Newbie Needs Advice...

Nursing Students Pre-Nursing

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Hello,

I am ready to make the decision to start my journey to becoming a registered nurse. I am a little confused as to what I will need to do to get started on the road to my goal.

I currently have my Associates degree in General Studies from a 2-Year college, I am confused about because I am wondering if I would have to obtain an Associates Degree in Nursing (ADN), or if my current Associates Degree is acceptable. I am not sure if I will basically need to start over completely at square 1, or if I can use courses from my Associates Degree to cover some of the required courses that I need to become a RN. Once I become a RN, eventually I will start taking courses to obtain my BSN.

I have been searching around the internet, but I haven't found anything that explains it in a way that is understandable.

Any help will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Specializes in Surgical/Telemetry.

Even if you do have a non-science associates degree, because you will have liberal arts transfer credits and will have to take essentially the same science prereqs regardless of whether you go ADN/ASN or BSN directly, it may still take you the same amount of time to get either degree. The science and nursing requirements are basically the same in the courses, and for many students - including me- with liberal arts background, it only takes about 2 years for BSN after the prereqs. I think it is worth checking into, as are costs of programs. There are some state school BSN programs that are pretty reasonable, and many of the others have financial aid. I don't think one degree is better over the other, but since you wrote that you already know that you want a BSN eventually for CRNA, it may be worth checking into to limit the number of hoops that you will have to jump through.

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Even if you do have a non-science associates degree, because you will have liberal arts transfer credits and will have to take essentially the same science prereqs regardless of whether you go ADN/ASN or BSN directly, it may still take you the same amount of time to get either degree. The science and nursing requirements are basically the same in the courses, and for many students - including me- with liberal arts background, it only takes about 2 years for BSN after the prereqs. I think it is worth checking into, as are costs of programs. There are some state school BSN programs that are pretty reasonable, and many of the others have financial aid. I don't think one degree is better over the other, but since you wrote that you already know that you want a BSN eventually for CRNA, it may be worth checking into to limit the number of hoops that you will have to jump through.

Okay, but I thought that you had to graduate an ADN program, take the NCLEX Exam to become a licensed RN, and then you can be accepted into a BSN Degree program, correct? I will definitely look into what you have suggested about maybe being able to go directly into a BSN program.

By transfering credits from the AA Degree that I posess at this time, these are the classes that I will need to receive an ADN at a my 2-year college:

Chemistry (4 credits)

Human Anatomy & Physiology I (4 credits)

Human Anatomy & Physiology II (4 credits)

Microbiology (4 credits)

Psychology (3credits)

Medical Terminology for Health Care Workers (1 credit)

Orientation to the Nursing Program (1 credit)

Pharmacology & Med Administration II (1.5 credits)

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Specializes in Maternity, quality.
Okay, but I thought that you had to graduate an ADN program, take the NCLEX Exam to become a licensed RN, and then you can be accepted into a BSN Degree program, correct? I will definitely look into what you have suggested about maybe being able to go directly into a BSN program.

By transfering credits from the AA Degree that I posess at this time, these are the classes that I will need to receive an ADN at a my 2-year college:

Chemistry (4 credits)

Human Anatomy & Physiology I (4 credits)

Human Anatomy & Physiology II (4 credits)

Microbiology (4 credits)

Psychology (3credits)

Medical Terminology for Health Care Workers (1 credit)

Orientation to the Nursing Program (1 credit)

Pharmacology & Med Administration II (1.5 credits)

It sounds like those are the pre-reqs for the nursing program at your school. An ADN program would include at least four semesters of clinical courses. You cannot take the NCLEX/become an RN without those courses.

What smilin_gp is saying is that you have a couple options to the BSN. You could get your ADN, pass the NCLEX, and then pursue an RN-to-BSN program. Or you could go straight for the BSN, which might actually end up taking you less time overall, especially if you've already got a lot of gen. ed. credits out of the way. You do not need to already be a nurse to pursue the BSN. I hope this clears it up some.

