dragonfly414

Danskos are always good. I've worn them for years waiting tables and plan to wear them in nursing school too. I also purchased a pair of timberland pros and they are extremely comfortable.

First of all, you definitely can do it! I've been in college longer than I care to think about and have had many classmates who had children. I'd recommend starting out at a community college to save money and also in my experience community colleges tend to be more geared towards non-traditional students who need more night classes or online courses. As for taking AP online, it is possible if you feel fairly strong about sciences. I wouldn't recommend taking AP II online if you could avoid it because it is harder than AP I. AP is a lot of memorization and AP II is more comprehension and putting it all together. I think you are more likely to have questions or things you need some clarification from the instructor on in an AP II, than you would an AP I. Not that you can't ask questions in online courses, but it is much easier to ask in person if possible. If you are dedicated and study your material you should be fine with AP I online. I've never heard of anyone working full time and going to nursing school full time at the same time, but that doesn't mean no one has done it. The risk is making the grades. If you don't make grades in a nursing program, you're out and there is lots of people right behind you waiting for your spot at most schools. I think you are wise to go to school now while you are still at home with your parents. Their support will be invaluable to you, especially since you have two little ones. I do not know anything about whether or not you can become a neonatal nurse with an Associates RN degree. I've never been interested in pediatrics or nicu so I've never looked into it. I suspect it would depend on what kind of neonatal unit you wanted to work in. I suspect a BSN would be required for the NICU, but I'm only guessing. Best of luck to you!

I meant 5-6 WEEKS of vacation not years! oooops! where is my EDIT button?!?!!! urgh

I'm sorry to say but fear your advisor may be right. I'm not sure about your school or the level of competition to be admitted to nursing, but where I am Cs in prerequisites will not get you into a nursing program. Although many programs say they require a "2.5 gpa and a C or better in prerequisites", in most places nursing programs are so competitive that meeting the minimum requirements for admission probably will not get you in. My best advice is to speak with a nursing advisor if you have not already. Ask them what the applicant pool tends to look like. If the students they accept tend to have a 3.0 gpa or higher with Bs or higher in their prerequisites, you should definitely get out while you can. If they say people are admitted with 2.7 and the occasional C, forge ahead if you know you can finish up strong. A withdrawl probably will not affect your gpa, but a D sure will. Make sure you know what your chances of getting in with the cards your currently holding are before you continue down the path assuming you'll be accepted. There is NOTHING wrong with attending a community college and then completing an RN to BSN. Whoever told you that is a bad idea is simply giving you bad advice. I'm not sure I would complete the RN to BSN completely online, but I don't particularly care for too many online courses. Many community colleges in my area have such great programs people are on two year waiting lists to get into them. While there are some important parts of a BSN, there are also many extra unnecessary classes involved with a BSN. These are commonly referred to as "fluff" courses for nursing students. Lastly, it might be a good idea to speak with a counselor at school. Student services/counseling offices are usually very good support systems for students in crisis. You need to find a way to take care of yourself or else you surely will not be able to help anyone else. Hope things turn around for you!

I'm turning 25 this saturday and will be graduating with a BS in Health Sciences and a minor in Holistic and Integrated Health this May. Last fall I applied to the University of Southern Maine's MSN-Options program and did not get in. There were 110 applicants and only 24 slots. I had a 3.429 gpa, but no patient experience or volunteer hours. An options program would have been my first choice because it was going to take me just a few more months than an RN or BSN. Between your GPA, your previous biology degree, and your volunteering experience I would think you would have a good chance of getting in. I was told Nursing at my school looks at volunteer hours. I've seen people who had plenty of experience with patients as a CNA not get in, so patient experience isn't everything. I'm not sure how competitive the programs are in MA.. sometimes programs get soo competitive that the GPA bar gets raised super high, eliminating many applicants who are more than qualified. An NP makes good money and has many opportunities and options in the path they take, so I think the loans are worth it. However, I might shop around in New England to see if another school might be cheaper. I know UNH has a direct entry program. Another option you may consider if you decide a direct entry is too pricey is to get your RN at a community college and then apply to an RN to MSN program, which bypasses the BSN. Getting an RN through a community college would probably cost a lot less than getting it through a direct entry program. Assess the loans you already have for school and how much it will cost either way. Last I knew an NP had starting pay around 75,000 a year, you might also be able to research the average starting pay in your area. Check out some approximate total costs and what your loan payments might be if you did take the NP plunge. studentloans.gov should have some info on hypothetical loan amounts and pay back amounts. As far as I know an FNP program includes maternity and an ANP does not, but it may vary from state to state or program to program. If you plan to travel and volunteer in developing countries, I would say you might want to go FNP. On the other hand if hospice is your thing, you are probably going to be dealing with mostly adults unless you have an interest in working palliative care for pediatrics... I'm not sure how much demand there is for that or if you're interested in it. One great thing about being an NP is (at least here in Maine) that you can open your own practice. I would guess if you work for a hospital or physician's office instead of hanging your own sign out you might get somewhere between 5 to 6 years paid vacation at the cap. That is pretty much the standard hospital/health care office vacation cap to my understanding. I'm not sure what you might start with for vacation. I'm not an NP, but I would think the hours you work would highly depend on where you worked. For example I would assume there are both full time and part time NP positions at hospitals and offices just the same as any other health care occupation. I would think on call time would be more common if you worked in a hospital. hope I was of some help, good luck!

