There were definitely some schools that I decided not to apply to after visiting them.

nurseprnRN, BSN, RN · Jan 1, 2015

All the Cal State universities are fine; so much the better if they offer scholarship support if you attain a certain GPA in high school.

Call their nursing program office and ask to make an appointment with the admissions counselor. Look up the nursing course catalog online beforehand so you know something about it when you go in (they will like that and it makes your conversation more memorable-- a good thing when developing a relationship with an ADMISSIONS counselor). S/he will tell you exactly what to do.

Some colleges give you a better chance of being admitted to the nursing program if you are already enrolled as an undergraduate; some don't. It often depends on how they structure their program: All four years include all courses spread out (science, distribution, and nursing classes all four years), or you take science/distribution requirements in the first two years and then get admitted to the nursing major for your junior and senior years. Or something else. This is why it's so hard to transfer between programs-- they don't run on the same plan, not like, say, a math or language major.

Make that appointment right away! S/he will also be able to give you good advice on what courses to take over the summer (if any), and in your senior year. Good luck!!

Nienna Celebrindal · Jan 1, 2015

Most cal states are good. Honestly go to whatever one you can get into. Apply everywhere!