Patchz

Thanks so much for the input, Kristen!! It's very helpful and encouraging. Did your husband go and get his prerequisites before starting his Associate's program? -Ryan

jess, what do you mean by 'clinicals' when you say that there are no waiting lists for clinicals in accel bsn programs? do you disagree that going for an asn, followed by an rn-bsn, is a good approach?

Thanks again, Richard. That's helpful to know. Best of luck to you in your final year in the BSN.

Thanks for your input, Richard. It does seem like an ASN program may be a good way to start. Do you know if there are prerequisites to getting into most ASN programs? Why do you wish that you started off in an ASN program as opposed to the BSN? Thanks again for your insight. -Ryan

I hope that I'm posting in the right place. I could use advice more than I ever have. If anyone can help me out, I would appreciate it more than I could say. I'm 31 years old, and single, and am working at an investment bank in New York city, in a job in the marketing department. I don't care about the job. I got it through a connection with a friend of my father's. I started six months ago. I had been living in New Mexico, studying in a graduate program on Eastern classics. I moved back to NY when the program was finished. I felt like it was the right thing to do. I missed my parents. On my second day at work, my mom was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. Nothing had ever been more devastating. That was on the 31st of October. She died three months later, the first week of February. The nurses who cared for her made me think of all of the nurses I'd ever known, and admired. Her passing has made me reassess everything. I no longer want to be at my job in the city. It only feels like a waste of time. Becoming a nurse is what I'd like to learn about doing now. I've read about accelerated BSN degrees, and Associate's programs. Having had no experience in nursing, I don't feel sure about how I would best go about becoming one. Let's say, hypothetically, I've done thorough enough groundwork to give me the sense, and the confidence, that nursing is what I want to do. What, then, would be the steps I should take in earning a BSN? (I would like to leave my job in the city as soon as I get the chance. It gives me time for nearly nothing in my life.) With the free time that I do have, I will be seeing if the hospital near me has volunteer opportunities, or nurse-shadowing opportunities, to do on Saturdays or Sundays. I realize that I would probably have to take prerequisite courses in the sciences before I could get into a BSN, or ASN, program. I really hope to start moving with pursuing this soon. I just need to get an idea of what the best course of action someone like me would, or should, take. Next to further reading, correspondence, volunteering, and informational interviewing, would it be prudent, once I am sure of it, to leave my job and begin the prerequisite classes at the local community college in Fall 2008, if not Winter 2009, and work part-time locally? Maybe an easier way for me to ask this question, and spare the story above, is: what would the fastest way for a 31-yr-old single guy with no dependents and no previous background in nursing or the sciences, but with a bachelor's degree in the humanities, be to become an RN? I look forward to hearing from anyone here who could give me advice on what I should do. Thanks so much...