OBplease

I'm in Texas. I have all of the LVN and RN pre-reqs and co-reqs, with the exception of Micro., for my school and a couple of the closest schools, and a couple of extra classes. I am contemplating the best path for my family and I. I have a desire to work some specialty clinic jobs, such as OB and Oncology and am concerned that I may not be eligible for those jobs if I continue on to the RN year at my school. They give the option to do it or not. I wanted to take the actual differences in education into account when making my decision. Thank you for all the responses.

Can anyone give me specifics on the difference in course work for LVN and ADN school. I know some say LVN is just the first year ADN but I'm thinking this may not be the case because I have viewed the semester schedule for the ADN schools and LVN schools here and ADN schools have the same classes (as the LVN) stretched out over the two year period. I know that there is a difference between LVN and ADN (chain of command/delegation, allowed tasks, etc.) but I'm wondering what the difference would be in the actual school work. Thanks! By the way...my current school does only LVN year, transition, and RN year (if you choose to continue). In this case, I'm wondering if, most of the classes are repeat. For example, doing OB, psych, peds. again but in the new role.

cwongsang- Thanks again for the feedback. I'm hoping I can relax a bit with summer and get it back...or not. I just can't imagine feeling this way after wanting it for a decade and a half. I think I'm just exhausted from worrying about it. I'll have to check into these schools and see what there policy is about time off. I was under the impression if you didn't come in at the right time you were out for the day. Thank you so much for the info.

Thank you both. My kids will be 10, 7, 8, 5, 4. Four will be in school and 1 in preschool (it's a great place, which is great). I am just wondering, what do you do about sick care? Do you have time for Dr. appointments and school functions (like a parent teacher conference)? I'm starting to feel a little better about it today after talking with a friend who just went through it. Her school seems a bit more reasonable and she had a newborn at the time. I may apply there too. There are also two M-F schools with in an hour that are options. My only problem now is that I'm not feeling that intense drive I had. I'm not sure if that is because I was so worried about getting through it that I wore myself out or what. Thanks for the feedback!

I am ready to apply and am having a lot of self doubt. It all centers around my family. I just don't have faith at this point that I will be able to successfully get through the program with my kids. I know lots of people do it but I don't have much support and I just don't know. I'm considering changing majors over it. I am hoping some of you can share some specifics, so that I can get a better idea if I will be able to handle the load or not. For example, what are the days and times of your program,? What are your typical out of class assignments for the week, how long does it take you to do them and for study time? If you have children, what are some examples of issues that have come up with your children during your program and how have you handled it? Did you have help with your children? My program will look something likes this...M 8-5, T 9-11, W 6-3, T 6-3. I think it's reasonable but I still have doubts. I have had two kids with short hospital stays this year. Things like that are what I worry about. I also have been sick just this past week and I know that I could not have attended school. It took me three days to get over. I am considering changing to social work and I am really interested in it but I cannot tell if I am just getting scared and thinking of jumping ship. It's a more reasonable program. I'm passionate about both. Any insight would be appreciated.

...and heart broken. I have been in school for reqs. for 2 years, at the end of this semester. I have wanted to be a nurse for the last 17 years. I lack one class, which I had planned to take in the summer. I should be applying to my program A.S.A.P. and to another in three or so months. I have children, and a husband, and a family who takes advantage of me (not the children) and who have basically all checked out on me unless they need something (I love to help my family, I just feel like I'm forgotten the rest of the time). I have been worried for the whole last two years about how N/S was going to work out with absolutely no help with children (except school and preschool, for the little one), for sick kids day and other random days, when clinical runs over, etc. I have expressed my concern to my husband and family before and during the last two years. They brush me off with it will work out but no explanation of how. They do not understand how strict the N/S schedule is and are not participatory in any sense right now with my children or myself, so hence no real faith that they would come through. During a conversation with my husband tonight about a couple of things that have happened this week (for example, getting our boys to their baseball practices, which I do two of now, and taking care of the other children during all the practices and games, while DH helps coach one of the teams(practices have been ridiculously long this week and there have been pop-practices, last minute-early starts) I bring up how will this happen this time next year. I don't see how it will work out, there is no one else, how will I do N/S? To which he replies, "probably won't be able to do school during spring time." N/S!!!! Nursing school is all year round! He said he thought I would start in the Winter. I have thoroughly explained it is year round and it is not a flex schedule, you can not miss more than 2 days a semester at my school, etc. "Oh", he says, finally realizing, yeah, it's probably not going to work out. I have wasted the last two years for nothing and I am completely heart broken.

