Questions about my future nursing career

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Hello!

I am a senior in high school, and I am confused about what I want to do in the future. Next fall, I plan on going to community college to get my prerequisites out of the way. After two years, I will have my RN-ASN. From there, I want to transfer to Oregon State University to get a public health degree and a minor in nutrition. After that, I want to try to get my BSN.

So my questions are..

1. Is there a fast track BSN program if I get a public health degree?

2. Is it even possible to get a degree in public health and BSN?

3. Is this a good plan? If not, what would you recommend?

4. Should I focus on getting my BSN first?

Thanks so much for your time!

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Specializes in L&D, infusion, urology.

Why do you want to get all of these other degrees and then your BSN?

Nutrition- do you plan to be an RD? That's not a part time program, it's intensive, similar to nursing. Also, externships are getting harder and harder to come by, as are jobs.

How will you have your ASN in OR in 2 years? There are a couple of years of prereqs before you even start the nursing program, which is a separate 2 year program. Also, if you know for sure you want to pursue your BSN, why not get your prereqs done at the community college, then transfer to a university to get your BSN instead of taking the roundabout way?

Also, if you can move to CA, BSN graduates are eligible for their public health nursing license. If you want to do public health nursing, it might be a smart move to head to CA for college. Most BSN programs aren't taking out of state students because of impaction, but if you were to move here while in community college and establish residency, it might be a good route for you.

I think you need to figure out what your actual goal is and go from there.

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Specializes in ICU.

The question is what is your end goal? There are a lot of different variables that go into it, so we need to know what your goal is.

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I'm not to sure about your public health questions, but here's some info and advice.

First off, I don't know what type of degrees are offered for public health, but most schools offer an accelerated track for students to get their BSN if they already have a bachelors in ANYTHING. I started school with a friend who had a degree in accounting.

Next, if your main foul is to get a BSN, you should focus on that. Even if that means doing pre-reqs at a community college to save money and then transferring.

Here's why you need to just focus on your main goal. If you just go for your ASN, and make plans to go back later, you'll probably end up getting a job somewhere, and it will either take years before you feel like going back, or you just won't go back. Then you'll wish you would've just gotten your BSN IN 4yrs and be done. I thought about going for my ASN as a quick way to get into the field and make some money, and just go back later. I am SO glad I changed my mind. Nursing school is hard, and wouldn't want to be finishing up one nursing school just to know that I still need to get my BSN to accomplish my goal. Just get it done the first time around, and then look to whatever certifications you want to get or where you want to specialize.

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My main goal is to become a traveling nurse. I want to work in areas of need and third world countries. I wanted to go to OSU, because I want to run for them in two years. The community college in Oregon offered me a scholarship to run there, so I am just trying to make it all work. I want a minor in nutrition, because I might possibly want to work in eating disorder clinics as well. How do California students become eligible for their public health nursing license?

Thanks so much for all of your help!

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Specializes in Pediatrics, Emergency, Trauma.
My main goal is to become a traveling nurse. I want to work in areas of need and third world countries. I wanted to go to OSU, because I want to run for them in two years. The community college in Oregon offered me a scholarship to run there, so I am just trying to make it all work. I want a minor in nutrition, because I might possibly want to work in eating disorder clinics as well. How do California students become eligible for their public health nursing license?

Thanks so much for all of your help!

Just FYI:

nurses work in eating disorder clinics and units as well as in public health without majoring in nutrition and public health, just wanted to put that out there.

There are options to do doctors without borders as well as mission work as a nursing student as well as a nurse; you can find those topics on hand here as well as Google.

Because of your youth, the job market, and looking forward in this business; it would be best that you get your BSN; if you can get a running scholarship, great; find out what university pre req's you need and take the pre req's at the community college and transfer if possible; find out if they are agreements with the local CC and with area universities. Also look into the nursing profession that you are interested in and interview them; find out their transfer requirements or if your GPA and ACT and SAT scores would make you eligible for a scholarship; if you have a running scholarship, utilize that, keep your grades up and find out what scholarships are offered to nursing students; the key is to know what is offered in order to make an informed decision.

Hope this helps!

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Your last post made it sound like you're very interested in running. So, you're going to need to make a decision...do you want to run, or get through nursing school with your degree. Once you get in a nursing program (after a couple years of pre-reqs), it's going to be difficult to keep up with the rigors of nursing school studies and team sports. Unless you have plans to be a gold medal Olympian, I would recommend making running a later priority and start worrying about your degree first. The scholarship sounds nice, but you have to consider what I said about the time you'll have for team sports. Next, if you want to do the travel nurse thing, you should do your own research, but most of the agencies I've looked into required at least a year of experience. I would focus in the degree 1st, then figure out where you want to specialize and what you want to do with your degree. Oh, and minors help, but aren't always required.

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Okay thanks for this, this is really starting to make sense! Do you know anything about exercise science majors? Could I major in that at Oregon State, and apply for an accelerated BSN program? Or is it still recommended that I get my BSN first and foremost?

Sorry for all the questions!

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For exercise science, you can always major in Kinesiology, and become a Physical Therapist. But that's a whole different path from nursing, although a lot of the prerequisites overlap. Sounds like you are unsure of what you really want to be. If your heart is in nursing, go straight for the BSN, and worry about the rest later.

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Kinesiology and nursing have similar prerequisites. Figure out what you want to do first before eating your time. Run and do your perquisites then transfer and finish. You can't finish nursing school in 2 years including prerequisites. Ditch health management and nutrition, you have nutrition and management with BSN courses, google anything else you need. One thing at a time or else you're going waste a decade before doing anything.

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Specializes in L&D, infusion, urology.

You need to think about what you can really commit to a running team while in nursing school- track/cross country teams usually travel for meets and require a certain commitment, especially when they're offering scholarships. Nursing school will have demands, and if you can't meet them, you will fail. Period. So you may find yourself forced to choose between the two. As a runner myself (hence my SN), I completely understand where you're coming from, but even my own running schedule, which I do on my own time, has taken a turn for the worse over the course of my program, and I am no longer half-marathon ready as I ALWAYS was before. I HATE it. But school is the priority, and I am graduating in 3 weeks. Thus, I'm returning to running with a vengeance! :)

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Specializes in ICU.

You will just have to be very organized. Congratulations by the way on securing a scholarship for track I am assuming? Maybe cross country? That's pretty exciting. And that's awesome that you want to travel and help those in third world countries. Something I could never do. Do this stuff while you are young because life goes fast especially once you graduate high school. Nursing school is hard. It's hard to get into. So don't slack off your freshman year. Strive to get As. You will need them to get into nursing school. Just stay organized and I would think you could do nursing school and run. I know I would if I had a scholarship. Plus it will be good to have an outside focus as well. I ran last semester and it was one of the best things I did to keep my stress levels down while taking 5 classes and getting a divorce. I just started up again last week now that the weather in getting nice again.

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