I’ll cover some points....
First, $15,000 for an accelerated BSN is a steal. I can confidently say that you will get more of a return on your investment dollar for dollar than any other $15,000 you could spend on education, hands down. The moment you are done and pass your NCLEx, you can get a job anywhere in the country, and make a wage that will allow you to live well, provided that you don’t have a bunch of other liabilities to pay down. But even then, what other program dollar for dollar would do that for you? So congratulations on that. And you set yourself up for another bargain program, NP, which is always ranked high for pay and satisfaction.
You will do fine in your accelerated program. You were a hard science degree holder, just apply that same work ethic and you will do fine. Don’t worry about the grading tier being new to you. That’s how grad school is. Even in my Associates degree nursing program, and most others I know of, anything less than 75% fails you. That’s just how it is. They don’t want folks touching patients with less than that. In my program, you had to average above 75 on your class grades, as well as your test scores. If either dipped lower, the other average couldn’t bring you up. That made it even more dangerous because you had to do well in class and on tests. And that was a community college program. But you’ll do fine.
You’ll do well enough to get into the Np programs you want to get into. You won’t get bad grades because (as I said before) it’s just easier to study a little bit harder and get decent grades than to deal with the pressure of having your grades close to the failing line. So you will step up and make it happen. And even though it’s accelerated, it’s not tremendously hard to get through a nursing program. The biggest hurdles are people who have poor work ethic (which you don’t), emotional issues that get the best of them, unrealistic expectations of the program allowing them to screw around and not be accountable, or attitude issues (getting into battles with faculty). The only folks in my associates program that struggled were people that frankly though they were smarter than everyone else (mostly the professors), and were too proud to adapt. One guy almost got drummed out because he was just a pain in the butt and would argue with the professors about what he felt they should be doing. He though it was beneath him to just shut up. Instead of studying harder to do better on tests, he would make a huge case about one or two questions that he felt were misleading, and later in when he needed a favor, nobody would give him one because he made them all mad. Then there were the folks that thought they could be late all the time, or have a family thing every week that interfered with their schedule. Go figure, these same people are not dependable workers even today. Many have jumped around to a bunch of different jobs. Always going on Facebook and complaining about how the world is against them, or commenting about how things would be perfect if not for people not being reasonable. So there you go... that’s how you fail nursing school. It’s similar to failing at life in general. Incidentally, nobody failed in my class, despite many of them being among life’s malcontents.
Financially, after you get your ABSN, you will then be able to work while in NP school, making this pathway even more worthwhile. I’ve run the numbers here a lot, but think of the savings. Les calculate things and not include taxes... we will stick to raw numbers:
Your first year of ABSN you will pay $15,000 plus living expenses. Say it costs you $30,000 to live while going to ABSN school. Your first year is $45,000. Then you start working as an RN for maybe $65,000. So for the next two years while you do NP school and work, you make $65,000 x 2 years. That’s $130,000. Subtract the $45,000 for your year of ABSN, and you are at $85,000.... and debt free. If you go to an Np school that costs what the average school costs, then you pay the school $35,000. So you are now at $50,000 in the bank. You start year of your journey as an NP making $100,000. Then at the end of year 5, you have $250,000 (because that’s the end of your second year as an NP). So... five years from the start of your hypothetical BSN, you are $250,000 ahead.
Now imagine PA school:
You go through 2 years of PA school, and you can’t work during school. 2 years of tuition ($90,000), and 2 years living expenses ($30,000 per year x2) puts you at -$150,000 in the hole. Year 3, 4, and 5 gets you income of $100,000 x3 years as you work as a PA.That comes to $300,000. Pay back the $150,000, and you are at $150,000 ahead. But in the end, you are $100,000 ahead by doing NP school. That’s just the raw numbers. So that’s a solid approach you are taking.
The DNP isn’t going to be rammed down your throat, so don’t worry about that. And there are masters NP programs that will take you soon after graduating, so don’t worry much about any requirements to have 2 years minimum experience. You will find what you are looking for.
I’d be excited. Best advice I could give you is to simply live in the moment be enjoy nursing school and the journey. Take it one chunk at a time. I don’t know exactly what I can suggest to make it easier, but I can say that if you treat the whole process as a means to an end, it will make it less enjoyable. Be proud to get into ABSN school, proud to graduate, proud to be a nurse, proud to get into NP school, and proud to become an NP. Each of those points as an accomplishment, and treat it like you respect each stage. It will seem like a chore if you just look at each as a mere stepping stone. Each phase is hard enough that you will need that motivation to move up the chain. It really has to be enjoyed as you go or you won’t be satisfied.