If you have not taken lots of extra classes and only those that apply to the current degree you are seeking maybe this will apply to you. I'm assuming if you still have 5 classes, you may have around 90 to 100 hours already. My adviser recently told me that I would have plenty of financial aid to cover my first year of NS (which for me will probably be LVN). He said that somewhere into the second year, I may run out because of the 90 our credit limit (I had to drop a semester due to family passing). However, he told me FA makes exceptions for RN school and that the limit is 168 hours. I researched it on my school's website and it does say there is an exception for the Registered Nursing Program and it is 168 hours. I'm not very clear about how FA works but if this does apply to you and you are only around 100 hours then I would think you would still have 60 to 70 credit hours of aid to use. You may want to research that. (My school is PJC, Paris, TX. You can find the info. under the financial aid link)

So sorry for your frustration. Hope you get in next go around.

I actually just found out from my BIL (who just started reqs. there) that some of the students from that school have backed out already because of the changing guidelines. He told me that they sighted making it easier for students to transition to a BSN program after finishing the ADN. It still seems wrong to me to ask for BSN requirements for an ADN program but I may end up doing it anyway. It's not the classes that bother me. I had thought about doing them anyway to work toward a BS in something else while waiting if I don't get in this time. It just doesn't make a lot of sense to me. People choose to do the ADN for different reasons and for those, like my BIL, it's a huge deal to have to pay out of pocket for eight more classes they may never need. It also adds another year, when the 2 year degree already takes three as it is now. Whatever though, rant over. It is what it is..lol. Camwill- You are so right, the school definitely makes a difference. You sound fortunate to have a family that is able to accommodate (as they should) your schedule. It will benefit your whole family that they are able to do that. I wish my circumstances were more flexible and maybe they will be by then. Good luck to you!

Ashley....The ADN reqs for most schools close to me are AP1, AP2, Micro, Gen. Psych., Psych-Lifespan, Sociology, English 1, Pharm., Nutrition, Med. Term., Arts, and Microcomputer Applications. A couple of those are just for my school, a couple are just for the other one. I will take Micro. in summer, everything else is done. The school I am talking about will also now count History 1 and 2, Government 1 and 2, Speech, Stats., English 2, and Humanities. Those are all BSN courses around here. caliotter3- You are right. I need to learn to quit jumping at everything that changes. I just don't feel like I have much wiggle room to change plans, which comes from having a kind of inflexible situation with kids and no assistance from family/husband. It keeps me too uptight and I need to learn how to get around that. It makes it harder that our programs here are only considered once per year. Camwill- WOW! I have heard of some people driving that far. I could see the perks of being able to just drive and think. We don't have a lot of school choices around here and the ones around an hour from me would be two hours with traffic. However, with family commitments, I can't afford to tack on the four hours a day to an already 10 to 12 hour schedule. There is a top rated school only 45 minutes from me and if the other two don't work out, I can try them. They consider twice per year and I would just need to take stats.

