relentlessrunner

Thank you! That is good to hear. I wasn't sure if there were benefits to doing the BSN-DNP versus BSN-MSN-DNP if DNP is the goal.

Wow, rainforest? That is incredible! Traveling sounds great too! :)

Thanks so much for sharing! I'm not done with nursing school yet, but I can't wait! All of the ortho nurses I have met have been really helpful and excited about letting me shadow them. I can't wait to have a job that's fun because it's doing what I love. Thank you!

How did you get started in ortho OR? Did you do ortho med-surg first or say that you wanted to work with OR? Or can you do ortho OR as a new grad? Any info would be helpful. Thanks!

Yeah, sorry! I don't care about prestige either - I think I really meant, how competitive is admissions? :) Are you applying for next summer?

Chinook, here's about Tucson... Okay, about Tucson. It's a great place for young children. There are some nice places to live, especially in Northwest Tucson and even near campus. The further south you go, the more people see it as being an older area. If you live really far in Southeast Tucson, it may take you over a half an hour just to get to school. I think there are too many condos and nice places near school for you to want to live in SE Tucson right now anyway. There are a lot of nicer, new places even with a mile north of the University Medical Center. It seems like there are a lot of small children in Tucson - always something to do. See, Tucson is kind of like a "bowl" - or at least I view it as that. I cannot see myself living there the rest of my life - maybe a maximum of ten years or something. But it is great to live there when you are in school or if you want great medical facilities. Tucson has the Arizona Cancer Center, a medical school, etc. If you like the outdoors, Tucson is a great place to live. Some of my friends think that Tucson is too small and prefer Phoenix, but metro Phoenix is sort of mostly an area that goes west to east, and if you live way east or way west, it's hard to get to everything. Tucson has pretty much everything you need. You can drive up to Flagstaff or the Tonto National Forest or Havasupai Falls or the Grand Canyon or Snowflake to go ski within a day. You can drive to New Mexico if you want. You can drive to San Diego or Mexico within a day. I don't see how you could get bored. I have lived in Arizona, and I feel like you can always find what you want in Tucson. They had an international festival a couple weeks ago. They have so many nice trails and parks. There aren't many bodies of water - they have "canals" which are like washes lol. Sometimes it's weird how some of Tucson doesn't have street lights lit at night - which can be really weird. I guess there's not really a nightlife, but you know you're not moving to a big city anyway, and you can always go to Las Vegas within a day if you really wish haha. They are still working on a lot of I-10 highway construction, but that is not a big deal if you are going to school. Tucson is pretty affordable - they have normal grocery store prices, etc. It usually is five degrees cooler in Tucson than Phoenix, and you can tell the difference. It rains a little bit more than Phoenix. It is nice to have warm weather! So that's my Tucson speech. So do you live in NC? Are you applying for next summer?

I was looking at doing Georgia State's accelerated program, but I honestly believe that there are benefits of studying at a nursing school that has a research hospital adjoined to it (usually a medical school too). I know that some nursing schools are focused primarily on women's health, but I love how University of Arizona's classes seem to be into acute care (which I am excited about) plus you have the underserved population training.

Hi Chinook! Instead of waiting to find the time to write a super lengthy message, I will post about one question you had. The interview at UA is a group panel interview - a few people interview a few applicants at a time. That is about it for the interview! You apply by January 15 and usually get notice about about the interview by January 31. Then, usually, around February 15, you interview, and by the end of February, you find out. So it's a really quick turnaround. These are just approximate dates though. In 2010, the program starts June 7, and it's usually the first week of June of when the program starts. You have some tests the first few weeks, so it's a very intensive program! How prestigious are the programs in NC?

Thank you so much for sharing! It seems like I've been interested in orthopedics since I was in middle school, and reading the books about orthopedic surgery (like Hot Lights, Cold Steel) just encourages me even more! I'm glad you love your job - it seems like I could never tire of ortho!

I'm taking my classes at Georgia Perimeter (Decatur). It's been great!

If you want to take your classes online, I would try Rio Salado College. It's based in Arizona, but you can take Microbiology, Anatomy, Chemistry, and such all online. You just have to take the midterm and final at a proctor site of your choosing. It's a lot of reading, but it's definitely doable! If you want more information, just post back!

It's never too late to get a BSN! Just take it a chunk at a time! Know your limits. The Anatomy and Physiology classes and the Chemistry classes can be hard, so just be careful and know whether you can take more than 1 science at a time. I had a 2.0 GPA in my first year of engineering and then I decided I wanted to do nursing. Well, I switched my major to language studies at a university while I worked on my science prerequisites at a community college. At the university, science is harder. I took an anatomy class that was taught by a pharmacy professor, and she took no prisoners! :) There is a 60 year old woman in my anatomy II class. Don't worry about other people - if you want to do it, there will be a way! You don't want to think five years from now - what might of been!

For anyone who has done the DNP, did you this straight from the BSN or the MSN? I would love to hear about your choice! Thanks!

I was wondering if anybody has had experience with both oncology and ortho OR? I am interested in both. What are the pros/cons? Maybe I should do both at some point? Thanks!

It's going to take me a year and a half. I have had to take A&P twice, but the second time, I had a wonderful teacher! All of my prereqs are at the community college too.