Nursing for non-nursing Bachelor Degree Students

[cliffmatics]

Hello,

I'm a first time poster here (although have read through many forums here :)) and after years of wanting to become a nurse but just didn't get to do it because my career kept on changing. I have worked in various fields that include: customer service, technology/telecommunications and even spent some time as an intern in the Governor's Office. For the past few years, I have been reading up on the Nursing profession and what they do and what they deal with (various fields). Some information was positive, majority was negative but it did not sway my interest level and the reward that I know in caring for people. Now that I have been let go of my previous job for many months now and finding it difficult to find work in my field of study (Political Science, yeah I have a completely useless degree). I have enrolled in my local community college starting this Summer session and taking prereqs for their ADN program.

I am aware of the many programs available for students that do have non-nursing bachelor degrees where one can either do an accelerated BSN or an MSN entry program. My question to those who went through similar programs or have done the ADN after having a bachelors degree, what advice would you give on which program to pursue? I'm a fairly good student and has done well historically in academics but hasn't been in School in 4 years since graduating with my B.A. The only thing that kind of turns me off a little about the ADN is that, I will spend at least one academic year just completing the prereqs for the program and in total the idea of a 3 year ADN just doesn't sound too appealing but maybe it should be done that way. On the other hand jumping into an MSN program even if it is an entry type MSN might be too much of a jump for someone with no nursing experience. Also what are some recommendations for good Nursing programs? I would prefer to stay in California but maybe willing to attend a school out of state if the opportunity should come. Thank you for your response.

Regards,

Cliff

[travelgurl18]

Well even if you decided to do a entry level BSN or MSN program you would still have to take the 1 year of pre-reqs - so thats a consideration. In you position I would volunteer at a hospital while taking pre-reqs and then go for the BSN or MSN. Its hard to get a job with only an ADN in California. So lets say you choose to get your ADN thats 3 years (including pre-reqs) which you would have to do anyways for a BSN or MSN. Then in order to get better pay or even a job in a hospital you would have to spend another year to two years to get a BSN or three years for a MSN. Thats twice the amount of time and money.

I wouldn't under estimate your capabilities. And a year - during your pre-reqs plenty of time to get some experience and more info about the profession. Also I am a big advocate of obtaining your CNA license before nursing school. It can also help in getting into a nursing program.

[leenak]

I would definitely look into second degree BSN programs. They are generally 2 years or less and you'll have a BSN. There are MSN-CNL programs that are also well suited for entry levels like us but really only if you see yourself as a future management type person.

I'm going for a 'traditional BSN' program which is 2 years long, summers off (with hopes of doing an externship during the summer) but I'm also going to be applying to accelerated-BSN programs as well.

[cliffmatics]

Thank you all very much for your response. Very good information. I think when the time comes when I am done with all the prereqs, I'll decide what approach is best based on how well I do on the prereqs.

[Streamline2010]

and in total the idea of a 3 year ADN just doesn't sound too appealing but maybe it should be done that way

That's the reality of it. All the hard stuff is in there. Diploma RN, associate degree RN, and BSN: All sit for the exact same NCLEX-RN. Most people nowadays do not finish an associate degree RN program in the standard 24 months.

The more I see of nursing school, the more incredulous I am that the RN associate degree is actually 4x the amount of work and skill that most other associate degrees are, and it's still called an associate degree. It needs to be in a class by itself. Most other associate degree programs do not include summers and do not require nearly as much study time outside of class.

The old hospital RN programs, even before they required so much college work, used to all be 3 years.