brandito8

Greetings, I am a 28 year old veteran and I recently graduated from Eastern Illinois University with a degree in Political Science. Well it turns out I hate the political arena, and based on my experiences as a volunteer at a veterans nursing home, and talking to my aunt who is a professor of nursing in Ohio, I have decided to persue a career in nursing. Of course now comes the griping that pretty much everyone who decides to go into nursing does. 1. The CNA classes at my community college filled up in about 2 minutes and I was stuck waiting in line at registration and on hold via my cell phone trying to get through to register. Had I gotten into the CNA class, I would need another semester of pre-requisites after the CNA class to be eligable for the two year waiting list. To this end, I have been talking to an Army recuiter and if I go into the National Guard as a 68W(health services) I can come out and do the Excelsior program. I am a little worried about the CPNE evaluation with only 6 months of training, but I work and learn fast (I completed my BA with a 3.4 gpa in three years, while serving as a drilling reservist 5 hours away from my school). My question is, have I explored all the possible avenues to becoming a nurse in Illinois? It would be nice to even get into an LPN porgram to get some practice. Any advice would be excellent. Oh I looked into UICs direct MSN entry program but I wouldnt have the pre-requisites done until next semester, causing me to miss yet another year of application eligabilty.