I'm wondering if anyone else is seeing this and what your thoughts are. A program I was hoping to enter for LVN in Jan. (and then move onto ADN year after the required year working period) will now be figuring in the BSN pre-reqs. If I didn't get into the LVN, I was planning to apply for straight RN for Fall '13. There had been 8 classes for the ADN (LVN to RN) up until now and the point system for that school added up to 13 possible points. Now they are including 8 more classes in their point system for a total of 21 points. I had already taken one of these new classes for my school but that would leave seven more I would need in order to maximize points. Not sure how to proceed with this new info. I had intended to enter their LVN program because, schedule wise, it's probably the best for my family and it would give me a chance to feel out office jobs (instead of not being able to get some of the jobs I would like to try because they don't hire RNs). The next entry point for this school's RN or my schools LVN (they only do LVN year then RN year) is Fall '13, so it just makes sense to try and get started with LVN in Jan. After micro. in the summer I was done with all possible pre-reqs. and co-reqs. through RN for my school and this school. Now things are changing and I don't know if I should just go ahead and jump in to the rest of those or what. It's not like I can just wait around and see if I get into the LVN because I would need to be taking more classes in Fall to apply to the straight RN in Dec. if I didn't get in or for transition later on. I just really hate the thought of chasing never ending changing guidelines. I could also try to get back into my school for the RN year later on but who knows if they don't go to this too. Is anyone else seeing this? Between my school and this school, they have changed guideline 3 times within a year. What would you do? Just try to stick to other schools or go ahead and do the extra classes? It begs the question though, if I had to do the classes anyway, why not just go for a BSN (there are no programs within an hour of me and I was never really interested in that anyway but you get what I mean)? Also, this will eat up pell for credit hours I may never need. I don't mind paying out of pocket, it just feels like I'm chasing something that is always just out of reach. I have a 3.9 GPA and have all the classes and so I have been told, by the counselor, that I will probably get into LVN (provided I do ok on entrance testing) but then what?... or should I skip this school all together? (Sorry this is so long and all over the place, this has just really thrown me off.)

dragonfly414- Thank you so much for your perspective. I have a great daycare. My youngest two go for preschool, while I do school and to be quite honest because I (and they) really have no one else we can depend on. I felt it best for them to have other people in their life. I know I can depend on them, they are great. Hopefully there will be enough coverage for the rest of it. I'm feeling a little burnt out right now, just related to worrying about the particulars with school. Hoping I can get my drive back soon and feel the energy to do this.

ixchel...I don't know what else to say except, you are right on all accounts. I really appreciate your pep talk and understanding. It's so hard to keep yourself going sometimes without support. It's hard to know how much is o.k. to put your family through when the last 9 years has been all about making everyone else's life run smoothly. I love them but I have completely given up myself. I've been in school for the last two years and I thought reqs. would kind of be the adjustment period for everyone but here two years later, I still feel like I'm having to fight for my right to be back in school. I totally understand what you are talking about with your MIL. Mine was not excited about me going back because she thought it would put too much stress on my husband. I'm trying to hold onto some excitement and figure out what is reasonable to expect from others. Thanks again!

Thank you both for your perspective. Yes, I'm sure I'm worrying too much, mostly about my family. I had three hospitals stays with two of my children since Jan. and it was stressful worrying about who was going to take care of children. Our parents see us as really responsible and for some reason that means we need no help. My mother actually says.."The one that is most broke gets the glue." They do not keep the kids now at all, so worrying about needing random care seems like a big deal. The hospital incidents were fluke things and nothing I expect to happen again but even thinking about my husband worrying about not being at work and if his customers would be mad was stressful. I have great daycare and all but one of my kids will be in school, so it's more sick coverage, school pick ups, and Dr. appointments that I am concerned about. I have the drive to do both. I feel like I would be equally good at both. I have always been the 'NS' and 'SW' (no offense to those who actually are) in my family....meaning I'm usually the one advocating for care or services or the one that is sought out by family and friends for problem solving. I enjoy being able to be a resource for people and that is why I would enjoy both. There is something else attached to the nursing though..I have had my heart set on it for the last 17 years. I think I need to go ahead and do the LVN program. They are the ones who usually work at the offices in my area anyway. The scheduling still scares me but I think it's worth a try. I do eventually want to do labor and delivery, when my kids are older and can handle the scheduling so I will do the second year. Thank you both again.

