Should I jump into an ADN program without any prior experience?

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Is it better to start off as a CNA or LPN and work up to a RN? I was in an ADN program last year and was dismissed from the program because I did not pass two of my classes. Nearly a year has gone by and I'm still trying to figure out if I should attempt the ADN program again or just go through a LPN program. I really feel like I need to take baby steps into becoming a RN. A RN has so much responsibility, and I don't know if I'm ready for that right now. What is your thoughts?

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I doubt that the majority of ADN students have prior experience. Only five of us in my 21 count BSN program have experience, and we were all other healthcare occupations (paramedic here).

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Specializes in Cardiac Telemetry, Emergency, SAFE.

LPNs also have lots of responsibility.

Why did you fail your classes? Were you not interested in what the subjects were, or were the classes hard? You have to figure out whats right for you and what you are comfortable with.

If you want to be a nurse, I would recommend an ADN program. Ultimately though, you know what you want and need and can hopefully decide what to do from there. Starting as a CNA could give you lots of real insight to what nursing is. This would also be a good option.

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Specializes in Home health was tops, 2nd was L&D.

I never encourage "steps", too hard to go back, and "Life Happens!"

Figure out why you failed 2 classes, and fix it! Get tutoring, find another student willing to work with you. If you truly want to be a RN, you have to be willing to do it, work with it. Every job anyone ever had past high school is hard. And even some high school jobs were hard.

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Specializes in ob/gyn med /surg.

i say sure why not ?? go for it !!!

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Specializes in Family Practice, ICU.

I'm almost done with my ADN. I say go for it. But make sure you dedicate yourself to doing well in your classes. RN's and LPN's need to know what they're doing, and if you aren't focused you can miss something really important that could alter the outcome of your patients.

Did you figure out what went wrong with your classes? Is nursing where your passion lies?

Personally, I think stopping at LPN is very limiting. You get paid far less, can do far less, and have far less opportunities to move up, make more money or get additional degrees. I think ultimately this will lead to being burned out on the job and regretting not having gone all the way.

While I think being an LPN can help you with some of the tasks of nursing and time-management skills, being an RN is a different ballgame. I say just go for it and learn as you go. When you start your first job, they're going to orient you and make sure you know what you're doing before turning you loose, anyway.

If nursing seems too daunting, there are lots of other careers in healthcare, such as medical lab science, respiratory therapy, or physican therapy assistant. Those careers pay reasonably well and may be less stressful for you (except for RT, which can have it's stressors since you're dealing with airways).

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Specializes in Med-Surg.

If being an RN is what you truly want then you should definitely go for it. Don't limit yourself or settle for being a CNA or LPN. Most students in ADN programs have no experience, but with studying, clinicals, volunteering you gain experience. Perhaps you weren't truly studying the way you should have? perhaps you had difficulty understanding the professors? perhaps you had difficulty with the textbook? Whatever it is, if you want to be an RN then you need to figure out the disconnect beforehand and get it together. Every student has felt as though they know absolutely nothing, but with time and practice it all comes together :yelclap:

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Specializes in Peds/outpatient FP,derm,allergy/private duty.

I would echo the questions asked earlier. What were the classes you failed and why did you fail them? I ask this because if it was a matter of disciplining yourself enough to study vs a matter of feeling the science-based subject matter was overwhelming or homework load too daunting my advice would be different.

I see no reason to be an LPN before entering an ADN program in general. I think they assume most of the students are at the starting line and teach fundamentals and foundations first in all cases. I've recently read that some nursing programs require the student to become a CNA first, but they would have informed you of that by now.

LPN school was pretty rigorous I thought. It was certainly a densely packed amount of information given over a short period of time in my program. Going from non-nurse to nurse isn't easy at all. Some people who have stopped after the LPN say they are perfectly happy and "don't want the responsibility" of being an RN. You might find the only job available as an LPN in your area a "charge nurse" in a Skilled Nursing Facility which has a lot of responsibility! Your options will be much broader with an RN.

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At my school the first 2 semesters of the LPN program are the same as the ADN program so I don't think it would help you any to go that route if the same holds true at your school.

I jumped in with no medical experience at all. I am doing fine so far. Only B's in Fundamentals at this point but I am getting the hang of the tests and hope to be able to pull them up to A's by the end of the semester. The only time I have noticed an advantage for my classmates with previous experience was during checkoffs. I was a nervous nelly to take blood pressure and they did it every day. Other than that, the playing field is pretty level in my experience. Now, when we start competing for jobs that will be another story :)

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I recently graduated from an ADN program and am having a tough time getting a job. The students who took CNA jobs part-time while going to school are first-hire for GN programs. You are qualified to be a CNA after Fundamentals. I highly recommend this path because nursing schools are turning out so many new graduates that the market is flooded with them. The last recruiter I spoke with said there was over 600 applicants for 23 positions. If nursing is truely what you want to do then follow your dream, study hard, find yourself a good study group. By working as a CNA during school you will gain valuable insight to the way hospitals work and make decent $$ doing it. I wish I hadn't worried so much about my grades and worked during school. I would have a job right now and that is what it is all about, right?

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Specializes in geriatrics.

If your desire is to go into nursing and you need or are able to work, I would highly recommend working as a CNA while in school. First, it will give you valuable experience working in the health care setting. Also, the market is flooded with new grads in competition for few positions. Being a CNA while in school can give you a foot in the door where you work or valuable experience needed to stand out as a top choice when you graduate.

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Personally, I've come to realize that I do better with gradual transitions. Nursing rarely offers gradual transitions. Nursing school is a cram course that exposes you to a ton of info but the real learning takes place on-the-job, with lots of real-world responsibilities and at times overwhelming workloads. There's not always much support for newbies, whether RN or LPN. You have a license, you are hired to do a job, if you don't get up to speed fast enough, you're out of luck.

For someone like me who does better with gradual transitions, I'd recommend working as a nursing assistant/patient care tech in a hospital. First get comfortable with a "home" unit, and then try to float to different areas to find out what, if any, areas might feel like a good "fit" as well to get exposed to a wide variety of patient conditions and a wide variety of nurses. That would set a solid foundation to build upon, making the mountain of info tossed at you at nursing school a bit less daunting.

Another option that probably would've worked better for me would have been to complete a more focused health tech program to begin with. Like being a nursing assistant, it gets you in a clinical environment where you can start getting exposure to working with patients and their health issues as well as observe what the nurses do and if that's a direction you want to head next.

For me, already having some clinical experience would also help maximize clinical time as a nursing student. With experience, the student might have a better idea of where they want to focus their attention during the limited clinical time. Those without experience spend the first several clinicals just getting comfortable with the environment and dealing with patients and body functions.

The one reason I might recommend LPN, is so that one could start working AS a nurse and still have the opportunity to be a nursing student in a clinical environment again. Much of what we covered in nursing school was completely abstract because I'd never seen any of it before or anything like it. What does dyspnea really look like? sound like? How do you identify if some symptom is minor and to be monitored or more critical, to be prepared for intervention? That's something really only learned with first-hand experience. If you enter nursing school with no experience, you don't really learn that until AFTER you've been working awhile. So there's still a ton one DOESN'T know and hasn't experienced even after earning a license, if that's the only health care experience one has had.

Once you're out of RN school, that's pretty much it for general formal floor nurse training. There's little opportunity for any kind of formal "remedial" training if one feels weak in their abilities despite having the license.

Just food for thought!

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