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Those are the same prereqs needed rather you do a 2 yr plan or 4 yr plan. My point was that if you want to be a CRNA (like myself), you have to have the BSN regardless to even proceed, so if you can, it's more worth it to go straight for the BSN. Most BSN programs want you to have most of the science out of the way as long as you have a plan to finish the other science before enrollment (in your case this could be fall 2007). I think most if not all universities have a link to their nursing programs online and you can check to see when their nursing core courses start. If they start in the 3rd year, the 1st 2 yrs are nothing but gen ed-similar to an Associates degree, which you most likely have already. Then, if accepted into the BSN program, you can spend the extra time from taking the shorter route getting your 1-2 yrs of critical care experience.

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Those are the same prereqs needed rather you do a 2 yr plan or 4 yr plan. My point was that if you want to be a CRNA (like myself), you have to have the BSN regardless to even proceed, so if you can, it's more worth it to go straight for the BSN. Most BSN programs want you to have most of the science out of the way as long as you have a plan to finish the other science before enrollment (in your case this could be fall 2007). I think most if not all universities have a link to their nursing programs online and you can check to see when their nursing core courses start. If they start in the 3rd year, the 1st 2 yrs are nothing but gen ed-similar to an Associates degree, which you most likely have already. Then, if accepted into the BSN program, you can spend the extra time from taking the shorter route getting your 1-2 yrs of critical care experience.

Okay, I understand what everybody has been saying, and it makes alot of sense. Being that I don't have any of my science courses completed, I should go ahead and complete some of them before I go and try to get in a BSN program, correct?

Thank you to everybody for taking time to help me out.

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You got it! Glad to help :)

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Specializes in Surgical/Telemetry.

Yup, ya got it. You will have to take the same science classes whether you plan on applying to an associates or directly to BSN, and it very likely will take you less time to go directly to BSN since you need that degree for CRNA.

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Specializes in med/surg, telemetry, IV therapy, mgmt.

Wait a minute! Did I misunderstand something here? You don't need to get an ADN before going on to get a BSN. The only reason you would do that is because you can't get into a BSN school and you want to get your RN license as fast as possible. Since you need your BSN in order to go on to get an MSN you would want to just go into a BSN program to begin with and forget about an ADN. There are many BSN programs that are for first time RN persons and you don't need to have an ADN to get into them. All you need are the pre-requisites the college requires to get into these programs. Actually, the waiting lists for getting into the BSN programs are sometimes shorter because most people don't want to put out for the tuition and they don't want to take all the extra credit hours a bachelor's degree requires. So, for a first degree in RN nursing you can do either an ADN or a BSN. Since you need the BSN, look for BSN programs and forget the ADN route, especially since you have the time and patience to get to your goal.

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Thanks to everybody, I definitely have a clear explaination as to what I need to do now. I'm glad I found this forum and asked for advice before deciding to just go for the ADN, I will go ahead and see if I can get into a BSN program.

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You should have some courses that will transfer. The first step is to make an appointment with an advisor at your nursing school. He/she should be able to tell you which classes transfer. I doubt you will have to start all over.

Best wishes!

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You should have some courses that will transfer. The first step is to make an appointment with an advisor at your nursing school. He/she should be able to tell you which classes transfer. I doubt you will have to start all over.

Best wishes!

Yeah, I was reading the requirements to get accepted into the BSN program to the college that I will be attending, and it says that you have to have 13 out of the 17 pre-reqs completed before applying to their program. I have all of my general classes out of the way, now I just need to go ahead and get these science courses out of the way. I think I'm gonna take them at a community college, due to the fact that it's alot cheaper and they'll transfer over, plus I need to raise my GPA to be more competitve to have a better chance to get into the program. Does that make sense?

Thanks to all

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Specializes in Maternity, quality.
Yeah, I was reading the requirements to get accepted into the BSN program to the college that I will be attending, and it says that you have to have 13 out of the 17 pre-reqs completed before applying to their program. I have all of my general classes out of the way, now I just need to go ahead and get these science courses out of the way. I think I'm gonna take them at a community college, due to the fact that it's alot cheaper and they'll transfer over, plus I need to raise my GPA to be more competitve to have a better chance to get into the program. Does that make sense?

Thanks to all

That makes perfect sense! Good luck to you!

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