Pre-nursing classes are over! Well, almost. I have been accepted into Nursing School for the Fall 2014 as long as I pass my Advanced Anatomy and Physiology class. I currently have a 91%, and I'm not anticipating my grade going below 78%. The journey to this point has been long and slow.
I played with the idea of Nursing school since leaving high school, but somehow my mother talked me out of it. She said a 4 year degree was more important than a 2 year degree. While true, in retrospect it would have been a better move for me to simply go to a 2-year school to begin with. Anyways, after a long string of not giving college the right amount of respect (for various degrees... psychology, biology, business administration...) I dropped out in 2007-2009. Then I dropped out again in 2010 after getting much closer to a degree, but still being 7 classes short of a 4 year degree. After about 6 months (probably around the time I had to start paying loans back), I knew it was time for me to go back to school. In 2011, I did all the paperwork to get accepted into my local community colleges Nursing program. At first I thought I would be able to enroll in 14 short months since I had a Fall 2012 admit date. Little did I know, that only meant I could start thinking about enrolling in the Fall 2012 but nursing classes would be full due to their 'first come, first serve' policy, and having almost a 1,000 people somewhere in line for a program that accepts 54 people twice per year.
Before enrolling in nursing classes, one has to take and pass 8 classes (pre-requisites) including 3 sciences that cannot be taken concurrently. They call this the 'Pre-nursing program'. At the time of my enrollment, that meant 3 semesters - or a year and a half - before starting core nursing classes which last another 2 years. The school has only this semester started a new policy where a person can petition to start nursing classes before finishing their pre-requisites. I was able to enroll because I am in the last semester before having completed all 8 of these classes. Enrollment dates are by admit terms - so finally I was able to get in!
There are a few things my school requires before starting in September 2014. I have to have a ton of immunization paperwork and a healthcare CPR class to submit between a 3 week period in May and June. This means getting titers, a 2-step TB test, and taking a CPR class before then. Once August arrives, I'll have a 2 day orientation including a TEAS test. From the mandatory meetings they've already scheduled, I'm guessing it will be about 10% helpful, and 90% stuff people should have read about already anyways.
So the last thing for me to mention is that I'm due to have a baby in less than a month. I already have a 15 month old and my boyfriend's 3 kids that live here with us full-time, so this will be our 5th child in the house (plus the 2 of us). I'm completely nervous about trying to pass nursing school while staying employed and raising a family that includes 2 toddlers. The only thing I can do is tell myself to, 'just keep going' and remind myself how important finishing school is especially for my kids.
Becoming a registered nurse has been part of my 5 year plan since 2012. My 5-year plan included becoming an RN by 2017, and with a graduation date of May 2016. I know there will be many hurdles, but I'm going to give it my all. I currently work for Children's Hospital which has also been a part of my dream, so I can only hope that they will hire me on as a nurse once I have passed school and the NCLEX. Here goes nothing.
