Senior in high school dreaming to be a nurse!

1 Hello everyone! Right now, I am a senior in high school and after I graduate, I want to do nursing. My family is too "rich" for financial assistance but too poor to pay for a university. The college of southern nevada has a CNA course and my mother is willing to pay for my course since it's not too expensive. I dream of being a pediatric nurse but I'm going to have to settle for now until I can afford to pay the tuition. I also thought being a CNA would give me good experience and insight on how the medical field works. Does this sound like a good idea or not? All replies are appreciated.
Becoming a CNA is what made me fall in love with the idea of being a nurse. If you can find a good employer many will help pay for nursing school tuition. Otherwise check out your local community colleges, many have nursing programs and their tuition is a bit less than 4 year schools. You can always go back for your bachelors later. Also there are student loans and scholarships.

It helped me out I got my CNA licence the fall after i graduated high school it really opens your eyes to a lot about the profession. I saw so many people in my nursing class start and be in complete shock when they're pushed right out into clinical and expected to go into patients rooms and actually *touch* people. Meanwhile they just worked 3 years to get into the program and they're completely rethinking their chosen profession. So yes, i say go for the CNA, give it a try. While you're doing that look at a local community college and take some super cheap classes to start your nursing degree. It's very rare that someone just jumps right into the program, if they do they're completely stressed trying to get through nursing classes and a&p1/2, micro, statistics, etc.

yeah, being a cna is a good eye opener. several ppl will probably drop out of ur cna class, ain't what they thought it would be.

CNA is a good start and will give you an edge if you go on to nursing and if you choose not to you will not have invested the big bucks. Good luck!

Once you get your CNA, you could start taking a couple classes at a community college. Check and be sure their credits are accepted at other colleges in your area - if not, it will be a waste of time and money (and often it is a sign of a poor program). Check out what prereqs are to get into nursing programs and do those. In the mean time, you will get great experience as a CNA to be sure you really like doing hands-on intimate care before pursuing a nursing degree.

There are scholarships, loans, etc available. Talk to your guidance counselor, research school loans online, and follow your dream into nursing.......

Quote from VegasChickHello everyone! Right now, I am a senior in high school and after I graduate, I want to do nursing. My family is too "rich" for financial assistance but too poor to pay for a university. The college of southern nevada has a CNA course and my mother is willing to pay for my course since it's not too expensive. I dream of being a pediatric nurse but I'm going to have to settle for now until I can afford to pay the tuition. I also thought being a CNA would give me good experience and insight on how the medical field works. Does this sound like a good idea or not? All replies are appreciated.

"kooky korky" is right about no jobs out there...all over the country this is so sad but true. Hopefully, though, by the time you are a licensed RN, you will get a job, if this stupid down economy turns around. The nursing shortage has a history of being very cyclical. Get you BSN, however, don't settle for anything less. It may take you a while. You might try LPN first to see if you really like nursing. CNA is a very good start. You go girl! Good luck!

It isn't easy to get jobs in most fields these days.By the time you finish your nursing studies the job situation may be different. This is what happened for me, summer before I graduated I was told by my first employer " oh we hardly ever hire new grads and you'd have to have had a preceptorship here". Four months later I still applied and got hired onto day shift. After that many new grads got hired. This was in 87. Then around 93-94 there was a surplus again, then a shortage around 2000, now a surplus. Get the picture.

wow.....i wanted to go and get my nursing degree right after i finish my my bachelor's in community health(im a junior) but now after hearing that i dont know. what do you think the nursing field will be like in two years?

There is no way to tell what the nursing field will be like in 2 or 4 or 6 years. It will depend on the economy. Right now, the cost of health care is terribly expensive and getting worse every day. Hospitals and other health care facilities have cut back in their hiring due to cutbacks and their own financial concerns. The world will always need nurses...there's no doubt of that. But baby-boomer nurses are staying in the work force to supplement incomes if their spouses are not working or just to keep their head above water and keep their homes from being foreclosed on. If the economy gets better over the next few years, boomers will start retiring, moms (or dads) will start staying home again to raise their kids, and nursing jobs will open up again in areas where economies begin to flourish again. I think it's very important for all future and present nurses to be aware of what's going on in the real world. Pay attention to what our legislators are doing. With what is happening right now in other parts of the world, it looks as if our economic recovery is being threatened. Just look at the news. Gas at $4.00 a gallon with problems in Egypt??? We'll all be fortunate to have the money to buy gas to get to our nursing jobs. Just my !

Understand, the nursing job market is very specific to the location.... meaning nurses in upstate NY have zero opportunities, in NC there are many depending upon the area.To be successful... I would as you suggested doing CNA work, here you will not only do the 'grunt work" but can pick the brains of the RN and learn. From a CNA, you will learn the most important aspect of nursing... if you don't provide the basic care, all the bells and whistles matter none. Meaning in my ICU environment,,, if I don't turn and elevate every bony prominance every two hours, provide nutrition and do pulmonary toileting... every patient will possibly die due to nosocomial infections (bedsores, pneumonia). These basics hold true to any area you work. once you get the basics down... see iffy looking patients and see how the RN treats it... look for subtle changes like confusion in the elderly which could mean infection.... you have a solid basis to determine if you want to progess further and be solely responsible for those patients. No one to run to, you decide what needs to be done... For some, the toileting and call bell ringers alone drive them off and that is a huge part of what we do...so working as a CNA will give you a great picture as to if you wish to devote three or five years of college doing what you already are, with meds, treatments bells and whistles. It would be a good decision to make once you know what it is all about.Too many nurses are getting their BSN and have never really cared for patients and are getting the shock of their lives... don't be one of those, even if you do three to six months of CNA work. You'll love it or hate it...and only you will know what is right for you.