Quick, Easy Question.

You always have your degree, so you would be Mesomorph, BSN.

What about the RN portion of it?

I'm just contemplating if it's even worth taking the NCLEX if I have no intention of being a nurse. If the title RN would stick with me, I'd take the test, but if not, I don't see the point in wasting the money. I'm kind of at the point where I realize I don't want to do nursing, no matter what the area, but I'm not foolish enough to drop out of college after investing all of this time (Just 6 more months!!!)

...I think I might go into computer programming... Hm...

The title wouldn't stick with you once your license expired, but you would have the option to go back and reactivate it (usually by fulfilling a state's CE requirements) without going through another nursing program.

This represents an advantage of licensure over certification. If I let my EMT-Intermediate certification drop and decide a couple of years later to get it back, I get to start back at the first day of EMT-Basic school.

]My state requires us to get CEU's and career development plan to keep our license we can place it in the inactive status.

Lisa :trout:

I'm only still a student myself, but my understanding is this: After you graduate and take (and pass) the NCLEX - at that particular point in time, you are still NOT an RN, regardless of what your future plans are. Immediately after you pass the NCLEX, however, you can (as the vast majority of grads do as a matter of course) submit your NCLEX results along with the all the necessary paperwork to the state - THEN you become an RN.

If you wanted to keep your title but not actually work in nursing, I think there is a at least one option for that that you can take in most states - you can either retire your license, or you can maintain a non-active license. If you retire your license, I think you can later make it active again if you want to, but you may have to go thru certain requirements. If you maintain a non-active license, I think you would still have to take continuing eds every year. There may be additional requirements added to that as well (ex, additional continuing eds to compensate for your loss of knowledge that would probably occur over time from not working in the field, etc.) One of my nursing teachers at school actually has a non-active license.

So maybe you could look into your state's policies on that. There may also be ways that you could do computer work within the nursing profession, though I'm sure you've already considered that. I know that you can do consulting and/or medical research as an RN, but I personally don't know any specifics about those fields.

Good luck, and hope this helps. I actually left another field (massage therapy) shortly after graduating and being licensed in that, in order to pursue nursing so I kinda know how you might be feeling right now, lol.

The license is a legal privilege, just like having a license to drive a car is a legal privilege. You can't drive a car without a license; you can't perform nursing without a license either. Now, I know a few people are going to respond and say that people drive cars without licenses all the time. True, but if they get caught. . . The same applies to nursing. If you practice nursing without a license and get caught. . .

How on earth would they NOT get caught? I would imagine that surely in most if not all states, every nursing employer is required by law to verify that the license in question actually exists before the person is even hired, no?

You've come this far, by going through nursing school and everything. IMHO I think it would be a waste not to take the NCLEX, because really you never know what will happen, as things change, especially since you're young. There's no harm in taking the NCLEX, nothing to lose, might as well go for it.

Just my

How on earth would they NOT get caught? I would imagine that surely in most if not all states, every nursing employer is required by law to verify that the license in question actually exists before the person is even hired, no?

I don't know how they manage to let it happen, but it does! When I go to my state board of nursing website, they have an "imposter list" with a list of names stating these people have either applied for a position, been employed (scary!!), or have represented themselves to others as a nurse or CNA without evidence of a valid license.