chiro-ann

Hi medstjean,I am at a junior college for my RN which I graduate from this Dec! It's cheap tuition. In Jan I will start my online RN-bsn degree, again at a cheap state university. After that I will do my family or acute care NP online. I have zero desire to rack up student loans so while my method will take 6-7 years in total, I can pay as I go. Also, don't forget hospital pay fora percentageof RN- BSN and np.

There are many chiropractors on this board, such as myself. Google within the site. I have been a chiropractor for 10 yrs and I will have my RN this year from a jr college. It's easy enough to do while continuing to work in the office. There are certainly faster ways to get NP degree, however this route is the most cost effective and easiest to juggle with work and family. Plus once you are working as a nurse, you will get tuition reimbursement for your RN to BSN degree and then for your NP. Can't beat that!

Congrats Philip! How difficult was the coorifice load? I have read comments outside of this thread explaining nursing is very difficult to complete so you shouldn't work. Is that true? I have two part-time jobs (which equals more than full-time) and a family. This past semester in Jan I earned A's in A&P, CNA class, Psychology and Speech. I am just finishing up my summer classes in English, Nutrition, Psychology and Sociology and again all A's. So given my school, work and family life, how difficulty will nursing be to me? I am applying to a community college who's nursing coorifice load is 8-10 credit hours per semester. Is it really difficult to complete while working?

I am not in the NP program as of yet, but from my understanding, it is best if you work as a RN prior to becoming a NP. You need the hospital experience, which is not limited to just bed -changing. Can you switch your office hours to three days per week, instead of five days. That way, you can work as a RN. Plus, it gets your foot in the door, especially if you want to get into ortho (which I do). I plan on keeping my office running while I am in school and just condense the hours when necessary to fit everything in. I think most of us plan on keeping our office, plus do NP or merge it in to the practice.

Thank you so much for doing a follow-up post after all these years! Do you have any kids yet? So you did the ADN, BSN while doing critcal care , then CRNA route? It seems like everything worked out perfectly as you had planned them. Congrats!

chiros2005 - yes, I do plan on continuing to practice while in school. That is another reason why I like to slow route of cc. It seems like it will be easy to rearrange patient's appointment to allow me to go to school or the hospital. I currently work part time for a chiro three days a week and I see my own patients the other days. When I become a RN, I plan to quit my job if I get a nursing job working 3 12hr shifts, but I want to keep my practice. I'll be making the same amount as money working as a nurse full time as an associate chiro part time but atleast i'm getting the necessary nursing experience for NP. Where are you in this process? I have been lurking on this website for months and only decided to become a posting member when I discovered this thread. Let's keep this up as I am sure it will help many others.

I too am a chiropractor in school to become a NP. I researched many schools to achieve my goals, but the best solution for my family, work schedule and bank account, was the community college route. It will take 6years this way to become a NP, but I refuse to take out more student loans. Many of my classes from my bachelor's in biology transferred, but I still have to take some classes to get admitted into the RN program. I am currently working full-time while taking classes. I expect to start this August or next January. It takes two years and i'll still be able to work. I like this route as well as there are so many ADN-BSN or ADN-NP out there and many are affordable. I looked into that new online school in texas, but a felt it was too expensive and I didn't want to travel there. My entire RN degree from the cc will be under $5000. Can't beat that! I found making appointments with the schools helped greatly in decided which road I would take. I did come across many schools that would not accept my prior classes as they were over five years old, so that narrowed down my list.