Please give me your advice and input

How would you learn skills? Nursing is a combination of knowledge and skill. Plus, to "become" a nurse usually requires observation of other nurses. I think online education is great (got most of my BSN and all of MSN online), but I wonder how you will learn the skills.

How would you learn skills? Nursing is a combination of knowledge and skill. Plus, to "become" a nurse usually requires observation of other nurses. I think online education is great (got most of my BSN and all of MSN online), but I wonder how you will learn the skills.

I agree, I don't want to do it all online, but I was thinking more of the prereqs and classes as such. That is why I was thinking LVN to get some nursing experience.

thanks much,

P_RN:

Thanks for your reply. I'm really not looking for the cheapest or the easiest way out but the quickest. I just don't think I can go through a traditional program at a junior college. However, I do want the best education and training possible.

Take care,

I agree with the previous post in regards to picking up skills...HOWEVER...with correspondence/distance learning courses, you still have to complete a clinical competency in order to receive a nursing degree.

I looked into this myself a few years ago (I've been an LVN since 1993)---the clinical evaluations are given in major cities (depends on where you live)---and are very, very intense. The way it was presented to me, clinicals involved 2-3 "performances" before an evaluating nurse..where you were fully expected to get it right the first time, without any prompting from the evaluator--simply based on having "learned by theory". That is scary-scary-scary. I quickly decided against it, because of the clinical eval. process. If it's worth doing, it's worth doing RIGHT.

If you're wanting to be the best nurse possible, get your initial training in a class-room setting, where you have the benefit of attending clinical training. You'll have personalized guidance from your instructors & have the benefit of learning from your student peers. Correspondence/self-paced learning leaves room for a horrifying margin for error in how you'll commit things to memory, too. Nursing is one (of many) field where simply 'reading' through a process or procedure will NOT mean that the person is competent.

I'd hate to have someone taking care of a loved one (or me) who'd learned all their "skills" by reading through the steps like a recipe...as opposed to having had been taught proper techniques & have had opportunity for return demonstrations of competency. There's no assurance that what you read will be properly applied without the clinical guidance.

There are just so many aspects of nursing where the "see one, do one, teach one" philosophy holds true. You need the 'hands-on' experiences, not to mention, the interaction with your clinical rotation patients. (Learning therapeutic communication & nurse/patient relations certainly doesn't come from a book.) ....not to mention, the role modeling that takes place, both in the classroom setting, as well as on clinical rotations

Good luck!

It's not how quick you become an RN that matters but the quality of the educational expirience that is important. With that said I would look to a local ADN program and complete. No offence to LVN but I think it would be a waste of time to get LVN and then continue the educcation to obtain an RN given the parameters you placed on the advice and your situation.