Which pre-reqs to take first?

Nursing Students Pre-Nursing

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Hi everyone:

I am going to be starting my pre-reqs in January. Nursing will be a career change for me. I am hoping many non-science credits will transfer, but may not know before registration. Anyway, I know I need A & P, chem, etc.

I currently work part-time in law but likely need to quit law and take a big pay cut to work part-time in a field that will be easier with the school work- law just won't be doable for me with the school work. Also I have 3 kids (one is a toddler and not in daycare / preschool yet, and my twins are in elementary school). Thankfully, I have a very supportive husband, who knows nursing has been a dream of mine for a long time!

Anyway, my question is, what science courses to take first? I am going for ADN / RN at UCC in NJ, and in order to start the nursing program, you need an invitation based, in part, on pre-reqs and GPA at the school. My BA courses won't count for that GPA calculation.

Is is doable to take A & P 1, and Chem for Health Sciences together in Jan.? Should I take a different combination of the science classes? It has been a long time since I took any type of science (high school!)

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. :)

Thanks!

Jumping in late and haven't read the replies, sorry if I'm just repeating previous advice. The first thing you'll need to do is take the basic science pre-reqs for your pre-reqs. I had to take a general bio class before I could entertain the idea of enrolling in a&p or other advanced classes. I had to take a placement test to get into the general bio class, so you may have some classes that won't count for the nursing pre-reqs but are necessary to get into the needed classes. Then I divided up the other pre-reqs (arts based which comes very easily for me) and paired them with the science based (which takes a tad bit more effort). This way I keep my fulltime status without feeling like I'm drowning. Fall quarter I took intro to bio, intermediate algebra, current social problems and human relations skills. Winter I'm taking Chem, stats, intro to soc and Spanish for med personnel 1. It's a nice balance of needed credits that don't take a lot of effort, with needed's that will like chem and stats.

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Thanks for the additional responses :).

Dee let's definitely keep in touch! Good luck to you. You should feel good about starting on this journey, since you are already in the health field.

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Hi there!

I was fortunate enough to have the luxury of taking my science pre-req.'s one/two at a time. So, I took Chemistry & Anatomy my Fall semester; Physiology during my school's 5-week Winter session; and Micro for the Spring semester.

I'm not sure how it'll work out for you, but from personal experience - I would definitely recommend taking A&P before Micro. The A&P information came up again in Micro, where it was covered in greater depth. Best wishes to you! :wink2:

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Aehtela, that sounds good. I definitely want to get A&P out of the way before microbiology. I have also now registered for the child pysch required class for the winter session - it will be tough - every day for nearly 4 hours for three weeks, but at least I will get it out of the way and not have to take it at a time when I am taking other classes and I might be needed to take my kids to and from their various activities :eek:

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I got chem out of the way before tackling A & P. From what I hear A & P is very challenging, and so was Chem. Do you have any general eds that you could take along with Chem or A & P? I would definitely recommend taking a science along with a gen ed rather than two science classes together. Just my :twocents:

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