Pre-Nursing for BSN....skating into LPN?

[nurse_wannabee]

:typingHere goes,

I am a mother of two(boy 4, girl 3) a full time wife, mother and a full-tome student at Temple University trying to complete my pre-requisites for the BSN program. Here is my dilemma; my husband has been laid off from work for 6 months now, our savings is completely depleted, we are making it with unemployment salary, and I am beginning to feel that we cannot afford another 3 years in school (I did two years for Marketing 5 years ago) I have been heavily weighing the option of going for an LPN program(12-15 months here) and applying for a job, and obtaining my RN degee online, or doing tuition reimbursement through my employer. Is this a good move? Do jobs discriminate between a online degree vs. a traditional degree? What's the smartest route for a mother/wife with a family on a very tight financial situation?

Thanks you in advance for your help!!!!

[lashuna1028]

First off I can tell you YES, employers do discriminate with online degrees and for some good points. Some online programs dont even require clinical rotations and to just do the CLEP exam (or whatever its called to pass on clinical skills exam). So most employers would feel like a traditional school would have a more knowledgeable and experienced grad versus an online school. And for example when it comes to an online programs YOU have to find your own hospital and proctor to do the rotations at. The hospital/clinic/ etc would have to agree and sign documents with the school to allow you to practice there. ANd this is because most online programs have only so many hospital/clinical sites in each state that they have already found for their students. So for example if you live in texas and the online school has 5 places to do your rotations at but you live 2 hours away from the nearest one, you would then have to find your own in your area and have them agree for you to practice there plus an instructor/proctor there and then the documents are sent to the school.

If you are in a dilemma like I was in, yes I would go ahead and get my LVN simply because its less time and you would be making more money in 1year versus going to school for 3 years broke. But I will say it is HARD.

Reason why is because first off, (Im going to exclude a person not being strong minded and determined) the LVN-RN bridge programs are few. I am in Dallas, TX and there is only one school in Dallas that has an LVN-RN bridge program and that is EL centro college, which is downtown dallas. THat one of course is very competitve, so most LVNs start to look into the out-of-town schools offering the programs maybe 45-1hr away or more.

Then you have to meet that particular schools requirements to apply. Its hard to apply to several at once because they all want different prerequites. Maybe one school wants A, B, and C prerequisites and another school wants you to have A, C, and E. Some schools require you to be an LVN for at least one year before applying Or like El Centro it is required to have at least 6 months experience working in an acute care facility. I graduated in Sept 07 and finally completed all prerequites needs for one partticular school which is starting its bridge program in May this year.

I applied and just praying that I get accepted because its based on a point selection. If I don't I will just have to find another school and apply there, keep trying and never give up. Thats why you see some LVNS working in nursing homes for 15-20 years and you wonder, why? Determination is the key.

Sometimes I feel regret on doing the LVN instead of RN because if I would have gone straight I would already be an RN right now. But I have to remember I did it for a good cause because after one year my pay scale jumped from $13/hr to $22/hr (plus working whenever, overtime unlimited. can have so many different jobs at the same time because nursing is 24 hours) THats a big difference for one year....

So I think it really depends on your current situation. Since you really need to make a change faster I would go for LVN then bridge to RN

[caliotter3]

There are two benefits to obtaining your LPN license at this time. One is that you can begin bringing in the income to help your family and to help pay for RN school. The other benefit is that you can make your admission to RN school easier by going into an LPN to RN bridge program. Employers are concerned with the fact that you have an RN license more than how you obtained it.

[TennyLPN2B]

In the surrounding counties you have a plethora of LPN-RN programs available at the CC level and Temple now has an online RN-BSN available as well.

LPN-RN-BSN is a smart route for your family.

[Jules A, MSN]

I wasn't aware that there are online LPN programs but I agree that getting your LPN now would be a good move for your family. Is your husband able to apply in another field just to have some work? Good luck!

[kcoa11]

I think that you are making a wise decision by considering the LVN to sustain your family. Once you are a "nurse" the door is always open to easily further your education online, through work (which will pay for you) and through universities/community colleges. If I were in your place, I'd consider the same thing. Keep your head up, everything will work out for the good....