This is bits and pieces from another post I recently responded to: I started my journey at community college to save money. I earned an associates of liberal arts degree, mostly because I had the credits so I figured oh sure give me the diploma even though it wasn't planned. I declared a mental health and human services degree at my community college after finishing my first degree, but I continued to chip away at nursing prerequisites and nursing courses that I knew would transfer to the local state university required for a BSN. Not long after getting my associates, I transferred to the state university. Since my GPA from community college was not quite high enough to apply to nursing I declared a Health Sciences major with a minor in Holistic and Integrated Health. Here in Maine, most nursing prerequisites are bio, chem, AP I and AP II. You can knock those out of the way at a community college as long as they are going to transfer to the schools you are applying to for a BSN. Declaring a Health Sciences major enabled me to sign up for courses that are also part of the BSN at my school like Emergency Response (Red cross CPR and first aid for the professional rescuer), Pathophysiology, Pharmacology, Microbiology, Nutrition, Health Related Research, and Concepts in Community health. In other words I completed every last course I could possibly complete with out being in the nursing program before I applied to nursing. I'm graduating with my Bachelors in Health Sciences and minor in Holistic Health in May. I applied to 4 different nursing programs including 1 MSN-options, an accelerated BSN, a regular BSN, and an ASN. I have a 3.4 gpa at my current school and was not accepted to the first three programs I applied to, but was accepted to the ASN. I'm convinced all of the classes I have taken ahead of time for a BSN were the reason I was accepted at the ASN. My over all college goal was to earn a bachelors degree and thankfully I will have met that goal. It just so happens my BS degree is not in Nursing. Ooops! Thankfully I'm more than ok with it. I could understand why you would apply to BSN programs, but as a back up I would apply to some ASN programs. I know it seems silly because a BSN takes you just as long as an ASN if you get prerequisites out of the way. I went through much of the same debate, and ultimately decided I just don't want to put my life on hold any longer hoping to get into a BSN. I've talked with many aspiring nursing students who also started to volunteer to boost up their resume. Many BSN programs look at stuff like that. You might also consider checking out what exams are required by different schools and sign up to take those or begin studying to take them. I've never understood why there isn't a more universal testing requirement for nursing. It seems like every school requires a different exam, and those darn things are expensive! ok, enough from me! Good luck.

