serendipity7

Thank you both for your responses. Heathermaizey, I am afraid you got the wrong impression from my post. I am in no way looking to go directly from no nursing experience to practicing as a NP. As I said, I would definitely work as an RN first to gain a significant amount of experience before making the decision to continue on to NP. To me, the main appeal of the MSN program is that I would be able to become an RN without having to incur the debt required to earn a second bachelor's degree. I do not think that nursing is easier, or that I can "magically" become a NP and "make the big money." In fact, this could not be farther from the truth. While I do appreciate your concern and input, I am fully aware of the responsibility that comes with working in health care, especially nursing.

Hi everyone. I've hit a tough spot and looking for some advice and guidance. I'm sorry if this ends up as a long post; I will try to make it as short as possible. When I chose my undergraduate major I decided on Sport and Exercise Science because I thought I wanted to be a physical therapist. After doing quite a bit of shadowing, I realized it actually was not what I wanted to do as a career. A few months later, I met a physician assistant. After speaking with her at length I felt I had found the path I wanted to pursue and planned to apply for PA programs after graduation. Since I graduated last spring, I have been gaining patient care experience (which I have really enjoyed) and finishing the pre-requisite classes I hadn't taken. In May I started the last class I needed, which is Organic Chemistry. Two weeks into the course I got very sick and was absolutely miserable. Between being ill and working full time, I fell behind in the class and decided to withdraw. In August I enrolled in the course again, thinking I would be fine since I knew I would not get sick this time around. Unfortunately, I was wrong. I have been struggling in the course and think I will most likely get a D, at best. I know this looks really, really bad to admissions committees. I'm so upset about this and feel like I have seriously messed up my future. However, when I was researching the physician assistant profession, I also looked into becoming a nurse, and eventually a nurse practitioner. I had always been drawn to and interested in nursing but felt I had kind of missed my chance since I was already so far into my exercise science degree. I felt pressure to graduate and didn't want to "waste" the money that had already been spent on the classes I had taken. I wish it hadn't, but the fact that I could apply to PA programs with my current degree greatly impacted my decision to steer away from nursing. A few days ago I decided to look into what I would need to do to apply for BSN programs and discovered the existence of the direct entry MSN. I had no idea I could earn a masters in nursing without any prior experience and then become an RN. I would be able to gain experience as an RN before deciding to continue to NP. This option is extremely appealing to me and I have been reading a lot about nursing as a career since I made the discovery. I really wish I had done more research in the past, because I agree much more with the holistic approach of nursing as well as the focus on overall health and disease prevention. I think I would really enjoy being a nurse and I'm wondering if it is still a feasible option for me. I'm worried that the D in organic chemistry will prevent me from being accepted into a BSN or direct entry MSN program. While I have done fairly well in the pre-requisites, all As and a few Bs, I am concerned this D will drop my overall GPA, which is currently only a 3.4. I have gotten mostly As and a couple Bs in all of my courses for the last two years of undergrad but have 2 Cs and an F from my first two years when I was not as focused on school as I wish I had been. I'm aware that it is not easy to gain admission to a nursing program. Again, I apologize for the long post but I did not want to make it seem like nursing is my "back up" or " second choice". This is not the case at all and I wish I had not let my fear of wasting money sway me from pursuing nursing previously. Does anyone think I have any chance of getting into a BSN or MSN program with this recent D grade? What should my next step be? Thank you in advance for any help. It is greatly appreciated!