Starting a Long Journey

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Hi everyone,

If you can't tell by the username, I am a male. I've recently come to the conclusion that I've been prohibiting myself from being able to do what I've wanted to do for some time, and that is nursing.

If you'll indulge me, let me give you a brief background.

I'm 28 years-old and live in Sacramento. I've lived here for 8 years. I was never a math or science person in high school. Taking those courses in college scared the pants off of me. I took statistics and geology as "easy" ways out. I'll be graduating in December from a local community college after 6 long years with three (!) A.A. degrees, which won't amount to anything. The plus side is I've gotten most of my general ed out of the way.

I've been on my own since I was 17 years-old. I've supported myself without any sort of family or many friends for support. Since then, I was unintentionally thrust in to healthcare. I started working in medical billing about 7 years ago. I've changed jobs twice since then, and now currently work for one of the largest hospital systems in California.

Why did I decide on nursing? Well, simply put, I can't think of another career that really defines my personality and passion. I've met plenty of great people over the past few years (working alongside nurses who have gone on the back-end to where I am), but I was scared to take that plunge. Doing any sort of math or science freaked me out, and knowing how intensive it is (coupled with work), I just shrugged it off.

Well, me shrugging it off wasn't the answer. I was set to transfer to Chico State in an online liberal arts degree program this next spring, but it's not what I really want. So, after contemplating and realizing where I want to be in 5 years, I decided to start over at square one.

I still qualify for financial aid (I'm only at 60 units at C.C. and the cutoff is 90), but my company has a generous tuition reimbursement program for employees. I've been in my current position for 3 years doing billing for our radiology department, but once I'm eligible in the early winter I'll be looking to get a more hands on role in our clinics where a MA friend is.

Since I have all of my Gen Ed complete, after I take the nursing pre-reqs the plan is to transfer to a CSU. I have to start at the bottom for math -- that's going to be my biggest concern, and what takes me the longest to get up to speed. It seems to be a basis for a lot of the science classes, but I took the Pre-Algebra assessment test (for fun) and I was struggling.

Because of the math, it will take me 2.5 years to complete all the pre-reqs (assuming I believe enough in myself to get through all of these classes with A's and B's). After that, assuming I'm "competitive enough" (hate to think I could go through all of this for nothing!), I want to continue on for the BSN. It's hard enough wanting to be a nurse, but male nurses sure seem few and far between!

Thanks for reading my little story.

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I guess I chose the wrong forum! Could someone move this to the proper one?

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Marty is is never to late to pursue your dream. Some of the best nurses I know are male nurses. I was an LVn for over 20 years before I decided to go back to school to get my RN. It has been a long long journey and I am just now applying to nursing school. Being a non traditional student I have had many bumps and setbacks on my journey of becoming a RN. They key is to just keep moving towards your goal. I too live in California I think up North nursing school is not as competitive as it's in S.California. Here is my advice to you, please work hard to get a high GPA in your pre nursing courses. Nursing school is very competitive and you need to be a competitive student to get accepted. Good luck to you and enjoy your journey. :)

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