16 year old future Nurse,Help?

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Okay first of all I'd like to say thank you for taking time to read this,my question is will having my AA benefit and speed up getting my BSN? If so how? and if not what are the benefits .

Specializes in Critical Care, ED, Cath lab, CTPAC,Trauma.
An AA is an associates art degree program my school offers that gets 2 years of college out of the way, I'm currently In 9th grade but I'm thinking ahead about my future. I was planning on doing to the program and taking as much ASN classes as I can in my next 3 years of being in college courses. Then I'd go for my bachelor's degree, farther comments to this allowed.. If there's a easier way than this let me know :]

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Ok....it is good that you are starting early....nursing school is very competitive right now. I just did this with my daughter.

Lets start at the beginning.

There are 3 levels of schooling for entry level nursing.

1) Diploma: these are typically hospital based programs. There aren't many of them left any longer. IN the current nursing market it is imperative that you get a minimum of a bachelors degree, from an accredited program to be competitive in the job market. More and more facilities are requiring new grads have a BSN to be hired. However if the diploma program os accredited you will sit for the board exam, now known as the NCLEX, and upon passing you will be a RN

2) Associate degree programs. Some are university based (not so many any more) most are technical college or community college based. These programs also essentially take 3 years to finish with 1 year of prerequisites and 2 years of the actual nursing program. This will allow you to sit for the NCLEX exam and upon passing become a RN.

3)Bachelors degree: These are university based programs. Please check that it is nationally accredited by a NURSING accrediting body. They typically take 4 years to complete and will enable you to sit for the NCLEX exam and be a RN

Now...you can have an associate degree and go on to a masters program but it will take you longer in the long run. If you have your BSN you will enter a masters program to become a midwife.

Nursing education in the US is a generalist education and you specialize later. It is very difficult for a new grad to get hired in a specialty area right out of school. Nursing school doesn't really prepare you top be a nurse it prepares you to be safe.

My suggestions...in high school. Take all of your higher math. Take as much honors are you can handle for they count higher on your end adjusted GPA. Take the SAT early and often to get the best scores. They will take the highest of all your test scores in each area for you final SAT score. You will need at least an 1100 total score in your critical reading and math. The sat is changing but it is essentially the same idea and scores.

You are going to need 3 years of a language. My suggestion....Spanish. Take upper level math and anatomy if your school offers it. If your school offers classes at the local community college take those most of them "should" transfer but some will not but it will give you and edge amongst other candidates apply for the program.

Get active in school. Volunteer. Join clubs. Be a color guard, teachers aide, volunteer at your local hospital or nursing home. Join your school health professional club....join HOSA if it is in your area. HOSA

Keep your GPA at or above 3.5.

Good luck.

If you have any questions you can PM me even without 15 posts as I am an administrator.

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Specializes in Critical Care, ED, Cath lab, CTPAC,Trauma.
Yes I know it would take more but considering I'm in high school and my high-school offers a program allowing us to take college courses to get our AA I figured they might as well let me get my AS there pretty much relating to the same thing.

You can get an associates degree but you cannot do any nursing school until you are 18. Some schools will accept your classes towards you nursing degree some will not. Why? Well.... they want the money to be honest.

Even if you have your associate degree you will still have 2 years of the actual nursing program to finish to sit for the NCLEX exam.

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Specializes in Critical Care, ED, Cath lab, CTPAC,Trauma.

American College of Nurse-Midwives

Here is a resource for you....

Academic Requirements

The Certified Nurse-Midwife (CNM)/Certified Midwife (CM) degree is earned by completing a nationally accredited program and then passing the national certification exam. There are currently 42 programs accredited by the American College of Nurse-Midwives (ACNM) in the United States. Four of these are post-baccalaureate certificate programs and 39 are graduate programs.Completion of a graduate degree is required for entry into clinical practice throughout the United States.

Almost all programs require applicants to hold a bachelor's degree. The majority also require that applicants be a registered nurse (RN), although there are a growing number of programs geared toward students who hold a non-nursing bachelor's degree. Some, but not all, require that entering RNs hold a bachelor's degree in nursing (BSN

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Specializes in hospice.

The benefit of getting an ADN before the BSN are:

1 - Cheaper tuition,

2 - Fewer credits.

If you are lucky enough to live in an area where the hospitals are still hiring ADN nurses, you might even get yourself into a situation where your employer pays for your BSN. How sweet is that?

The main disadvantages are:

1 - This route to a BSN takes longer than going straight through,

2 - In some areas you will have a much easier time finding a job if you graduate with your BSN,

3 - The 4 year college experience is a great way to gently transition from childhood to adulthood, and to meet people who will end up in other professions. Some of my best friends are people I met in college and they are some pretty amazing people.

If money doesn't factor into your decision, I suggest you get yourself into a BSN program.

