Tattoo Artist in San Francisco interested in becoming an RN

[Megan_SF]

Hi Everyone,

I'm a Tattoo Artist in San Francisco, CA. I Love my job and have spent the last 4 years building my career. I love Tattooing more than anything. I am still very young though, 23....and I worry about the tattoo industry and where it's headed. It may not be as popular in the next 10-20 years. I need to have a back-up plan. My father is a doctor and my mom is an lvn. I feel inspired to get my nursing degree....as a back-up plan.

SO...I have a few questions, and was hoping someone could help!

*Because my job is full-time and somewhat demanding....is there an online school I can attend? I have no college at all, my entire adult life has been dedicated to tattooing. SOOOOO.....do I go to community college and get my pre-recs and then get an online degree? Or is there an online college that offers pre-recs and the clinical training? HOW DOES THIS WORK!?!??!?!

*Is there a private school in San Francisco that offers a nursing program? Do they offer financial aide? Can I go at my own pace?

*San Francisco Community College's nursing program is a lottery. That's kind of scary! Should I even bother?

I really could use some guidance! Please help!!!!!

Megan in San Francisco

[thinwildmercury]

Samuel Merritt University is in Oakland. I don't know of any other private school (maybe university of pacific but not sure.) SFSU has some sort of agreement/partnership with Canada college if you want to take your pre reqs there. I think they get priority over SFSU students. Those are just BSN programs though... I don't know about ADN :) I am just a pre nursing student myself. Good luck!

[Silverdragon102, BSN]

If you have no nursing experience then I expect the likelihood on finding something online is going to be hard. You have clinicals to do and criteria to meet.

[diane227, LPN, RN]

The first thing you need to do is start getting your general pre req's out of the way. Like algebra (pay attention in algebra), history, english etc. Most of this can be done at a junior college or on line. All of your science courses should be taken in a classroom setting in my opinion. You will need general biology, microbiology, chemistry, anatomy and physiology and PAY ATTENTION. You may not think so now, but you will use this information later on. It might be a good idea to get some idea of where you think you might want to go to nursing school, ADN program or a BSN program. Go to their web sites and you should be able to search to see what course work is required for entry into the program. When I finally declared my major as nursing I decided then which school I was going to go to and I focused everything I did toward getting into that particular school.

There is federal financial aid money available, grants, loans etc and every college has a financial aid department that can help you find out what is available. When possible you want to try to get grant money because you won't have to pay it back. But you have to be below a certain income level in order to qualify and you have to make your application EARLY because when this money runs out, it is gone for that semester. Try to keep loans to a minimum. Graduating and having all those loans over your head is a real drag. I was lucky. I went my entire 5 years of college on grant money so I did not have any debt at graduation.

You will see advertisements for on line nursing programs but those are usually reserved for nurses who are already nurses who want to work toward an advanced degree or who want to go from LPN to RN. With no actual work experience this is not the correct path.

You will need a regular nursing program with a combination of classroom work and on site clinical rotations. You will need an much hands on time as you can get because you won't get it when you start work. You might be lucky to find a job that offers you an internship but most often you get a regular job with 4-6 weeks of orientation then you go out on the unit on your own.

So get going. And good luck to you.