Please bear with me and check out the information I give you. I could be wrong, things have changed somewhat.
Formerly, an LPN education was one year. You could get the training from the area Vocational/Technical School. Sometimes Vocational Rehab will send you. You need a high school diploma or GED.There were hospital programs of nursing, called Diploma Programs which run from two to three years.
There are Associates Degree Registered Nursing programs. These Associates Degree programs can be found in communty colleges and four year colleges; the prequisites may be the same as classes you already have.. Upon graduation you will have an Associates in Applied Science in Nursing, and take the licensing exam to become a Registered Nurse. This program requires about 60 hours of college, prereqs included.
With a few more hours, you can get your Associates of Arts, also.
This program, the ADRN will bridge into a BSN program which usually takes four years. If you have your license from the ADN program you do not need to take another licensing exam. It could BE THAT you have enough prereqs (since math is considered science )that you could go directly into the BSN program, or simply need a very few classes to get into the BSN program.. The BSN is a four year program. Two of those years would
be basics, many of which you will have taken already.
You said you have about two years of college credits, about sixty hours? As I said,
Probably many of the classes you have taken already would apply to
the basics for the prerequisites of an ADN program. Your college probably has a nursing program. It may only have the BSN because last I heard they were moving awayfrom the two year RN. (Said that for years.) The difference , I hear, in an ADN and a BSN program is the amount of time students spend in the clinical area, in addition to
a few other classes. There are many programs out there, but might not be one in your college. You will need
other prereqs I am sure such as Anatomy and Physiology, Microbiology, etc. I am not sure if they are considered actual nursing classes.
My point is, if you are considering spending two and one half years in nursing school, why LPN, why not ADN or BSN.. ADN pays more and can bridge to the BSN. LPNs , poor souls, must do much of what RNs do, sometimes all, do not get paid for it, but get the same
grief and emotional suffering,one of the glory. Sarcasm. I am serious, they do much of what RNs do. If they get IV certified, they do most of it. There are somethings they do not do, but they get paid less.
(I hear they are doing away with LPNs also.)
Look online at the prereqs for nursing programs. Try typing in Associates Degree Nursing programs and see what you come up with. If you get your associates degree RN, get a job and work a while, , you can online finish your Bachelors in an online nursing program. (University of Phoenix is only one of many) This is not a slack thing.
You will require a mentor to do the clinicals in a hospital or clinic. Then you have lectures and classes online, same as you would in a classroom. In addition, there is financial aid for online nursing programs. You cannot get an initial license from an online program . It is a good thing, in my opinion, that you must bodily go to get your initial nursing license.
I will warn you. Nursing has changed. It was almost a guarantee at one time that if you were a nurse you would have work in nursing. Nursing can be very rewarding, but it is very hard work, grueling night shifts , germs,
contamination, communicable diseases, risk of injury, no guarantees. If you know nurses, or have access to the internet, or can go talk to counselors or advisors, I would recommend tht you do that before making such a serious, long term, expensive committment. A nursing education must be continually updated with study, CEUS,etc. It is a dynamic profession. Some of the changes are good, some not so good. It also costs in terms of contiuing education, uniforms, etc. If you get the degrees behind your name, it could open up other avenues of work besides the clinical area or direct patient care.Due to my bitter experiences in nursing school, nursing work the horrible aftermath, I could not recommend nursing to anyone. I graduated from nursing school in 1985 and have lived in dire poverty all but about five years since.
My experiences are not typical. I fought a long hard battle to work at all in the face of violence, acts of violence toward me, pain and loss to me and my children. and husband. I was only able to work in the field of nursing about eight years, most of that was while living in dire poverty in housing that would have been condemned if it had been in the city...no running water in the winter, no flushing toilette, wood heat while earning, (no other income) at slightly above mininum wage of less than five dollars an hour for years, then slightly above. Then I worked as an RN for a little over four years for $15.45 an hour when elsewhere that job shouldhave paid at least $25 an hour. So, be careful where you work. Count the cost carefully. I did not intend to
be divorced when I went into nursing, not at all. I never wanted to be alone. Hetero Christian conservative female. It was a very costly career. I would have preferred marriage to being a nurse. I did not know t one preempted the other. I made a very costly exchange to end up in poverty alone most of my life.My experiences, as I say, I hope are not usual. I did not have a mental breakdown of any sort. Not a criminal of any sort.
I sought counselling regarding going into nursing.I waited a long time, considered other options. Everything seemed to be go.
Think hard. It takes a lot of time and study. If you have children and a husband, please consider them. I did. They were supportive to me. My children caused me no problems, none that I knew of. I sacrificed much of my health and my youth when I could have gone into something else, which would have been just as profitable. I now live in poverty again, and am ill due to having gone back into nursing , forced to do so to survive. I am out of it now, retired, studying something I love, which they cannot kill me over or put me into jail over at whim.
There is a crying need for moral, competent, ethical, intelligent nurses, especially Christian ones. Be prepared, it is like nothing you have ever experienced in your life. It is necessary to have the support and encouragement of people outside nursing, close friends and family, more than husband and kids. It is necessary to have recreation, health, outside life. You can lose your physical health very fast.
New or ongoing issues are abortion:
new surgical issues; aging issues. Carefully consider future issues and where you will or will not work, i.e. your values and morals. Society is rapidly changing. It could make a big difference as to employability.
Answered By: - 9/15/2010 |