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Hello everyone! I'm considering applying to a few entry-level MSN programs. How important are rec letters for those? What are the programs looking for in the rec letters? Bit of background, I'm not from the US, but have been living here for a few years now. I moved when my husband got into grad school and just recently got a work permit. I have basically been out of the job market for seven years, and recommendation letters are not common where I'm from, so I'm a bit lost. Any suggestions on the MSN-E programs are also welcome. Thank you :)

Hello everybody! I'm changing careers from business to healthcare and, while I an idea of what I want to do, I still haven't decided which career to pursue. I want to work with reproductive medicine, and I would love to work with almost everything related to that, but I've been thinking of a few careers: midwifery, LD nursing, fertility nursing, nicu, genetic nursing and genetic counseling, but, since I think I would like to help couples that are trying to conceive, maybe a few of these careers wouldn't be the best option. I wanted to know what are your ideas on this field and which pathway(s) would be the best. I know genetic counseling is not really nursing, but it's so hard to find forums about the subject out there... That said, a few observations: a) I'm an international student with no work permission right now (will get it through husband in a few years), so I can only volunteer to get experience before I enter a program (this has been very challenging for me, especially for genetic counseling); b) I'm going to live in California-SF area (currently living in Illinois) and heard that the nursing market is pretty saturated there; c) I don't think I would be happy doing anything else, but would accept doing work in other fields in order to get where I want; d) I've been thinking of getting doula training in order to get familiar with the field. Is it worth it? Thank you so much for your help :)

Hi everybody! Thank you so much about your replies and tips. I had no idea that the market was so saturated. I was doing some research through more "official" sources that promise several jobs to choose from. After your comments, I did some research in other websites and forums and it's now obvious that the market is not that promising. I'm not gonna lie and say that this don't discourage me from applying to nursing schools. I'm not that young and want to have job opportunities for my career. I want to start a family soon, so paying a school and not having a return to my investment would be pretty bad. What do you guys recommend during times like these? Apply to other careers? Are there promising healthcare careers after all?

Hello everybody! I've been living in the US for the past year with my husband. We came here for his MBA and we'll probably stay here since he got a full-time offer from a company in California! I have a bachelor's degree from one of the best universities in my home country, with a major in International Relations. I also worked for three years as a full time purchaser while getting an executive MBA. Since we got here, however, I've been looking into healthcare careers options. I was never in love with business careers and, since I don't have work permission right now, I decided to study for what I really wanted. Many American healthcare careers don't exist in my country, and the whole educational system is completely different from what I have back home, so it's a bit challenging for me to understand a few things. I chose Nursing among all careers and have been doing some prerequisites for the eventual career change. That said, I'm still having doubts about what kind of degree to get. Is an Associate enough, since I already have a Bachelor's? Will it be an obstacle in case I decide to pursue a Master's in Nursing one day? Or is it better to go for an ABSN? Also, I saw the option of Entry-Level Masters' - are they going to have a better job placement? What are their advantages? A little bit more information: I've had several leadership and volunteering positions through my life, my GPAs from both my MBA and BA are above 3.0 (the conversion is not very precise) and I've been keeping a 3.2 GPA from a good university in the US for my prerequisites (which is not amazing, unfortunately =X) Sorry about the long post and I hope I didn't write anything that doesn't make sense lol! Thank you so much :)