I haven't been on here in a while. Had a couple of deaths and hospitalizations in the family and took some time off from the site to clear my head...or tried to. However, I'm still, after two years doing reqs. lost about if I should be going to nursing school or not and which school I should consider going to. I'm done with reqs. after this semester and am ready to apply. I would really appreciate some insight. I have wanted this for the last 17 years, or so I thought. I have been convinced nursing would be my dream but I also, as a teen, had no concept of social work and now, after becoming more aware of that am wondering if I'm more cut out for that. I think I would be good at both and I think they would come pretty naturally. However, I am worried about scheduling and kids with NS. One school is five days a week until about 3 to 4pm and the other is 3.5 days with clinicals being 6:30a.m. to 7p.m. I have a lot of family around, both sets of grandparents are within a mile and my husband owns his own business and is also close by. My family is just not the type to help out, just because. They are more of the type to rally around people when everything is falling apart. I'm afraid my husband doesn't understand the gravity of the commitment it will take for nursing school. He has occasionally, maybe three times in the last year, expressed frustration over the fact that I HAD to miss church because I had an assignment due that night. He says it will be fine and that if the kids get sick at school he can pick them up and take them to work. What? I also worry about Dr. appointments, etc. I'm not sure he is taking me seriously. I will say I have expressed my concern to my mother and husband both and I don't think either is taking me seriously, probably because I tend to be a worrier anyway. I am also concerned that I will never be able to adjust my family to me being gone for working shifts, being gone 14 hours a day, with travel. What I really want is to work in an OBs office. I'm also interested in oncology, also in an office. I don't know if I am being realistic about that. Then there is social work. I would have about a year left on reqs for that. I'm not out to work for money. My husband makes an o.k. living and we budget and we are o.k. with that, so the fact they tend to make less than RNs is not an issue to me. I just really want a career that means something. So I don't require a high salary. I have read a lot online that the SW jobs are just not there for BSWs and I can't see myself ever wanting to go for a masters. I don't want to do therapy (which requires an MSW), my interest is more child welfare, adoptions, and social services. This program is more reasonable as far as scheduling and with the rest of the reqs and core, I'd only have 2.5 years left. I am just not sure if I have scared myself into thinking about this option because I am worried about the other. I really don't know what to do. I honestly believe I would love to do either. It is more the particulars that worry me. I would appreciate any help. Thanks!

I have no idea where I'm headed and when. I had planned to apply this application period which would have meant I would have started in summer or fall depending on the school. I did not apply though because I had two deaths in my family and withdrew from this semester's classes. I have spring and maybe a summer class or possibly two, if I really drag it out, to do and I'll be set for most any school I would care to apply to within an hour or so. I really only have one class left for my current school. The problem is, if I continue on with the idea of my current school I have another 18 months before I start. I don't know now if I just want to do first year (LVN) or both (LVN-RN). I had planned to do both years, if I had started this summer but I have already been in requisite land for a year and half and if I don't start for another year and half and then it takes at least a year to have accomplished anything to be able to practice....not sure if I want to go into another year at that point or just wait until I practice a while. The other option is waiting til Fall after next and finishing RN at the same point as above. I could also start an LVN program at this same place a year from Jan. (the least dead time of all options) but it's a five day a week program and I'm not sure if this feasible with children. My ideal jobs would be in postpartum, an OB office, or possibly an oncology office. After getting blown off my current path I don't know what I should be doing to get where I want. I just don't want to drag things out any longer than I have to. I had also thought maybe I should just do surgical tech. and try to get in with an OB dept. I know I would be happy for a while, I just don't know if it would last (I've had nursing in mind for 15 years). It's an AS program and I really only need the two semester's of clinicals after spring semester and I will have something to show for what I have been doing. I really just want to be getting somewhere already. All the nursing programs with a bi-annual start date are an hour and a half from me. There just aren't many good options. Making all this harder is that I have a family to consider. I will be 31 this week and I would also like to have one last baby in the next few years. I know this is all over the place but there is really no one else that understands all the ins and outs of getting in to programs like these (or cares to listen) and can help me sort it out. I would love any suggestions. Thanks!

Pharm., Art., English, and Micro. These are the last of my reqs. I'm excited and trying to focus on making myself stay on schedule, so I don't get behind, and planning to hold on to my GPA. This will be the most hours I've done at a time and sticking to my schedule will be key. I should start N/S next June.

I may change my mind. I bought my books on Thursday and I should learn a great deal from this Spanish class by the end, enough that I wouldn't be too upset if is the only one I got in before nursing school. However, by the second chapter of the book, even most of the instructions are in Spanish. I'm not sure I will be able to absorb much of it right now, with the other classes, and this one not being in class. It is supposed to be Elementary Spanish but it is far from Elementary and each chapter has tons of info. It is nothing like either of the Spanish classes I took in high school. I'm not real sure I like the way the book is laid out. I really want to take it but it may have to wait til next semester when my load won't be as great and when I can get it in class. I'm going to keep looking over the book for the next week and think about it some more but I may be switching for Micro. after all.

