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Hi, I am new to the Bay Area, just moved here two months ago for a job and I have been loving it! I am so grateful to now call California home. I am an MA and in the next year or so I plan to go back to school for RN. I have heard great things about Solano Community College and I keep hearing about Gurnicke and Blake Austin. I wanted to hear other's opinions about what are good RN programs in the area. Truthfully I see myself in Sacramento eventually just because it is much cheaper than the Bay Area, so I am open to suggestions for the Sacramento area as well. For profit schools tend to scare me just because it is so much more expensive than community college/state schools but I am open to hearing your experience. I am working on my CNA right now so that I can better align my schedule and finances to fit into the nursing school student life style (which I know is intensive and mostly is offered during day time working hours). I am looking more into ADN programs at the moment just because personally I like to break my schooling up, I cannot stay in school for years on end otherwise I become this very crabby and cynical human being that I do not like to be. The fact that I got through one associate's program + 1.5 years of nursing pre-reqs while working a full time day job still shocks me, but let me tell you I was ready to rip people's faces off on a daily basis and that's just not good for my mental health LOL. So I am really just trying to do what works best for me right now despite other's judgements/criticism, because at the end of the day I'm the one that has to pay my bills and deal with my attitude and feelings LOL ?. All that to say: I am mostly interested in hearing about ADN programs in the area, but if you did a BSN program I'm open to hearing about that too because eventually I do want my BSN. Thank you!! ?❤️

Hello all, I am a CMA and an RPT with about 3 years of experience, for the last 1.5 years I had been working on my pre-reqs for nursing school but with COVID and working full time and just life, I began to get very anxious and decided to take a break from school (I began my break 12/2020). I was living in Nevada when all this was going on and then moved to Oregon on a whim for a temp job, and then to California. I've always wanted to make California my home and I really want to get my nursing license here because it is, I hear, one of the hardest states to get it in and if you can get it here then it's easier to transport to any other state; really, long term I would like to stay in California and truly call it home. From talking to my co-workers and doing my own research, I've recognized that many of the community colleges here do require having completed a CNA program and getting your CNA license. For a long long time I avoided the idea of becoming a CNA because I have heard how physically and emotionally exhausting it can be, but I also think it is a very valuable position and on the journey to becoming an RN it can be helpful in more ways than one. My thinking is this: being that I am a single female that lives on her own and has to pay her own bills I can rock this CNA program, and once I get into an RN program I can continue to work as a CNA on NOC shift (either part time or full time) until I graduate and become an RN. Since I just moved to CA I have to live here a year at least before I can get in state tuition. So I think I'd continue working as an MA by day and work as a CNA part time, ideally only like 2 nights a week until I begin an RN program, then I'd have CNA experience on my resume and I'd be able to continue making the money that I need to live out here in California. My CNA program begins this weekend. Thoughts? Suggestions? Words of wisdom? Anybody ever taken this path? I try to talk to as many nurses as I can at work and just see their perspective and their journey because it seems like in this uphill battle you really just have to do what works for you and everybody's situation is so different. I never thought I'd be where I am now but I am grateful and I am beginning to get very excited about the possibilities. And if you have taken this route (MA to CNA to RN, or MA to CNA) what would you say was the hardest thing to adjust to? It seems like what MA's do and what CNA's do are like night and day in comparison. Thank you ?❤️!

Hello, I am still a long way away from completing the program, still doing my pre-reqs, but I wanted to ask about moving out of state right after completing nursing school. I live in Nevada right but I would really like to move as soon as I'm done with school. Oregon and California are the two states I am most interested in moving to. I'd love for any nurses to share their experiences moving to one or both of these states. Was it difficult getting licensed there? Was the pay better or worse there, than you expected? Would you recommend getting experience before moving or do you think you have just as much of a chance going without experience?