Where do I start

[possiblestudent]

Hello,

I am thinking about becoming an RN.I live in roseville. I have no college experience yet. So what do I have to do? Do I become an lpn first? What school should I go to? Is St. Paul tech a good school for LPN?

[3kidmama]

Well, RN and LPN are two different kinds of nurses - with the RN being more advanced. It takes about 12-18months of college to become an LPN, and you can get your associates degree in nursing (2yr RN - although it generally takes a bit longer than 2 yrs to get all your courses in.)

You can also get a 4 yr college degree in Nursing known as the Bachelors of Science in Nursing (BSN) and that also allows you to take the test to become an RN. 2yr RNs are do all kinds of nursing, but if you think you'd like to eventually get into administrative, public health, hospice,etc - many of those areas prefer RNs with a 4 yr degree as opposed to RNs with their 2yr associate degree.

There are also programs for LPNs that want to move on and become RNs. You find those a techincal and community colleges, although if you think you want to become an RN, you might as well just go for that instead of doing the LPN and then RN route - it will take longer.

Many of the community colleges in the Twin Cities area have LPN and RN programs - you just need to check them out more in detail.

Hths a little bit. I know it all can be somewhat confusing! :-)

[IndependentMN]

I've been looking into a lot of schools out here and I decided to do the LPN program at DCTC first. I was wait listed at two other schools for the 2 year RN program and decided to just get my LPN and then do LPN to BSN because it is less competitive. For your 2 year RN it really is like a 4 year degree with all of the prerequisite courses that are required, I would say check out DCTC, I've looked all around MN (twin cities to Mankato to Rochester) and this seemed to be the fastest route.