Thank you for the feedback. As much as it would be nice to do it all, and I'm sure that I could, I think I will just go ahead and leave alone and pace myself. As I said earlier, this will allow me to fit more Spanish in, in the end, and still leave me enough hours Spring semester.

I know that Micro. is hard. I will take it Spring semester and will have nothing else but Spanish 2 to take with it. I really didn't have to have it this Fall for any other reason than it would have been nice to say I had it all done (It would have also given me the last possible point for the second choice school). It won't count to toward my app. for my school. I do plan to eventually take all four Spanish courses at my school. That is just a personal goal, since my children's birth family only speak Spanish.

I'll just go ahead and answer my own question....just because I could, doesn't mean I should. It may not be crazy to do it but I guess it's really unnecessary. I'm going to go ahead drop the Micro. back off. I think a little bit of the "What ifs?" are getting to me. What if I don't get into my school, I should be prepared for the other. When in reality, even without the Micro., I could probably still get into the other school, if I wanted to. However, I don't really want to go to that school, I want to go to mine. I feel pretty confident about my school, so I guess I should just chill out a bit and relax when there really is no reason to cram. With my Pharm. class this Fall, I will be as prepared as I could be for the application process at my school, so I will just leave it at that. Plus several of the class I have had to take as reqs. for my school I would have had to take again as part of the other school's nursing classes and I really don't want to re-do them and cram more into less time. I also need to keep my hours up for Spring semester to keep me eligible for childcare expense help if my name ever comes up on the wait list. So I guess I just need to calm down and quit having this convo. with myself. Lol.

I didn't see your post when I posted mine earlier. I'll be following to see what other responses you get. I don't have as many sciences as you have but I'm currently registered for a very full load and am wondering if I should keep them all. Good luck with your classes.

I have obsessively checking online to see if a section of Micro. opens up, and today, one did. I had been checking because that will be the last co-req. I will need. I snatched it. It had never occurred to me what, if anything, I would do to my schedule if I was able to register for it. I was currently enrolled in English, Arts, and Pharm and because I hadn't been able to get a Micro. that would work with my schedule, I also picked up Elementary Spanish. I was excited about the Spanish, because even though I don't need it, I wanted to take it and would be able to take the next section in the Spring. Well now, this puts me at 17 hours. Is this totally crazy, should I drop something, or can I do this? I have only ever taken 11 hours at a time. Last semester I took A&P2, Sociology, and Psych and felt totally fine. I don't need the Micro. to get into my program, it won't count toward my app., and more than likely I will get in. However, in order to be in a really good place for another close by school, I needed the Micro. I don't know if I am being overly ambitious and eager to get this all done, thinking I might be able to do it, or if I really could. I have looked over the Arts info. It will be easy. I also expect that Freshman English will not be a big deal. Pharm. I will need to pay attention to but it's also just an introduction course and a rather slender book in comparison to some. In fact, part of it is a work book. I have a 3.89 GPA. I don't want to mess it up but I'm not sure what to do. Yeah, I could drop the Spanish but that will mean I will only have beginners Spanish in before N/S because I will be taking it in the Spring instead of the next section. Any advice would be appreciated. (By the way, all but Arts is online. I thought I would do English in class but it seemed like my time would have been better spent doing the work then being in class for that. Introduction to Pharm. is only offered online and Spanish I could make work no other time. I will have three full days of childcare and more if I really needed it and I do not work. Thanks!)

Yep. Me too. My final for summer isn't even 'til Tuesday but I'm already counting down the days 'til Fall. I do better when I have a little more to do. It keeps me on track and I don't slack and get bored. I have four classes for Fall (two easy, and two moderate) and I can't wait until the 29th to get my last full semester down. I'll be taking Micro. in the Spring but I'm considering this my last semester and Spring to be my rest up before N/S, hopefully, next summer.

Mine will all be done. However, I do want to complete the 3rd and 4th section of Spanish and will really only have one half summer off between the two years, without n/s. Not too interested in doing it in 4 weeks. So, I don't know when I will do them. Spring will be my last semester before n/s and I will be doing the 2nd section of Spanish then, so I can't get the others in before then. If it was something like Arts or Sociology, I might do it. I would not do Micro. or Chem. but I know some people do.