Please comment on my path to nursing plan :)

[Juliafromfaraway]

Hello everyone,

Im so glad to have found this lovely, supportive board to help me through my journey towards becoming a nurse! I'd really appreciate advice.

First, a bit about me (sorry to repeat for those of you who read my other post) - I am a 27 year old American who has been overseas for many years. I have been working in public health since I was 21 and currently run a big public health program in Papua New Guinea, where I live. I have a BA in Government from a university in Israel and a Masters from the UK. I've been so inspired by the work of the amazing nurses I've met in my last two postings (here and in Uganda), and I know that this is what I want to do.

I have some savings, and have about 14 months left on my current contract which I can extend. My job is very demanding but I do have some spare time in evenings and weekends. I'm single with no kids. I want to do an ABSN in the US, probably in the NYC / NJ area where I grew up. Im lucky to have really good undergrad grades (equivalent of 4.0).

I had no science courses at all in undergrad, and only economics focused statistics classes, so need to take all my pre reqs. I'm confused by the variety in pre requisites required by different nursing schools - how do you chose which ones you do? I've made a spreadsheet with all of my preferred schools and so many have courses that arent requested by the others, so I'm really feeling confused on which to prioritize. For example, Pace University is the only school requiring PSY 100, do I really dedicate whole semester of online study to that if its possible they will reject me?

Im planning on doing pre reqs all online (using JHU for the lab ones, as they have an online lab) over the next 18 months - 2 years. I really dont have an in-classroom option. I'll then apply to a schools one by one as I finish the required pre reqs. Has anyone done it this way, and if so have they been successful?

Thank you all for your help, I really appreciate it.

[NurseGirl525, ASN, RN]

For choosing the prereqs, look at the nursing programs you want to go to and complete the prereqs for that program. All programs require different prereqs. Make sure that the nursing programs you want to go to will accept online science credits. Many will not, if there is a lab component. Take your prereqs from a regionally accredited college so they will transfer over to the nursing program you want.

I'm not sure about having earned a bachelor's and master's in other countries as to how that translates to U.S. schools. I'm sure that would be something that you would need to talk to admissions officers about to make sure your are eligible for an ABSN program. Your best bet is to look at schools in the NY area and either email or give them a call and see what you need to do. Most colleges anymore require a basic Psych class for almost all majors so I would also check on that. I know I took Psych 101 last semester and it was one of the 4 classes I got points for so it was an important one. My classmates were people in all differing majors. I also had to either take sociology or an upper level psych class. Like Lifespan or developmental and I am assuming an ABSN program would at least require it also because I am only getting an ADN and those were both required before entering the program.

[auscultate]

Look at the prerequisites for each school like the above said. Most schools will even outline a outline in which courses should be taken. If you're going to do the accelerated program, and are patient. I would do all the prereqs ahead of time instead of doing them once in the program like some colleges let you do (i.e. some colleges will let you take a prereq if your GPA is high enough while you're in the program) But all of your sciences will be in sequence so just follow those. Gen Chem 1-2, Gen Bio, A&2 1-2, Gen Psy->Abnorm Psy->Dev Psy etc.

Most importantly is contact the school themselves and start to build you a nursing binder for administrative stuff (i.e. transcripts, class schedule, program outline etc) , separate from your binder that you will be using for school.