Low GPA and looking at schools near Lincoln/Nashville/Orlando

[tj87]

First off, I have been reading random threads on here and I have this enormous sense of relief to find a community of SUCH supportive people! At this moment I'm very stressed and to see how helpful some people are made me tear up a little!

I graduated high school in 2006 and have been in college since. I've been all over the place. I started out at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln as a Pyschology major. I transferred to the University of Nebraska-Kearney because I was good at graphic design and I was not passionate about much else so I went there because they had a good design program. During these 5 semesters I got horrible grades--due in part to my mentally abusive ex boyfriend trying to get me to drop out so I wouldn't be "better than him" and next in part because of my deteriorating relationship with my mother, who refused to speak to me while I was with this guy (I was young and blind!). I finally met a guy who is wonderful and incredibly supportive of me and my ambitions. His mother, who is a nurse practitioner, took me under her wing. I told her when I was younger I wanted to be a doctor but I knew now I had ruined everything with my previous grades. She told me her story, and it was nearly identical--bad grades and a crazy past (which was very encouraging and inspiring). Skipping ahead, I went through phlebotomy training (in hopes of securing a little experience in healthcare) and shadowed my boyfriend's mother. I also shadowed an M.D. just to satisfy my curiosity for the similarities (situationally it felt identical). Shadowing the M.D. led me further. I sat in on several colonoscopies and spoke with the anesthesiologist, who I found out later was a Nurse Anesthetist. Long story short, I found the one thing I am truly passionate about and it is nursing. I plan to do the two years of nursing school, one year in an ICU, and then the two years for the N.A. BUT I am worried my grades will stop me from even getting into nursing school. A lot of the bad grades come from art classes, which I feel would be very frustrating to retake. I almost feel it would be like spending the day with an ex boyfriend when I have a boyfriend I already love and want to work on a relationship with (not waste effort on the other).. so to speak. Is anyone else having GPA concerns of have any advice?

Also, I am looking at schools to go to. I am currently going to school just north of Nashville (at Western Kentucky University), where I transferred to from my 2nd school (UNK). Once this spring semester is over, I have both Anatomy I and II, a Microbiology lab, and Spanish left until I am done with my nursing prereqs--all of this I plan to complete this summer and upcoming fall semester (so I will begin applying for the Spring '11 semester) . My boyfriend and I would both like to live in Nashville when we are ready to settle down, but currently his job takes him all over the country so I end up alone a lot. I am originally from Nebraska and would not mind going back there for nursing school. But my grandfather, who has been more like a father (and best friend) to me, is getting up in age. He lives in Orlando, about 8 miles from UCF. We see each other about once every other year. I would really like to be closer to him so I can help him with things like getting around and grocery shopping. I also always wanted to live in Florida for awhile, temporarily, but didn't know when I could fit that into my life. I feel like those two or so years of nursing school would be the perfect time. But I am curious as to how that would work. If I go to nursing school in Florida would have I to stay for rotations and such for a while after graduating?

My main point in the school thing was to ask if anyone knows of any schools around Orlando, as well as anything about them? Another, less desirable option--my uncle has a condo in Jacksonville he said I could live in should I get into school there, but I'm not sure what school he is talking about (I Googled and got multiple results!) near Jacksonville.

I'm floundering around trying to get an idea of how difficult it will be to get into nursing school, what I should do in the mean time, and where I should apply to nursing school. Any help would be wonderful! I'm sorry this was so long, I just wanted to present everything in case it helps someone possibly/hopefully give some advice! I'm scared to death I won't get into nursing school!

[juliaann]

Nebraska!

I went to UNL from 2003-2007, got my B.A. in History, then promptly moved to Tulsa, OK. What was I thinking?

I definitely want to get back to the Omaha/Lincoln area eventually, but right now I have residency in Oklahoma so public schools are cheaper here. I will be going though at least my BSN in Oklahoma so I don't have to pay non-resident tuition.

In Lincoln I think there's just SCC (I'm not sure, maybe Weslyean has a program?) but if you want to go into nurse anesthesiology you'll need a BSN, so in Omaha you have UNMC, Creighton, St. Mary's, and I'm sure others.

Also, if you're sure you want to do anesthesiology, getting your experience in ER is probably not the best plan. Most CRNA programs only accept the required year+ of experience from ICU. Check out http://www.all-crna-schools.com/

Have you taken all your nursing pre-reqs? If not, I would start there and work on pulling up your GPA with those. Maybe look for nursing programs that admit criteria includes the weight of your pre-reqs only, or sciences only. That will help since your art classes won't be working against you. Good luck!