Few working at Staples make a living wage.

[Heddi]

157. You can get an RN in 2 or 4 years

ADN (Associate Degree Nursing) can be obtained at a community college. It is a 2 year nursing program, with 2 years of Pre-Reqs but is still considered a 2 year degree

BSN (Bachelor's Degree Nursing) is a 4 year degree obtained at a university. It is also a 2 year nursing program and 2 years of pre-req's but is considered a 4 year degree

LPN (Licensed Practical Nursing) is a 12-18 month diploma program that can be obtained at a community college with all of the same prerequisites as an ADN.

Please do not speak about things you obviously know NOTHING about.

Based on your posting history and "bootstrap" mentality, I know I'm probably wasting my time, but I'll go ahead and correct some of your very glaring misconceptions

No, high school biology and chemistry do not count, unless you were in AP Bio/Chem and got college credit for them. Anatomy and Physiology (2 separate classes, or A&P 1 A&P 2) are not taught in high school. Neither is inorganic & organic chemistry. Neither is nutrition. Neither is a class on medical terminology. Neither is microbiology.

The colleges around you have no waiting list---no shit. Most nursing programs don't anymore because people were having to be on the lists for 4-5 YEARS before they got into school

Did you not read a thing I wrote? You ONE person trying for ONE OF THIRTY SPOTS and competing with HUNDREDS OF OTHER PEOPLE who are also trying to get into ONE OF THIRTY SPOTS.

Each school requires an application fee. Each nursing program requires an additional application fee. Some even require entrance exams (for math, reading & writing proficiency, despite having passing grades in these classes) that may cost a fee. So you're looking between $100-300 in fees just to APPLY to one school. If you don't get in this quarter, you have to re-apply, and pay ANOTHER application fee.

The idea of applying to one school and hoping to get in is useless. Most people I know who went to nursing school, and who are in the process of going to school now, have applied to multiple schools and programs....5, 10. That's a lot of money and time for at shot at ONE SEAT OF THIRTY.

Not all schools have the same pre-req's. Some require Algebra II. Some require Calculus. Some don't require calculus but want Logic 109. Some don't want Logic but need 4 English classes. So you spend many quarters taking classes just to cover the different requirements for 4 different schools you're applying to. I took Nutrition and Statistics, but the program I got into didn't require them (but 2 that I applied to did require them). Of course I'm more educated for having taken them but that was also a few HUNDRED dollars in class fees and books and time driving to and from school, and time spent in class when I could have been working. All in all, I took about 7 classes that were not required for the RN program I graduated from, but were required for different programs at different schools I applied for. That's a lot of time, money, energy, driving...it's basically a quarter and a half (7 or so months) of my time that was essentially wasted because the demand for slots at nursing school is so high.

Once you get in school, you have to pay for uniforms, supplies (my stethoscope, which was required for my program, was $150), special shoes, etc.

Nursing is high demand, high pay, and there are *NOT* jobs for unexperienced new grads just ripe for the picking as there were 5 or 10 years ago. You may be able to work at a nursing home, for 1/3 the pay as a hospital RN, upon graduation but you will not be able to get into an OR, ER, or ICU preceptorship program, and most med-surg or acute care floors only want RN's who have prior healthcare experience.

Out of my original class of 30 students, do you know how many graduated with me at the end of the 2 year program?

eleven.

11 out of 30 made it through. Most dropped out because they coudln't raise kids, and work a full time job, and go to school full time, and do full time clinicals. Several failed because this is a RIGOROUS program.

You are very flippant about something that you obviously have no idea about. There are several RN's on DU that would (if they were aware of this thread) educate you just as I am doing.

Easy to pick up and move? If you don't even make a living wage, have a family, have bills, have obigations, can't make ends meet as it is, how are you going to save up $$ for a first & last month's rent & security deposit, deposit for utilities, moving truck, taking 2 or so days off (if you're moving close) for packing up and moving out??? What if you have kids in school, do you just pick up and fuck up their year by moving halfway through a school year, possibly setting them behind educationally

Does the "Nursing School Fairy" that magically makes one an LPN without any effort or prerequisite classes also put a few thousand dollars under your pillow for moving expenses??

Your posts on this subject make you appear very clueless to the realities of:
1) education in general, Nursing education specifically
2) the realities of "pick up and move"

I am not against anyone doing anything to help themselves and create a better environment for their future, but the idea that one needs "just do it" is naive and clueless to the realities of the working poor, and the issues and struggles they have with making it day to day, much less saving up hundreds, if not thousands of dollars and packing it all up and moving somewhere else....

what if somewhere else doesn't work out? Then what? Become nomads? Work just to save up for deposits and moving trucks for the next place....where you work to save up for a deposit and moving truck to the next place....etc?

I suggest you read "Nickle and Dimed". It should provide you with some insight of what it is like to be working poor, and wanting to make changes but not having the "change" in your pocket to eat, much less save for moving & school costs