Looking for ASN or RN night/weekend schools or colleges in North central florida area

[johnosfloyd]

I am a lawyer with a full-time job working in Gainesville, Florida. I am interested in becoming a Registered Nurse, and to that end I have investigated our local college, Santa Fe College (formerly known as Santa Fe Community College, or SFCC).

Unfortunately, the (Associate of Science) Nursing program to sit for the RN exam is only given by SFCC as a daytime program, no nights or weekends courses are available through either SFCC or, apparently, anywhere else I can find.

I have read that there are such night/weekend RN programs in bigger cities, like Manhattan, but that's not really helping me. I can't really quit my day job as an attorney to pursue a nursing career.

My question is basically this: Are there any night/weekend RN programs in my area? Anywhere in Florida? I've seen advertisements for RN programs online, but as I understand that would not provide the needed practical, hands-on clinical & hospital instruction that is required to become an RN (am I wrong on this?).

I'm really interested in nursing, and don't mind putting in the time and effort, but again, I can't quit my day job and the money that comes with the day job (not to mention retirment benefits, student loan forgiveness, etc).

Any advice you could give me would be great, thank you!

[Rose_Queen, BSN, MSN, RN]

If you go to the state's Board of Nursing website, you should be able to find a list of nursing programs. From there, you can investigate the schools and whether or not they have a night/weekend program. In order to be eligible to sit for NCLEX, one must graduate from a program approved by the BON. With the exception of those geared for people in other health care careers (paramedic, LPN, etc) I am unaware of any online schools that offer the initial pre-licensure degree (someone else may know differently).