Alicee

My mom and a few others think I should do the 3 year (AAS-T) program because I need to get my RN license as soon as possible (their words). Since I may not live in one state long enough to get my BSN, she says it's better to get my license so that when I move, I'll still be an RN even if I can't get the best job. Thoughts?

The school with a pre-nursing degree has a direct transfer agreement with several universities (meaning all credits will transfer and I'll be guaranteed/almost guaranteed admission to the school). I will do my best to get good grades and I also plan on volunteering at a hospital which will hopefully look good on applications. I plan on meeting with advisors, it's just difficult to do during the summer and I'm impatient, haha. Thanks for both of your responses. I guess the main reason I've been considering the nursing program that leads to becoming an RN is because I thought it would be a good idea to become an RN and then work while obtaining a BSN. but if it's not necessary or worth it to do that, I will probably do the pre-nursing degree.

Reading these responses has been very interesting. I'm not a nurse yet, but I'm one of the ones that does feel it's sort of a "calling". That doesn't mean I expect it to be magical and a huge part of the reason I chose it is because it's practical, but still, I've always wanted to work in the medical field. I guess for me it's a mixture of a calling and practicality. I've seen a lot of nurses who obviously hate their jobs and are extremely rude to patients, so in my opinion I feel like you do need to have some sort of passion or motivation for doing it. Maybe that isn't true since obviously a lot of people here feel that it's just their job and are still able to preform well, but I wonder what causes those nurses (the ones who hate it) to feel so negatively about it.

I will be starting my first year of college in January and I still don't know which path to take. My goal is to get a BSN. There are two programs I'm looking at (both at community colleges). The first is a program that would take 3 years to complete (one year of pre-reqs then 2 years for the program) and prepares students to take the NCLEX. So, I would become an RN by the end of that program. It is a competitive program. If I do this, it'll take about 5 years total to earn my BSN. The other is an associates degree in pre-nursing. Its purpose is to cover all general education and pre-requisites required for BSN programs. It does not prepare you to take the NCLEX (as far as I know), it just prepares you to transfer to a 4 year school. This would take 2 years to complete (so it'd be about 4 years total to earn my BSN). It's also not a competitive program. I know 2 nurses and have bombarded both with questions, but I also thought I should ask on here. One seemed to lean towards the program that ends with becoming an RN, the other strongly suggests I do the pre-nursing one. The latter suggests the pre-nursing degree because she says it's very hard to get a job with just an associates and since I'm going for a BSN anyway, I should just work on getting my gen ed and nursing pre-reqs out of the way and then go on to a BSN program. I just don't know though. What do you recommend and why? If I do the pre-nursing one, will it be at all possible to get a job as a nurse's aide during school? Thanks in advance. I've been stressing out for quite a while trying to figure this all out.

Thanks for all of your replies so far. I definitely have more to think about now. I was considering just going for a 2 year degree at first to see how I feel, but based on Luckyyou's response, I'm not sure if that's such a good idea. My main concern is having no time. If I'd have at least a decent amount (obviously not expecting to have tons of time to just do whatever), I think I could deal with the other things.

Okay, I hope this is alright to post. So. I'm 17 and will be starting college later this year. Since I was...9? 10? I was 100% sure I wanted to do something in the medical field. After a few years I pretty much settled on some type of nurse. That's all fine, until I got to 17 and realized maybe I don't want to be a nurse. Maybe I won't be able to deal with the stress. Maybe I won't enjoy it the way I thought I would. The main issue, though, is not having any free time. Everything I've seen says nursing school is extremely demanding and you have to focus completely on it. I can't imagine being a nurse is any less demanding. I'm also a musician and absolutely don't want to have give up playing music because I have to focus on school. I can't let music be my only career path, it's too risky and unpredictable. I know nursing is a pretty stable and decent job, but...would I really have to give everything else up if I chose that? I've always thought I'd enjoy nursing and I love taking care of people, but again, I don't want to get stuck in a situation where it's all I'm able to do/focus on. The only other thing I've been considering is accounting, but that doesn't seem as stable. What do you think? How was your experience? Did you have any free time for hobbies, or did you have to focus on school? How is your life balanced after you graduate and start work?