Questions about how to choose a nursing school

[MarellaMagdalene]

I just got my CNA license on February 9th, and I'm looking for work currently.

I really want to start on the RN as soon as possible. The problem is that most of the RN programs I have been able to find here in Las Vegas are Associates, and I want to get at least a Bachelors so that afterward I can do the Nurse Practitioner.

I am thinking about doing the associates at the community college of southern nevada (where I did my CNA), and then doing the bridge to the bsn online-but I've heard that hospitals often don't respect the online programs, and also some schools do not accept online credits either. And the prerequisites are a pain to deal with because most of the schools don't accept the other school's credits.

Honestly I'm not sure what to believe because I hear so many different things-what school you go to is the most important thing employers look at along with your community service and grades, or that no one cares at all what school you went to as long as you have good references and work ethics.

And I also keep hearing negative things about UNLV's nursing program from doctors and hiring managers, so I'm not really looking into that school as an option. I'm not looking for an easy A, which seems to be the opinion of UNLV's program. I want to go to a program that really prepares me to be a good nurse.

Does anyone have some advice on which nursing schools to avoid, and which ones are exceptional?

[One1, BSN, RN]

One way to decide the potential of a school is to look at its accreditations. Ideally, you want to choose a school that has a good academic accreditation (regional accreditation is preferred if you want to continue to a Master's degree later), and it should have an accreditation from a nursing association. Your school might list that it is accredited by the Board of Nursing of your State, but that just means that graduates from this school are allowed to sit for the NCLEX, and is different from a nursing association accreditation.

A BSN program might be a better fit for you. I have not heard that RN-to-BSN programs are frowned upon because these programs usually require you to not only hold an active RN license but also to be working as an RN while attending the BSN program.

I believe that once you have an RN license, your grades and school you chose become less important, what matters most will be your license. Volunteer work and grades are usually important factors when trying to get a nursing school spot. As long as your school is accredited (see above), you should be fine. However, a school with a high reputation might give you a slight advantage by (possibly) offering better clinical spots, and you might be able to score a job offer during your last clinicals if it is a very highly regarded school. That being said, an exceptional student should be able to impress prospective employers regardless of the school he or she goes to, and in this economy, job offers during clinicals might be difficult to come by anyways.

Hope that helped a bit!

[MarellaMagdalene]

Thank you!

The information about accreditation is something I didn't know about and has already helped me rule out a few places, haha.