LateStarter_inCA

Hi, I have an interview for CCE @ Hoag this month. I was trying to see what my chances are of being accepted... What type of people are they looking for? Do they have preference on whether the applicant is enrolled in a nursing program? Anyone currently in the program at Hoag and can share their experience? I'm planning on attending a CC for Spring 2012 semester to take some pre-reqs and figure out if ABSN is the route I want to take but I can't make that decision and fully commit if I don't get any experience in a hospital setting to see if it is actually what I want and can handle. Thank you!

Thank you so much for your reply! After I posted that I decided to look around and I found one such volunteer program that seemed very interesting and I signed up for their next available interview: Nov 30th! I also found 2 other volunteering opportunities which don't seem like they're for nursing students, but like you said, it'll be an opportunity to gain some insight. Btw, love that quote!

Hello, I'm 30 years old and considering a career change and have some reserves regarding being able to do it with all this competition out there.... I've been out of school for almost a decade and I went to an info session for an Accelerated BSN and there were people who had finished grad school, and had 3.9 GPAs etc... a little intimidating. Anyway, I wanted to know if it's possible to volunteer in hospitals in order to get some experience and if so , what would they allow you to do when you have no experience in the medical field? I don't really want to be a volunteer in the gift shop or something like that... Is there anyone that was in my situation and can give me some insight into their experience? Also if you know of any hospitals where they would accept volunteers who are trying to figure out if the medical field is the right area for them... Thank you!

Hello, I graduated with a BS in Mathematics (UCI) way back in 2003. Then I fell into the mundane world of office work, which had nothing to do with my degree. I've been trying to get out of my current unfulfilling line of work and no career path excited me until I thought about nursing/medical field. I had always dismissed this because I've never been much of a risk taker and thought having people's lives in my hands was too much responsibility. But the more I thought about this field the more excited I became... Well enough about the background: I've been looking into how to start this transition. I'm sure I can't use any of my Chem or Psych etc credits from UCI since it was so long ago, and I also don't feel comfortable competing with others who have all that info fresh in their minds. So I was wondering if anyone had any advice on where to start. Which schools are good for starting to take the pre-requisites, which programs I should look into... I'm not a religious person... should I just not consider any schools with a St in the title... or Concorida...?