<p>To OP, There are a number of nursing programs who take in college graduates and pay them to enter nursing schools. I know someone who did exactly that. If you can’t find info on such programs, give me a PM, and I will ask the person who went through this route to give you advice. Best of Luck.</p>
<p>My suggestion would be to go to Duke. They have an excellent nursing program, and I am positive that they allow mid-year transfers.</p>
<p>Thru the years - I have gotten the same comment/question as well. And my response is exactly the same. I was born to be a nurse :)</p>
<p>Keep in mind that docs essentially work 24/7 for a long time - and come out of school in major debt - many are having issues with all the mal-practice insurance problems (mega costs) and insurance demands - and actually leaving the field - for ‘safer’ less demanding fields. Being a doc is also a much less hands on position - and with insurance demands increasing - they are spending alot less time with patients than ever before - gotta make the buck to pay the bills. Insurance reimbursement is pushing docs/medicine these days - not a pleasant reality at all.</p>
<p>Being a nurse - one can usually leave the job at the job when one leaves the building - don’t have to deal with the insurance issues and don’t have the mal-practice insurance issues as well. Much more hands on as well. There are many who are cut out of the same cloth - the one only for nurses - very special type of people.</p>
<p>If the OP really and truly decides to go to nursing school - God bless the OP - they are greatly and desperately needed. Nurses can certainly make a good enough income to be very self sufficient if necessary - I know many nurses who are very financially set because of their good paying jobs and great benefits. Go for it OP - if that is where your heart is leading you.</p>
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<p>great lakes mom, I have to disagree with the assumption that only those who go to ivies can speak with educated voices with wide ranging experience. Good educations and experience can be had at multiple institutions. And if you did not intend to imply that only grads of the top schools can speak with “educated voices”, then it was kind of a moot point since no one is suggesting she leave a top rated school to attend a sub par school.</p>
<p>“My suggestion would be to go to Duke. They have an excellent nursing program, and I am positive that they allow mid-year transfers.”</p>
<p>As I understand it, she doesn’t have the pre-requisites, and thus it isn’t a current option. </p>
<p>“I don’t think it is helpful to give people false impressions. Talk to some nurse recruiters & VPs of nursing & nursing administrators before you throw those misleading numbers around.”</p>
<p>I would think that recruiting postings that list salaries are about as good as it gets. But no matter.</p>
<p>“But afterwards, as you are discussing and reiterating with the grieving family as well as physicians, an educated voice with wide ranging experience has an advantage.”</p>
<p>That would seem to me an argument to finish an RN as quickly as possible, and get out in the world, rather than taking more liberal arts classes for an extra year. </p>
<p>Be that as it may, much of this is really a non-issue. If the OP continues where she is, she can’t finish EITHER an RN OR a BSN in four years. She can’t transfer into a program without the prequisites, and her school doesn’t offer them.</p>
<p>So the choices come down to:
– Stay where she is, get a BA or BS, and then enter an RN program at the end of four years. That will take more than an additional two years, as she won’t have the pre-requisites for entry, for a 6-7 year total.
– Stay where she is for another year. Leave and either enter another school where there is a BSN program, complete the prequisites, and do another two years, for a total of five years.
– Leave where she is now. Enter a community college and do the prequisities, and apply to the BSN program of her choice for the following year, for a total of 4 years.
– Leave where is now, and find a community college program to complete the pre-requisites, and then continue there for an RN (and get experience working as an LPN while she is doing it.) </p>
<p>Maybe there are more options out there, but those are all I’ve heard.</p>
<p>I agree with mini and thus would advise you to complete a 4 year degree, then enter an 18 month BSN program specifically designed for those who have a BS/BA. U Penn has a BSN program, I sure someone has already mentioned this fact.</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.aacn.nche.edu/Education/pdf/APLIST.PDF[/url]”>http://www.aacn.nche.edu/Education/pdf/APLIST.PDF</a>
This is a list of schools that offer Accelerated BSN programs. </p>
<p>I understand the OP’s desires and I have thought about what she is going through right now. I’m a rising sophomore right now, but I have no desire to transfer. I’ve known that I wanted to be a nurse since junior year of high school. I call this time of my life my “selfish” time. I’m a double major in environmental studies and women’s studies and I want this time to learn more about myself and my surroundings. I think that this was a good decision for me, so far. I hope to do an accelerated BSN program and then eventually go into a midwifery Master’s program. It’s important for me to have this time in my life even though it is mainly separate from my career goals. I’m definitely savoring it. Just something to think about.</p>
<p>Re: nurse vs. doctor:</p>
<p>My ex-doc H sometimes said he would’ve liked to switch into nursing, but he’d have had to start over in education. The nurses in the hospital he worked at made much more per hour, and didn’t bring beepers home. </p>
<p>Teaching works for him, too, luckily. Took less additional education. Pay isn’t as good as either, but again, no beepers. Not to mention the summer thing.</p>
<p>A top student doesn’t always need the “top” career. There are other things important in life, like having a life. Nurses work hard and do extremely rewarding work. As do teachers. No one should be a doctor unless that is what they want to be above all else, not because of money, prestige, or any non-intrinsic motivations. The stress is not worth it (though, ironically, that’s worse for the dedicated ones.)</p>