First of all, good job on thinking ahead. :) Getting into nursing requires a lot of planning and thinking ahead. I started my journey at community college. I too earned an associates of liberal arts degree, mostly because I had the credits so I figured oh sure give me the diploma even though it wasn't planned. I declared a mental health and human services degree at my community college after finishing my first degree, but I continued to chip away at nursing prerequisites and nursing courses that I knew would transfer to the local state university required for a BSN. Not long after getting my associates, I transferred to the state university. Since my GPA from community college was not quite high enough to apply to nursing I declared a Health Sciences major with a minor in Holistic and Integrated Health. Here in Maine, most nursing prerequisites are bio, chem, AP I and AP II. If you have already taken those courses, you could look at other courses required for the nursing program that you could sign up for with out actually being in the nursing program. Declaring a Health Sciences major enabled me to sign up for courses that are also part of the BSN at my school like Emergency Response (Red cross CPR and first aid for the professional rescuer), Pathophysiology, Pharmacology, Microbiology, Nutrition, Health Related Research, and Concepts in Community health. In other words I completed every last course I could possibly complete with out being in the nursing program before I applied to nursing. Just be careful not to cut too close to meeting graduation requirements for a different BS degree other than nursing cause it will mess with your financial aid. My master plan back fired on me a little because I didn't know about this financial aid detail and I wound up meeting graduation requirements. If you meet requirements or are within a certain number of credits of meeting requirements you can't change your major and accept financial aid towards a second BS degree... the government considers it fraud. Definitely talk with someone who knows their stuff in your financial aid office. So, I'm graduating with my Bachelors in Health Sciences and minor in Holistic Health in May. I applied to 4 different nursing programs including 1 MSN-options, an accelerated BSN, a regular BSN, and an ASN. I was not accepted to the first three, but was accepted to the ASN. I'm convinced all of the classes I have taken ahead of time for a BSN were the reason I was accepted at the ASN. My over all college goal was to earn a bachelors degree and thankfully I will have met that goal. It just so happens my BS degree is not in Nursing. Ooops! Thankfully I'm more than ok with it. I could understand why you would apply to BSN programs, but as a back up I would apply to some ASN programs. Many of them have both Fall and Spring semester start ups or rolling admission so you might not have missed a deadline. I know it seems silly because a BSN takes you just as long as an ASN. I went through much of the same debate, and ultimately decided I just don't want to put my life on hold any longer hoping to get into a BSN. I've talked with many aspiring nursing students who also started to volunteer to boost up their resume. Many BSN programs look at stuff like that. You might also consider checking out what exams are required by other schools and sign up to take those or retake the exam you have already taken if you can. I've never understood why there isn't a more universal testing requirement for nursing. It seems like every school requires a different exam, and those darn things are expensive! ok, enough from me! Good luck. :hug:

I have yet to have to remove stains from scrubs as I'm only just beginning school, but I have had to wrangle with stains on button up white work shirts and my lab coats for school. I often use shout or Oxi-clean, but I find when something is stubborn it does take bleach. In a pinch one day I grabbed the Clorox clean up spray bottle and sprayed it on a spot of blue dye I had used in a micro lab on my 55% cotton/45% polyester lab coat. I dropped the coat in the washer with regular detergent and I'm happy to report my coat is NOT yellow and the stain is gone. It sounds like alcohol might have also worked so I will be sure to keep that in mind, but in a pinch even a little Clorox clean up will work for spot treatment! Perhaps Clorox 2 might work for your 100% cotton lab coat your Gram gave you? try it, it can't hurt. Don't feel bad about your wife knowing more about laundry. We have a "division of labor" as I call it in my house as well. My boyfriend can't stand dishes in the sink, so he always does them. I can't stand dishes at all, so I always do the laundry lol. I do the vacuuming/sweeping/mopping and he takes out the trash/recycling. We share the cooking, with him making most of the breakfast and me cooking more dinners. Kitty litter boxes, and other house hold stuff also gets shared. As long as you help and it works for your family I think you're doing just fine! :)

ahaha, ok thanks I will just go with women's tops. They are V necks and in the same color by Barco so they don't look much different they just fit a whole lot better on a petite gal like myself. I'm only 5'1" so unisex Small is still HUGE on me. I know scrubs are never really figure flattering by any means, but it would be nice if I didn't look like I weigh 50 lbs more than I really do or have so much extra material that it is a high possibility of catching it on things. Yet another thing I was wondering about was tattoos and piercings. I have one 1.5 square inch tattoo on the inside of my right bicep that is covered by short sleeve scrubs, but occasionally peeks out when I move around. Just wondering what the policy is on that. I have three piercings in each ear, but I always wear very small hoops or studs. I hate heavy dangle or huge "hoochey" hoop earrings as I so fondly call them, so I definitely will not miss not being able to wear those types of earrings. I'm just hoping I will not have to take any of my earrings out, but I've heard different things about nursing programs getting pretty fussy about ink and piercings. Thanks for answering my 50 questions! :thankya:

I was in a similar situation and the fastest way to improve your gpa is to retake anything you have a C or lower in. I had one course on my transcript that I got a D in and after I had retaken it my gpa went up quite a bit. It seemed nuts to retake a POS 100 level course, but if that's what needed to happen to raise my gpa to help me into nursing then that is what I knew I would have to do. So I did it along with a few others and somehow I went from a 2.5ish gpa hole I'd gotten into after my divorce to a 2.94 gpa at the community college I attended. Retaking courses sucks, but if you have to and you can afford to, do it because it is better than having your career on hold. I have a 3.4 at my current school, but almost all of my nursing prerequisites came from community college so I'm sure they looked at both transcripts. Many ADN programs have a 2.5 or higher requirement. Sounds like you did well on the HESI and your prerequisite grades are solid so that should help. It is entirely possible, so don't loose faith. Good luck, *fingers crossed for you!* :hug:

yup, agreed it is very addicting. I don't check it quite that often, but when I do check it I get sucked right in for WAY longer than I should! The funny thing is I've been making fun of my boyfriend for being hooked on his 'Guns and Ammo' forum for years and now look at me! ahaha!

I have an interesting senioritis/nursing school acceptance excitement combo. I'm graduating in May with a BS in Health Sciences and a minor in Holistic & Integrated Health and I've also been accepted to an ASN program for this fall. I'm burned out at one school and really excited for the other! It has been a very strange month or so since I found out I was headed to nursing clinicals this fall! Congrats on making it to your last semester of nursing! You made it this far you can do it! :yelclap:

I'm graduating this May with a BS in Health Sciences and a minor in Holistic & Integrated Health. I declared the major to bide my time while I was trying to get into nursing at my school. Many of the College of Nursing courses at my school are also courses required for Health Sciences majors, so I was able to complete those courses with out being in the nursing program. I ended up cutting it too close to meeting graduation requirements for HS so I kinda have to graduate with the degree. Financial Aid told me I was free to change my major if I was accepted into nursing, but they didn't recommend it because you can't accept financial aid towards one degree that you almost complete and then switch your major and accept more financial aid for the new major. Apparently the government keeps tabs on this stuff and it is considered fraud, so be careful. I applied to an MSN options program for Non-Nursing BS students, but did not get in with a 3.4 gpa. There were 110 applicants for 24 spots. I also applied to an accelerated BSN and regular BSN, but again did not get in to either of those. I was accepted at an ASN program within two weeks of applying at a community college. I decided it was best for me to go for the ASN, instead of waiting to try and reapply to a BSN again. Even though it didn't work out as planned I'm good with it. My goal was to earn at least Bachelor's degree in school and I've done it. It isn't a BSN, but still a Bachelor's none the less. It also enabled me to chip away at classes required for a BSN, so if or when I go for an RN to BSN program I will not have as many classes to take. I feel that I'm better off to enter nursing clinical after taking many courses that are not required for my ASN, but will certainly be applicable like pathophysiology, pharmacology, and several nutrition courses. It is also going to cost me about half the tuition by getting an ASN instead of a BSN. At some schools health sciences major can help you get more classes out of the way for nursing than general studies, but don't get too close to meeting graduation requirements. As far as it being a short cut for a BSN, it really isn't and it will also cost you a lot more to go that route. It also is not the "easy way out" or at least not at my school it isn't because you have to take many of the same classes as you would for nursing prerequisites like AP, chemistry, Microbiology, pharmacology, nutrition, etc. There is no "easy way" to become an RN as far as I can see! It could be a little bit of a short cut to an MSN program like the one I applied to. Beware they are SUPER competitive and SUPER intense if you are accepted because you go through an accelerated bridge program to get your RN and then you start your graduate classes. Good luck with your endeavors! :)

I had heard mixed things about having a pulse ox. I agree it could definitely be a risk. I'm glad I don't have to buy one to be honest, as they are not cheap. Thanks for your info I really appreciate it! Do you know if we are allowed to wear any of the hunter green barco tops? or do they all have to be exactly the same for everyone? Unisex tops are HUGE on me, so I was hoping to buy women's tops. The ICU line has 2 different women's tops offered in hunter green. Also, there are no pockets in the unisex top except the one breast pocket.

I'm not sure about how long until my pinning, that's getting a little ahead of myself. However my orientation is on May 15th and I'm quite excited for that! :)