Hi. I want to become a RN one day but I have no clue on where to start. I just graduated high school so I have no college degree. What is the first thing I should do to work towards that goal?
I talked to a school and they told me to get my medical assisted degree but then another told me to get my LPN degree. I just don’t know what to do.
-Olivia
This question was asked in the nursing forum section.
Emma says
January 10, 2015 at 8:07 pmHey Olivia,
Excellent question. I hope I can help you out with this. Here is what a person in your situation would do to become a registered nurse.
In order to become a registered nurse you will need to apply to a university with a nursing program. Here is a list of nursing programs by state so you can look at nursing programs in your area.
https://www.registerednursern.com/board-of-nursing-list-by-state-registered-nurse-rn-nurse-boards/
After you decide what school you want to attend, you will want to see what is required for admission. If you haven’t already taken an ACT or SAT exam you will need to register to take this exam. Almost all college require you to take either the ACT or SAT.
Then you will have to apply to the college using their application form. On the application form it will ask you want your major will be and you will need to put “nursing” or “pre-nursing”. When you submit your application to the college you usually have to include money which is for an “application fee”…usually this is anywhere for $20-50.
After that you will have to wait for an acceptance letter. After you get your acceptance letter you will need to make an appointment with an advisor who will guide you in getting your pre-requisite courses done so you can apply to the college’s nursing program (this will be sometime during your sophomore year).
After you apply to your college’s nursing program, it will take you 2 years to complete the nursing courses (everything from start to finish should take you about 4 years to get your nursing degree…NOTE there are two types of registered nurse degrees the bachelors (which is the 4 year degree I am talking about here) or associates which takes 2 years to complete. So you may be wondering what the difference between the BSN and ADN are and here is a great article about it:
https://www.registerednursern.com/adn-or-bsn-nursing-degree-what-is-the-difference-between-adn-bsn-programs/
After you graduate from the nursing program, you will be awarded with a nursing degree and will be eligible to take your state board licensing exam called the NCLEX-RN. Once you pass this exam, you will be given the title of registered nurse.
That is the run down of how you become a registered nurse. I hope it helped!
Deborah B. says
January 14, 2015 at 1:39 pmFind an accredited associate degree program (Jr College) and apply. If there is a waiting list take a required science course or two.