<p>Many wonderful things are being said about nursing in this thread. It is fascinating work, and can feel great to be involved with the human race in this way. I’ve often said, I don’t mind anything I do at work, but I do mind having to do it all simultaneously. The phone calls, the bathroom calls, the meds, the paperwork. Despite the high salaries, in my town, very few of us do hospital work full time. Too stressful, too hard to have anything approaching a normal life, with shift work, weekend work, 12 hour shifts, nights. Missing Christmas morning with your kids, normal weekends. Being able to take off for an hour to see a kid’s play. The divorce rate is high for hospital workers, and the scheduling is very hard on family life, and a social life in your community, should you care to be involved. Yes, you can walk out without furthur obligation after a shift, though some obsess for hours over what could have been done better, what detail might have been missed. Those high paying jobs with an ADN require this sort of work. Many leave nursing because of the toll it takes on a personal life. A BSN gives more job flexiblity, with opportunities in public health and management, where the schedules are regular. </p>
<p>Now getting to this empty nest phase, the eccentricity of nursing schedules has some appeal, as I can fashion a rather interesting life around it. But was very hard when the kids were school age, and I felt I was missing parts of their lives. For young people, going into this profession, the impact of some of those job demands on the personal life needs to be looked at carefully.</p>
<p>Response: Yes, I am aware that they are different jobs. However, I made the suggestion because nurses will make less than half of what a physician would make. That said, if this person has investigated both fields and prefers nursing, I certainly wouldn’t stop them. I was just noting the options.</p>
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<p>And my husband, with his mere BS in Petroleum Engineering, makes far more than a doctor. And my brother-in-law makes far more than ‘half what a physician makes’. </p>
<p>But really…it isn’t about the money, it’s about the passion. Thank goodness for those who find that passion in nursing. And I’ll take a doc who wasn’t after money or prestige when choosing a career. My mom’s oncologist is one of those…top breast cancer specialist at MD Anderson in Houston and he gave her his beeper number and returns her phone calls within 15 minutes. Sometimes, he calls her just to chat. He is also treating my good friend with breast cancer. When she commented on this unusual attitude, his nurse replied he is a ‘cancer warrior’ and fighting cancer is his passion. She said he’d probably work for free if the hospital would let him…lol!</p>
<p>“A BSN gives more job flexiblity, with opportunities in public health and management, where the schedules are regular.”</p>
<p>My wife is a hospice nurse with an RN, with a regular schedule (when she wants), lots of job flexibility, does management with entire families and with docs (who almost never get to see the patients, and rely on her say-so), and does public health family education. </p>
<p>“However, I made the suggestion because nurses will make less than half of what a physician would make.”</p>
<p>They DO make less. But, if they started in the same place, with the same amount of money, they don’t end up with the same amount of money. Try my math problem on the previous page, and figure out how old the average GP has to be before passing the RN in dollars in the bank. This assumes, of course, that they start in the same position (which is almost never ture.)</p>
<p>fluterbyhigh-your enthusiasm for giving yourself a broad based education on the way to your nursing career is commendable. Your clients will appreciate dealing with an educated and well rounded midwife, and you’ll have far more perspecive than most on the place of your profession in history.</p>
<p>My mom’s hours and work schedule are pretty flexible too. She’s a hospital recovery room RN, who has ventured into management…and then ventured right back out…lol! (As she got older, she found she preferred working with patients and letting someone else worry about scheduling, payroll, etc…) She loves the recovery room, except when docs leave patients intubated…it is usually pretty quiet, little excitement, good work atmosphere. </p>
<p>Now my brother-in-law, the adrenaline junkie, worked graveyards for years in one of the worst ERs in downtown Houston, where GSWs and knifings are the norm. His experience has made him quite the hot commodity and a few years ago he was wooed with bonuses, salary incentives and other perks to a suburban hospital near his home.</p>
<p>Both say floor nurses work the hardest and are often under-appreciated.</p>
<p>Health care job satisfaction is not about the money. That’s the primary concern of business majors. Unfortunately the business aspect of health care impacts the enjoyment of the professions. Life choices are not just about money.</p>
<p>The OP is in the subset of nurses who should pursue a bachelor’s degree as well as a nursing degree. Her question is how to optimally do this. One factor is this decision is keeping motivated in her studies. OP- do you want to study something aside from nursing and get a degree in that, then pursue nursing? Or, do you find a lack of interest on other fields and therefore find it hard to continue while waiting for your passion? These are questions that will drive your ultimate decision. The decision is not between being a physician or a nurse (or many other health care professions with equal patient contact).</p>
<p>Currently, and in the future, nurses will be in demand. During my career, however, I have seen both nursing shortages and layoffs in the same town. I also notice many of the working mothers are divorced and many of the most experienced leave for the insurance industry… But, there is more easy entry/exit than some professions, as employers are often willing to train nurses for different areas than their past experiences. We haven’t even touched on the variety of personality traits that lead nurses into so many different types of nursing- that is a subject for those already in the field.</p>
<p>Addenda- physician patients really appreciate those floor nurses, any who didn’t before requiring their care certainly do so during and after!</p>