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Ty,I've been on that site but I have a question regarding what you said earlier what do you mean by "If you have your BSN you will enter a masters program to become a midwife",If I just go straight for my BSN then go for my masters will I be a mid-wife after that,or is a mid-wife program still required? And yes I understand the issue regarding my age I'm a freshman in highschool just thinking ahead.By the time I graduate I'll be 19 with my AA or AS.

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I agree with others, and AA will not help. Start looking at schools. Many nursing schools historically have long wait lists (some of many years), and a lot of universities now have a seamless progression program where if you get good grades in pre-reqs you are automatically accepted into the nursing program. It saves a lot of money and time, and you get the benefit of being in one place for all 4 years.

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Ty,I've been on that site but I have a question regarding what you said earlier what do you mean by "If you have your BSN you will enter a masters program to become a midwife",If I just go straight for my BSN then go for my masters will I be a mid-wife after that,or is a mid-wife program still required? And yes I understand the issue regarding my age I'm a freshman in highschool just thinking ahead.By the time I graduate I'll be 19 with my AA or AS.

Masters programs require some sort of specialization. So your master's would be in midwifery. Mine's in cardiovascular, somebody else's might be in burns or oncology or nursing informatics or healthcare management or public health or who knows what.

I hear you about wanting to work ahead, but remember that even if you have a generic AS at 19, you will still need to take a lot of coursework and mucho clinical time to get your BSN. Make sure any science courses and math you take will transfer credits to your target BSN school and won't expire before you get there (many have a limit). Some don't, and some won't.

Remember, though, it's not a race, it's a journey. Getting there faster can be good in some ways, but a little age and maturity is helpful too-- getting through an educational program faster doesn't confer maturity, even though it seems like it if it's you.

You'll have a long working life ahead of you. You might not even go into midwifery-- if you ask the question (or search for it on AN) you'll find that most of us had some sort of idea what we would be doing and just about none of us are. That's not because we failed or burned out or whatever, but because ... life happens. Something interesting came along and we tried it and liked it. Or we moved and the only job we could get was something else, and we fell in love with it, or decided to endure it and ended up being a manager, or something. You cannot plan this far in advance because because.

It's good to have a path to follow, but keep your peripheral vision working, because there are so many things in nursing that you have no idea about at your stage now. Always be open to learning new things, and you'll never be bored.

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Specializes in NICU, PICU, PACU.

My daughter did college classes in high school also. She was able to get all get general reqs done. Word of warning though, if you have an idea where you want to go to college, make sure the classes you take will transfer. There are some that do not meet the universities criteria and you have to take the class again.

Get your general science, math, English and history out of the way :). Good luck!

This is becoming more common in high schools to do this. We ran into a problem that my daughter couldn't get into some of the classes for upperclassman as there just wasn't room. She ended up taking "filler"classes. So she will have a double major now.

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Specializes in OB-Gyn/Primary Care/Ambulatory Leadership.

My advice is to take as many AP classes as you can (if you get a 4 or 5 on the AP exam, most colleges will accept that class towards your college prereqs). Take as many science classes as you can through your program that allows you to take college courses. Take at least algebra II, calculus is better. Take statistics. The associate's degree you will receive through your program is not really going to directly help you towards a nursing degree, but it WILL allow you to skip many of the prereq requirements in whichever nursing program you decide to matriculate into.

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Thank you

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Specializes in Pediatrics, Emergency, Trauma.

For those saying having an AA degree won't help, I disagree; you can have an AA and have all the core req's and pre requisites required for nursing school; I did this and was able to transfer all my classes into the nursing program and all I had to do was do the university's requirements, and that was only 3 classes.

IF (and that is a big IF) you find yourself in this position where you have to go to a community college for monetary reasons, find local community colleges with transfer agreements with nursing programs; most CCs have transfer sheets on each program that provide what classes transfer into a specific university course; as well as preserve you from not retaking courses in case you find yourself having to wait; however, if you school has this as an opportunity, look into enrolling in the correct courses needed for area BSN programs and if they have transfer agreements with the CC; it certainly wouldn't hurt to have those courses if you end up with such an opportunity.

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I think it would be really wise for you to take both Certified Nursing Assisant I and II, these will give you basic information on nursing skills and further your relationship with those to whom you delegate when you are a license registered nurse. You can take those courses at you local community high school.

In our hospital they are trying to be 80% BSN licensed nurses by 2018, so I would encourage you to get your BSN. Take your first two years at a community college and then transfer to a 4yr university to complete your nursing degree. It's cheaper, unless u have a scholarship to a 4yr, or have parents who are paying for your education.

After your BSN you will new to work a year or so (some Masters level programs only allow entry after one year of clinical practice), and then when you are taking your courses for your MSN, you'll need to choose a specialty - that will be "midwife" if you are still interested at that time.

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