Leaving LPN to accept RN seat?

U.S.A. Pennsylvania

Published

Hi everyone,

It has been a while since I've come to the board. Unfortunately I didn't get accepted into the programs that I applied to, so I ended up starting an LPN program just so I can start bridging my way up. I'm about two months in and I just got an email to schedule an interview for one of the schools I applied to earlier his year (St. Luke's school of Nursing in PA). I'm kind of confused on what to do here. I want to at least go to the interview, but I'm not too familiar with what'll happen if I drop this program to get into the RN program. Is it a good idea to go for the RN if I'm accepted? Just looking for some advice!

Specializes in ICU Stepdown.
Just an update, but I've officially been accepted into the RN program! I'm so incredibly excited!

Congratulations!

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Congrats! How is it going so far? I was thinking of applying for the September 2017 semester, but I will not be done with all of my prerequisites until August of 2017. I'm currently attending Luzerne County Community College. I just registered for AP1 for Spring 2017. I will be taking AP 2 & Microbiology summer 2017 at Luzerne County Community College. Did you have all of your prerequisites completed before applying to St. Luke's or before the start date of your first semester? If I need all of my prerequisites completed before the application deadline then I will definitely apply for the May 2018 semester. Please let me know how the instructors are, difficulty of the courses etc... I will likely have to dorm if I get accepted there. I live about 1.5 hours away from the school. Have you had the chance to look at the dorms? If so, are they decent? How's the location around campus? Thanks in advance! :)

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Hey there! I had all of my pre-reqs done before I applied. I'm coming from the Philadelphia area, so I actually stay on campus and come home on the weekend. They're split (men on 3rd floor, women on the 2nd). It's a very quiet area and everyone in town has been extremely nice so far. The courses are tough. If you were/are an "A" student just get ready to start accepting lower grades, lol. A's are possible, but you will be working your butt OFF. Doctors and residents have been awesome there also they're so willing to teach you to.

For our Nursing 1 class they did something like we had to review things before class, and we're expected to have a certain level of understanding before coming to class the next day (class prep stuff). Everyone thought that was so backwards and we made a fuss about it lol so hopefully that gets changed for future classes. We were the first they tried that with.

Overall the courses are definitely a bit difficult, but 100% do-able. They don't stress pathophysiology very much, but that is my way to work through. If you can substitute memorization for understanding that, to me, will work out so much more in your favor. I hope I answered some questions I kinda feel like I started rambling a bit lol but I'm always willing to answer if you have more!

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Thank you so much for responding so quickly! :)

Sounds like a challenging school. I think I'm up for it! As of right now I'm getting all A's in all of my courses especially science and math. If I get anything under a 90% on a Test or a Report I get so down about it lol. I wasn't always like this. My first few years of college I really didn't take my grades as serious as I do now. I was happy to get a B, now a B is like oh no!

I honestly do have many questions for you, but I will try my best to not swamp you with questions. :D

It's nice to know that the people at the school, clinical sites and neighborhood are nice. What a relief. I was a bit nervous about that. I also plan to travel back home on the weekends to see my family.

How are the dorm rooms set up doubles, triple? Can you pick your roommate for the next semester? Do you get moved to a new dorm room every semester? How's the food?

Can you work at the hospital part-time as an aid while attending school? I'm not sure if I would work though if the courses are as difficult as you said they are. Yikes! I better start saving up now. It will be so worth it at the end. I looked into so many colleges nearby, and honestly I feel St. Luke's seems to be the best hands on school in the area.

Where do you do the clinicals?

Is there anything you think I should prepare for before my first semester? Any tips?

If you're ever bored please pm me. Anything you can tell me about this school good or bad experience would be helpful to me. This is like my #1 school choice so far. :)

Thank you!

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Haha, no biggie. There are two different types of rooms. Some are singles and some are doubles. The women often have roommates, but I think it's randomly assigned, but you get a questionnaire so that they can at least try to assign someone with a similar personality. The men don't usually have roommates because not enough students apply and so we just get a lucky double room for ourselves lol. The room assignment will stay the same unless you have an issue you bring up to the staff there.

The food is AWESOME, but I'm not working very much so I don't buy often. I usually pack my meals weekly while I'm home for the weekend.

You can work work as an aid, but I highly recommend holding off on that until after Nursing 3 or at least until you feel you have a solid grasp of the material. It's a huge workload already with only school work. I work and I don't think it's so bad, but I see the struggle with a bunch of classmates.

Clinicals are done at the hospital campuses (I think there are 6?). Tips? Hm, I'm not sure lol. Honestly it is a TON of information especially if you haven't been in the medical field before to st least be somewhat familiar with some topics. My best advice is to not cram and try not to memorize. A lot of people in my class stuck to memorization techniques. I've been against that my entire academic career. I think understanding is much more important. If you have someone with say, Diabetes (I'm not going deep lol) and you understand the disease process then you already know your nursing interventions because you'll know what to monitor the patient for. A lot of people will say "well, that intervention was not in our notes" or "you didn't cover that in class so I didn't pick it". It happens a lot but I grab those answers because they make SENSE and it's not a list I just memorized. Everyone has their own thing, but this has been super effective for me. My thought is that (I said this during my entrance interview) you won't be thinking about what chapter whatever said in whatever paragraph. You need the understanding to be able to apply it in practice. Things can happen so fast (I just had my ICU experience) and you need to know what's happening and what to do and you can't unless you understand the disease process.

Try googling some some nursing school practice questions just to become familiar with them. They are a different beast lol. It's all application and rarely ever knowledge based.

Some instructors are tough, but it's all for your benefit. to be good you need teachers that are constantly pushing you to be better. Some people hate them but I love the tough teachers. They're not like, mean and angry looking lol, they just always try to get more from you and I think that's awesome. They won't give up on you.

I think i answered everything? Lol just let me know if there's anything else!

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Hey iAngel,

Did you graduate? How was the whole experience? I took a 2-year break from completing the prerequisites. I would've been done by now, but it was hard paying for everything myself plus the driving distance from my house to the college put a toll on my car. My current job pays for my tuition so I'll start that back up summer 2019, and then I'll Apply for St. Lukes to Start in 2020.

Did you start working as RN?

Did you feel fully prepared once you graduated?

Did St. Lukes help with scholarships besides Fafsa aid like pell etc. ?

Thanks, :)

NS

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Oh man, this is still here?! Lol. Yes yes yes I finally graduated. The path wasn't without its hardships. I had surgery and it delayed me quite a bit. I haven't started only because I'm deciding between staying at my job or moving into St. Luke's to work. Scholarships I'm not too sure about. My job helped me pay so I didn't look into that very much.

I feel very prepared. St. Luke's seriously takes clinical hours very seriously and it helps so much. Compared to some nurses we see on the floor we get many more clinical hours and it makes you get very comfortable. It's a great school for sure. Get in while you can! I hope to hear some good news from you in the future!

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