Nursing Dream or Reality?

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Hello, I am 42 years old and I have put my dreams on hold so I could raise my son and get him into college. Well, that is done, and now I want to go to nursing school. I have never taken any college courses and I am scared to death! I am enrolling in our local adult education program so I can study for the ACT/Compass. I work a full time office job(hate it) and also a part time retail job. I do not want to do this for the rest of my life, I can't! I know I have to quit my part time job and I will be able to work part time at the office job and with pell grants and loans, I think I can make it. So that leads me to some questions....Our local college, in which I live right down the road from is no longer going to have the ADN program. I have no idea why. There is a community college 45 minutes away that does still offer this. With me not having any pre-reqs or anything how long will it take to do the ADN? I can do the BSN here at the university and I am sure that will be the best thing, but I am so scared of the time it takes and not being smart enough. I want this more than anything, and have for as long as I can remember, I am told that if you want it bad enough then you can do it.

Please share with me any thoughts and/or suggestions that you have on this and encouraging stories are welcomed! Thank you all so much.

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Hi! First know that you are not alone pursuing nursing as a second career. I am 39 and have 1 more semester of pre-reqs before starting nursing school. There are lots of debates about getting a BSN vs an ADN on here. My guess is that without any pre-reqs done, you could get them done in a year and then go on to the 2 year ADN. Or you can fold them into the BSN which should then take 4 years. So about 3 years vs. about 4 years. The cost of the University will likely be quite a bit higher than the CC. Of course, it depends if you plan on working while in school which would affect how many classes you could take at a time.

I would research both options and then weigh out what works best for your situation. This site is great for getting specific questions answered.

Good luck!

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I agree with the PP, if you have no college credits then the ADN will be one less year than the BSN. If I were you, I would look into what the hospitals around you are hiring. If they are BSN preferred, try to go for the BSN so that you are more likely to get hired when you graduate. Also, the BSN will likely be more expensive (without factoring in possible grants or scholarships you may receive) but you also have to take into consideration the amount of gas it will take you to drive 45 minutes if you go to the community college. That will add up eventually.

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If you feel strong academically, look into online options for getting some of your pre-reqs completed. YOU CAN DO THIS!!!!

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Don't forget about CLEP, if you are good at self-teaching. https://allnurses.com/about-nursing-student/how-did-do-790434-page6.html and how she did that, I don't know but it's impressive! :-)

There is a thread I started about associate degree vs. BSRN in light of "Obamacare." I'll go dig it up. ... BRB... Here it is: https://allnurses.com/nursing-activism-healthcare/does-obamacare-2014-a-793541.html

That is why some school are discontinuing AS RN. Also, some hospitals have been refusing to host associate degree RN students for clinicals anymore, due to the hospitals do not plan to hire anymore RN who are not BSRNs. Therefore, some of the associate degree programs had to fold because they no longer could meet the requirements for hours of clinical instruction after the hospitals backed out.

Online: Rio Salado offers online, totally online, 8 week and 12 week courses in most of what you'd need for gen ed. It costs more but you can accelerate your progress. They start a new class every Monday, so you naver have to sit out a semester. And once it starts, it's either 8 or 12 weeks straight through with no breaks, from what I recall. And you might not need to quit your part time job.

Other online:

University of New England, www.une.edu/com/online Ocean County Community College in NJ, www.ocean.edu Consortium of community colleges in Colorado, www.ccconline.org

Your local schools proably offer online classes but they might fill up fast.

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