Help! Should I take CNA position at a lower pay than current job in order to get into RN

So, here is the situation....I am currently a licensed vet tech and have been so for over 15 years. I am wanting to go back to school to get my ADN. I currently make a decent salary and work overnights at a vet hospital. The opportunity has arisen for me to be able to go to CNA school for a local hospital (paid during school at minimum wage) but then once hired as a CNA a much lower salary than I am making now. I have 4 kids at home under the ages of 12. Is it really necessary to do the CNA thing in order to get into nursing school? If I do the CNA I stand a better chance at getting a scholarship to nursing school through the hospital. Either way I will have to work during nursing school. I just don't know whether the cut in salary is really worth it. Any thoughts? Thank you in advance!
I suppose this really depends on the school you want to attend. Many of the people I went to nursing school with were not CNAs. Speak with an admissions counselor at the school you are interested in. If you want to be a CNA just to get in with a hospital and use their tuition assistance, find out exactly what the hospital's tuition assistance is to see if it is worth the pay cut.

It just depends on the school!Some make it a requirement to have your CNA license, but most don't. I personally feel as though I gained a lot of knowledge about healthcare while working as a CNA, and that job really made me decide I wanted to become a nurse...but there are tons of great nurses that didn't have that experience prior to becoming a nurse. Although being a CNA is rewarding, if you don't have to take the pay cut, don't.One of the reasons I don't work as a CNA now is because of being extremely overworked and extremely underpaid (under $10 an hour, even after 2 years of full-time experience). Good luck!

Your four kids >> CNA experience.

Sorry, but I wouldn't take the pay cut to become a CNA if I had four young children who depended on my income as their source of support.I was never a CNA. Millions of nurses were never CNAs. Although the experience is helpful, many nursing programs do not require it.

Don't do it. If you want to work as a CNA, you can do so on a per diem basis after you have completed your first clinical rotation to get a feel for the hospital environment.