ok so I just finished high school and I want to go to a community college to become a nurse. An RN with an ***. degree you know. So in 2 years I plan to have a job and living on my own . I have no children and I’m only 18 years old I’m black and come from a low income family. After a year or two I then plan to go back to school and finish my degree and go to medical school.
how do I get experience for nursing. What is the starting salary.
That sounds like a mighty fine idea. I would look into your community college’s associate degree in nursing requirements and see what you need to do in order to apply to the program. Every program is different. You might be required to take certain pre-reqs first, take a NET, or nothing at all. Get started and take what is necessary. You don’t really need any nursing experience in order to get accepted into a nursing program. Most schools don’t require it. But, if you want to get a taste for the field, apply to some nursing homes as a caregiver, or what have you.
your plan to become an RN.
Yes, it is a GREAT plan!! I just completed the very thing that you want to do. I’m 20 and will be starting work as an RN later this summer (after my boards in 2-4 weeks).
Many schools DO let you complete your associate degree (ADN) in 2 years. An ADN degree is different from a bachelors of nursing (BSN) and you do not need as many classes before beginning.
However, have you applied to any ADN programs in your area? Because if you have not, it may be too late to get in this year… and you may have to wait several years because of the waiting lists for nursing programs– ADN especially. I know that my program has a 3-4 year waiting list.
To get your foot in the door, I recommend taking your A&P, writing, nutrition (etc) classes and enrolling in a CNA program.
Just wanted to say that you can be a medical doctor after you get your RN. It doesn’t matter that you were an RN before. I’m sure, if anything, it would help. I know a scrub tech who went to medical school and is now a doctor. So, it’s possible!
Like everyone’s stated before, you’ll have to check what prerequisites are needed to get into a medical school, there will be more courses necessary than for nursing school.
Good luck!
First of all, your timeline is a bit off. It is a two year program to become an RN with an Assoc. degree, but there are usually pre-requisite courses you must take ahead of time which might take a year (or more). Then, almost all nursing programs are very impacted and have wait lists and get far more applicants to their programs than they can accept each year. It might take you a year or more to get accepted once you are eligible to apply.
Second, if you want to go to medical school, nursing isn’t the best way to go about it. Nursing is a completely different profession and the preparation for it is very different. To get into medical school you would need more than an Assoc. degree, you need a bachelor’s degree. You *could* get a bachelor’s in nursing, but you’d be lacking several key requirements for entry into med school, like advanced mathmathics, physics, organic chemistry, etc., which are typically not included in nursing programs. I can understand wanting to be an RN because you will earn a good salary and support yourself to further your ambitions, but honestly there are other ways to go about it. And I’ve even heard that some medical schools don’t look all that favorably on nurses who decide to go on to med school – they typically want the people who wanted to be doctors from the start and just went for it. They are clean slates, they haven’t been indoctrinated into the nursing model of care rather than the medical model of care – they are two very different concepts.
As for your other questions, you don’t need any experience to get into a nursing program. Most require that you hold a nursing assistant certificate to gain entry but that doesn’t necessarily require you have work experience as a nursing assistant. Most nursing programs will not give any extra consideration to people who have health care experience.
Starting salary for RNs is anywhere from $25-$35 per hour, depending on where you live and where you work. Hospitals generally pay more than clinics or nursing homes, the two coasts and “sunshine states” usually pay more than in the midwest, etc.
You could do it this way, however there is at least one year of courses to take before you can even apply to the RN program at most schools. Getting into any nursing program is highly competitive as this is a high demand career, especially for the Associates degree. If medical is your ultimate goal you’re going to want to modify your prerequisites a bit. The science courses they have you take for nursing are for “non-science majors” and are much easier than what they have science majors take. They are essentially the same beginning course, however the science major version is more in depth whereas the non-science major is general knowledge.
My best advice to you is to speak with an enrollment adviser to make a feasible plan for your goal of medical school. You’re going to have to take much harder courses than are required to get into nursing school. Below is some information from the University of Kansas
Pre-Medicine is a career interest, rather than a major or formal program. Developing this interest involves taking courses to build a foundation for a medical education, performing well in courses, getting health care and other kinds of experience, taking the Medical College Admission Test (MCAT), and applying for admission to medical schools. Most people complete a full bachelor’s degree, including a major, before entering medical school. Although most requirements are sciences, you can choose any degree and any major.
As a minimum, most medical schools require two semesters each of English, biology, chemistry, organic chemistry, and physics:
ENGL 101 Composition (3 credit hours)
ENGL 102 Critical Reading & Writing (3)
BIOL 150 Principles of Molecular & Cellular Biology (4, fall & spring)
BIOL 152 Principles of Organismal Biology (4, spring & summer, can substitute BIOL 646 & 647)
CHEM 184 Foundations of Chemistry I (5, must be eligible for MATH 115, offered fall & spring)
CHEM 188 Foundations of Chemistry II (5, spring & summer)
CHEM 624 Organic Chemistry I & 625 Lab (3 & 2, fall & spring)
CHEM 626 Organic Chemistry II & 627 Lab (3 & 2, spring & summer)
At this time, KU’s organic sequence meets the KU School of Medicine requirement without the 2nd lab, but most students take 627 to meet requirements at other medical schools.
PHSX 114 College Physics I (4, prerequisite MATH ACT >24 or MATH 104 Pre-Calculus)
PHSX 115 College Physics II (4)
Some medical schools require BIOL 350 Principles of Genetics, BIOL 600 Introductory Biochemistry, MATH 115 Calculus I, and/or MATH Calculus II. Recommended science courses include BIOL 400 Microbiology, BIOL 510 Comparative Anatomy, and BIOL 646 Mammalian Physiology.
For comparison I’ll show you what’s required for a Bachelor of Science Nursing:
Humanities
- English composition I
- English composition II
- Humanities (history, philosophy, or advanced literature)
- Speech or communication
Social Sciences
- General Psychology
- General Sociology or Anthropology
- Child Development
Natural Sciences and Mathematics
- College Algebra
- Statistics
- General Biology with lab
- General Microbiology with lab
- General Chemistry with lab
- Anatomy with lab (a combination course in anatomy and physiology with lab will meet the requirement)
- Physiology
- Nutrition
As you can tell much more intensive, especially in math and sciences. You are going to need to speak with an adviser and make a plan. It is also important that you get GREAT grades. Medical School is highly competitive and to get in you are going to want to have nearly perfect, if not perfect, grades. You’ll also probably want to do some shadowing of a doctor to see what it entails.
As for nursing, it is an excellent career choice and there is also room for advancement into near medical school within the field. There are Nurse Anesthesia, the nurse equivalent of an Anesthesiologist, as well as Family Nurse Practitioners, the equivalent of a family doctor. They make less than doctors do and have to work under a doctor, but generally have the same scope of responsibility. RN’s salaries vary depending on where you are. I’d say the average is around $30/hr. You don’t need any experience and you don’t need your CNA unless you’re going to go for an LPN, which is a one year program
