Lost On My Educational Track

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Hello everyone: I am so lost on my educational track. Please help! I am completing my Associate of Applied Science in Medical Assisting right now at Kaplan University. I thought my dream goal was to ultimately complete my Doctor of Nursing Practice and work as Nurse Practitioner. I honestly only had interest in the medical field for the money. Many people I have talked to say that if I did not have a true desire to help patients and I was only in it for the money, I would get burned out and not like it. So with that being said, I am trying to figure out which program I should go into next. I do want to obtain my doctoral in some health care related field. I currenly live in North Las Vegas, Nevada and I am relocating to La Jolla, California (San Diego) soon. My question is, after my assoicate is completed, which bacherlors program should I start. I am looking for the highest paying job and the degree that would pretty much is in demand in San Diego, CA. Thanks.

Ideas of program routes I thought about... Ideas.....????

  1. Associate of Applied Science in Medical Assisting, Bachelor of Science in Health Science, Master of Public Health
  2. Associate of Applied Science in Medical Assisting , Bachelor of Science in Psychology, Master of Science in Psychology
  3. Associate of Applied Science in Medical Assisting, Bacherlor of Science in Allied Health

Please help me. Thanks

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Specializes in Acute Care, Rehab, Palliative.

If you were planning on getting your DNP you wold need to be going for your BSN I would think.MA doesn't make you a nurse.

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Specializes in Forensic Psych.

If you're looking for high paying jobs, you just listed off a nice line up of the world's lowest paying degrees...as in, there are no jobs for those degrees. Have you actually met anyone working in the medical field with a degree in Allied Health?

Nursing is not in demand in San Diego, anyway. There are swarms of unemployed nurses out there.

It sounds to me like you'd be better off completing your medical assisting degree and spending some time working and focusing on something you really want to do. Getting a doctorate in "anything I end you doing " is completely misguided, especially if you're only doing it to make a lot of money. It doesn't work like that. I know some very low paid Drs. with some very high debt.

Like spending ridiculous amounts of money on a MA degree has absolutely nothing to do with nursing. How did you get THERE?

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Specializes in NICU, ICU, PICU, Academia.

I agree - you chose a very low-paying job from a very, very expensive school. You'll have a difficult time paying back your student loans with the pay you'll make medical assisting (IF you find a job). PLEASE do not go into nursing for the $$. It's not fair to your future patients.

Good luck while you ponder the wisdom of what we've tried to tell you. I hope you find something that pays well AND you can be passionate about.

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Specializes in Acute Care, Rehab, Palliative.

If you want to be an NP why are you not looking at nursing programs?

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Specializes in CMSRN.

I definitely am thinking along the same lines as the other posters. Nursing is NOT easy, either in training or in profession. If you don't want to be a nurse to work with people, there are plenty of other professions that pay better. And really, if you are interested in nursing, why aren't you looking at BSN or MSN programs??

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I understand what everyone is saying. I know 2 nurses that are in it for the money and do just fine. One of them has been RN for 15 years and the other 4. It is like any job, you can have the skills and training to complete the tasts but don't have to like it. The school I am attending talked me into the MA program before taking nursing. I have high honors and GPA 4.0. I am completed in October. What I need help in is deciding which Bachelors program I want to start. I know I should be looking into a BSN/MSN but I want to enter the nursing school with a completed Bacherlos degree and then just take the core nursing classes. There is a program at University of San Diego that offers current bacherlor degree holding students that are not RN's, a MSN program. If I decided nursing was not for me, which other health science degree could I obtain to make good enough money to live in SD?

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Specializes in Forensic Psych.

I wouldn't pick any of those degrees. If you want something to fall back on, it needs to be something career-orientated, IMO. A degree in Allied Health is for people who want to pursue a masters degree in Aliied Health. It doesn't actually qualify you for a job. Psychology doesn't qualify for you a job without a Masters Degree.

I'd consider something like nutrition, speech pathology, occupational therapy, PT, something informatics relates, etc, or just plan on needing to go to grad school.

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Specializes in Critical Care, Education.

Seems like a classic example of 'pressure recruiting' by a commercial school. A word of caution also; commercial schools are well known for GPA inflation... flattery keeps students enrolled "traditional schools just don't understand you - see how well you are doing here at Take-Your-Money-University? Why would you want to go anywhere else?" The truth is, employers have little regard for graduates of commercial degree-mills.

I agree with PP's. If you want to go into nursing, don't waste time with other educational tracks - focus on your nursing pre-reqs instead. Don't pay attention to all the propaganda about fast-track pathways to nursing. No one is hiring direct-entry MSNs. Even ABSNs are not being hired in my neck of the woods unless they are coming from another health care profession.

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Are you moving to La Jolla for any particular reason?

Honestly, your plan just sounds bad. Are you planning on getting a BS/BA with Kaplan? USD might not accept that as a valid BS/BA because generally if you get a degree from a for-profit school, you'll need to continue going to for-profit schools. The USD program is also around $90k total.

Your best bet would be to try to get into a nursing program now and honestly, California isn't the ideal place to do that. If you have to move to California, I'd definitely look into getting your pre-reqs done first in Las Vegas then trying to apply to schools in California. CSU San Marcos would probably be your best bet for a BSN program.

Also, since you aren't really interested in nursing for nursing itself, you might be better if you looked into a PTA or OTA program. Generally, they are 2 years long and you'd probably be in more demand in the SD area than an RN.

(It is also interesting that you mention you are in a degree program for a medical assistant since I never heard of that. The community college where I take pre-reqs has a medical assistant program that is $1300 for 12 weeks)

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Specializes in Neonatal Nurse Practitioner.

If you want to be a nurse, it would take less time to just enter a BSN program than to finish a bachelor's in 'any ole thing' then go into an ABSN. You wouldn't qualify for any federal financial aid after you bachelors either, so the nursing portion of your plan would most likely be self funded (that includes private loans).

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If you want to be a nurse do the bsn program. You will be done in 4 years. Your degree from kaplan won't transfer to a traditional college so any degree will take around 4 years. Don't waste time or money on a degree that you don't want.

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