Looking forward to grad school

For question 1 I would think it's pretty important. I have friends who were rejected for GPA being too low. I managed to get in but on a provisional basis and I had to fight for that. It helped that my GRE scores were very very good.

For question 2, I think that's hard to answer. I know that I would not have been comfortable with my level of practice going straight to APN, but your experience may be different. I will say that years of practice are making my coursework somewhat easier as I can draw on personal experiences.

Well I've been working as a NA since may on an ortho unit. I've been able to get some hands on experience while I worked 40+ hours a week over the summer and now that school is in session, I've been working every weekend for about 20 hours. The time I've spent on the floor has increased my confidence in myself and has allowed me to see a lot of things I wouldn't be able to see during my 120 hours of med-surg clinical. I have over 540 hours of time logged at the hospital I work at, not including clinical hours for other rotations. I feel my time as a nursing assistant has prepared me well for becoming an RN, but I'm still not so sure about moving forward that fast and jumping into grad school.

As far as my gpa goes, I'm really nervous that it will make or break me.

I definitely think GPA is an important factor in getting into grad school. Since you still have time to raise your GPA, you need to focus on that. It has been a great emphasis for me as I am getting ready to graduate and move on to the next step. The big incentive is that the school I'm interested in will waive the GRE test if your GPA of the last 40 credits (so mainly nursing courses) is above a 3.5.

As for your second question, it definitely depends on the program. What I've been seeing for requirements is that many practitioner programs do require or prefer RN experience. Not CNA or clinical experience. Not saying there's no direct entry programs out there, I'm sure there are. I have only looked at public universities' programs, which tend to be competitive...

That's what I was thinking -- it depends on the program. I guess truth be told I'm trying to make it into an np program before they make it a doctorate. But a small part of me would like to earn my doctorate. So where does this leave me? I have no clue.

Talk to the Dean of the graduate school, or an advisor, about what you can do to improve your chances. You may not get chosen due to GPA but they might look at specific courses and the grade in those. They will also consider other qualities besides grades.

I worked full time while in BSN and MSN programs. It can be done but if you do not have to work then don't. Although I did have co-workers who served as resources for me and I stayed up on the "real world" while in school. I even chose projects for school & work that combined both so I would not have to do two different ones

I plan to immediately, as in summer 2012, begin a master's program upon graduating in May 2012. The first course up to bat will be advanced physiology and pathophysiology which is good since that's one I look forward to taking. I don't really care if doing it this quickly is advisable or not. The fact is, it's doable so I'm doing it so I can move on with life.