Working at a hospital during pre-reqs possible??

Nursing Students Pre-Nursing

Published

Hi, So I will be starting my Pre-reqs for nursing this fall. I was wondering will any hospital take on a student who is just starting out on her nursing journey? I am married and a couple of years ago I started taking nursing courses but put that on hold to have my son. I already have some Anatomy and Physiology experience, theory and clinical (Class clincals not hospital) and I'm CPR certified for adults, children and infants. Also, do most hospitals have some sort of scholarships for future nursing students? My husband and I don't want to take out anymore student loans with everything else that we pay for.

Anyone have any advice for getting my foot in the door???

Getting the foot in the door is the objective.

CNA is what is required.

I am thinking strategic plan here. It is a hard economy and new grad RN's are really having a tough time.. why Economy and Lack of Experience(is what some have been saying)

I am Pre Nursing as well starting in Aug at a Jr College(13hrs). I will take the CNA every Sat via the CE Dept. I will be done in Dec. Jan will start applying as PCT ..also thinking about Phleb to add on to my CNA .. Do not know yet

Thanks! Yeah I was thinking of taking Phleb first because from what I have heard is that most hospital will just train you on the job to do it. Then I would work my way up from there. So they hired you as long as you were going for your CNA?

You may need to start somewhere other than a hospital if you don't have any experience. The hospitals around me want at least a year experience for a CNA position. I just got offered a job at a ccrc and i will have less residents than i would have had if i worked at a hospital. I used to work in a hospital and saw how the nurses and CNAs were treated there and I got a good idea of their workload. I didn't care for it so I am one of the few whose end goal is not a hospital job :)

Just hope this might be a positive route to take ... wish they had a variety of certs to hook on to CNA. The more certs might mean the opportunity door to open a little more....just thinking through this

Specializes in Family Nurse Practitioner.

I think you should definitely take a CNA course. Make sure it is accredited by your state's board of nursing.

As a new CNA, you can get a job as a patient sitter. Some patient sitter postions don't even require the CNA (they pay less). They do require CPR though. With the experience as a sitter, hopefully you can get a job as a regular CNA. It will help you a lot with nursing. And it will give you a better chance at being hired down the road.

Best of Luck :)

I think you should definitely take a CNA course. Make sure it is accredited by your state's board of nursing.

As a new CNA, you can get a job as a patient sitter. Some patient sitter postions don't even require the CNA (they pay less). They do require CPR though. With the experience as a sitter, hopefully you can get a job as a regular CNA. It will help you a lot with nursing. And it will give you a better chance at being hired down the road.

Best of Luck :)

Thank You so much for the encouragement BSN Student & Tech ... I had a strong feeling that this would be a good route to take. .... of course my family and friends seem to think I am crazy for wanting to take on my pre reqs and get my CNA .. I must not be tooo crazy since I just logged on to my college CE Dept. and they have added what looks to be 3 more CNA classes (of 10 per class)!!!!! so they must be overwhelmed with demand for CNA training. :nurse::nurse::redbeathe:redbeathe

Taking a CNA course is a good option and the CNA courses are really not hard at all. There are also other ways to get your foot in the door at a hospital. Have you ever thought about applying for a unit secretary position? It'll get you on the unit and once you complete the CNA program you'll be able to marked youself as a PCTor CNA(whichever one your hospital calls it) as well as a US(unit secretary) and we all know bosses like people who have more than one skill. Hope this helps.

+ Add a Comment