Thinking about a career change!

missnurse01, MSN, RN · Jun 12, 2012

getting your foot in the door with health care experience is a great idea-it will go a long way to helping you get into a nursing program and get your first job. until you actually get into the nursing program, you can probably keep your same job and take night classes for your prerequisites. although you already have a degree-you will need things like psych, micro, anatomy and physiology, etc in order to get accepted in a nursing program. all the colleges that offer nursing around you will post their prereq requirements. so while you are doing those you could probably keep your same job, or as you get closer to applying switch into a hosp field. for tele tech you will often need a formal telemetry class-teaching you how to read rhythms and measuring them out. if your local comm college, tech school, or what not doesn't have it, then you can always inquire at the hosp. they often know where these classes are.

you can also get your emt, work in the field or an er-or you can get your nurse's aide/tech cert and work on the floor/long term care/ or er. keep looking at hosp openings to see what there is avail to you and also what the requirements are.

good luck!

ddmill03 · Jun 12, 2012

Thanks! I was looking at on-line certifications for tele techs..that you can do at your own pace..do I need to have previous coursework you think?

missnurse01, MSN, RN · Jun 12, 2012

I have never known anyone to go to an online course. I would make sure that it qualifies in the job description as to be okay for the job.

no, no previous coursework...

CDEWannaBe · Jun 12, 2012

I had a BA in Business and am pursuing a nursing degree now. A local university offers an accelerated program for students who already have a non-nursing bachelor's degree. It's full-time but takes just 14 months.

To apply to the program I've been taking prereq classes at a local community college. Most nursing schools require a certain overall GPA and then a higher GPA in prereq classes like biology, microbilology, anatomy, physiology, chemistry, and statistics.

willowita, ADN, RN · Jun 12, 2012

Pretty much all nursing programs have prerequisite courses you have to take before getting into the nursing program. Schools and degree levels vary by what they require so you'll have to find schools you want to apply to and get info on what courses you need. It can take some time to go through those classes but the good news is that you can probably maintain your full time job while going to school at night. I took chem, microbio, anatomy, physiology and other prereqs at night and kept my full time job during the day. You will pretty much have no life but you gotta do what you gotta do.

Keeping a full time job or even a part time job becomes an issue when you actually start a nursing program. Since the hours and demands leave little time for a job. But that's a year or two down the line, depending on how many courses you have to take.

So for now, you should take the first step to see what schools you are interested in and figure out what classes they require.