LPN or RN

Personally, I would go for the direct-entry MSN. It sounds like you want to earn the MS eventually anyway and as someone who is 11 months into a direct-entry MS program (with no income) I can tell you it goes by quickly. The debt is certainly a consideration, but I think you have to balance that with your personal sanity. To me, the idea of trying to balance lectures, clinicals, studying, AND preparing lesson plans and grading assignments for your own students sounds incredibly daunting. Not to mention trying to continue that balance for four or five more years with more school, full-time jobs, family demands, etc. If you have the opportunity to get through it in one fell swoop I would go for that. Also, with the RN you will likely have many more job opportunities open to you and greater opportunity for advancement than you would as an LPN. So you need to consider earning potential as well as debt load. Best of luck in your decision!

I don't know about your area, but where I live the options for LPN's are becoming slim. Most of the hospitals won't hire LPN's anymore. If your area is the same, that leaves the nursing homes for employment. As my husband has just found out, there are a lot of LPN's trying to find jobs at all the available nursing homes in our area and not enough spots to be had. He's probably going to have to get into an RN program soon, just to be able to find a job.

You may already have enough credits to get into a BSN or MSN program for nursing since you mentioned that you already have a master's degree. In my area, LPNs are not limited in employment, but the pay would be either less or what you are already making. Go ahead and go for the big bucks!