To A.D.N. or not to A.D.N., that is the question..

[agent]

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Okay here's my situation.

I'm a 25 year old college student (dont ask) with a wife and a 7 month old baby. I'm starting my junior year of school at a local college. I also work full time. I really have no clinical experience.

So I have two options. I can go to a local school and get an A.D.N. and apply for my RN. This would give me clinical experience and then I could finish up my bachelor's in psych while working possibly in a hospital.

Other option is continue to go to school and get my bachelors in pysch and how to get some clinical by shadowing some doctors i know.

I currently work FT as a computer tech at a help desk for the Follett Software Company in IL. www.follettsoftware.com

I make a decent living about 35k a yr, enough so the wife doesnt have to work and our current rent is about 1k a month for 3 br, 2 bath.

So I've got a lot of decisions to make. In a way it will take longer to go get an ADN and license as an RN, but it will also raise my experince level and give me something substancial to talk about to adcoms..

So what do you think?

 

[DW]

how MUCH longer would it take you to get a RN? If not much, and you would actually enjoy/want to do nursing (another very important ?) you could pull down some nice money while getting ready to apply to med school. But dont do it solely for the purpose of applying to med school, nursing is hard, stressful work with some of the worst employee satisfaction ratings (but, with lots of opportunity to work pretty much whenever and wherever you want)

plus, just my opinion, "shadowing" is a sometimes lame and unsubtantial thing everyone does. If you work with a doc, try to do something relevant besides watching, and find something hands on, like phlebotomist (i think oldman does that), clinical research, emt, or something else that can give you some real clinical experience (while potentially getting paid too).

 

[agent]

you have a point about shadowing, but without clinical experince i coudlnt get into phelbotomy..

if nursing is so horrible im not sure i would want to do it. im already in a stressful job i hate.

 

[Sweet Tea]

don't you have to take the phelobotomy class to be a phelbotomist (where i would assume you get clinical training)? and once you get certified (or whatever... help me out here oldman!) can't you work pretty much anywhere? i'm just thinking that phlebotomy works in a similar way to ems... i could be dead wrong. where's oldman when you need him?

i still stand by my idea of becoming an emt. you are guaranteed to get lots of experience working with lots of different sick and injured people. of course, before you become an emt, you must decide how much crap (and pee, and blood, and vomit) you can deal with at one time. trust me on that one.

 

[agent]

i cant actually practice being an emt.

i wouldnt be able to support my family on that income.

 

[Sweet Tea]

Originally posted by agent
i cant actually practice being an emt.

i wouldnt be able to support my family on that income.

i understand-- that's why i'm a volunteer emt at night and i have a regular, full-time job to pay the bills (and the adcoms ).

 

[efex101]

Pursue nursing if that is what you enjoy/like/love/etc do not do it just to gain insight or to gain acceptance (not implying that this is your case). The nursing profession is in dire need of nurses that actually want to do this, IMHO if you do it *just* to get a leg up on med school you would be doing the patients a disservice and adcoms may actually question why the change? Why do EMT or anything else (unless this is truly something you would enjoy)? why not just get involved maybe 4-8 hours per week (on your day off) and volunteering at a clinic for the underserved, or in the OR or whatever. I do not understand (maybe I am stupid) why is there a need to get any certification to gain clinical experience, it can be done w/o the certification. Specially if you still have to work FT regardless of the certification, hope this makes sense...

 

[brontehardyeliot]

Another thing to consider about going through an ADN program is that there will probably be points where you won't be able to work full-time what with classes and clinical rotations. At least that's what I've always heard. I know you're trying to support your family, so that could become a huge issue if you have to cut back to something like 20 to 25 hours at work for two or three semesters.

I'm in a situation similar to yours (working full-time and trying to carry a heavy courseload and trying to pay for my house, etc., although I do not have a child to support) and I'm currently volunteering for four hours on Sunday evenings at a local hospital. It does make my weekends seem a little short sometimes, but it's clinical experience. Would something like that work for you possibly? I know getting actual work experience as any kind of certified medical professional has to be very helpful to your application and your overall experience. If you still want to do that, then I say go for it, but like efex101, I was always under the impression that good ol' volunteer work was looked on pretty favorably, too.

 

[Sweet Tea]

i agree with brontehardyeliot-- clinical experience is great, but it's not necessary, especially for someone as busy as you are. i know lots of people who were accepted to med schools without ever taking a blood pressure, and they weren't working to support a family (actually, some of them have never had any kind of employment)! do what you can... i was suggesting ems b/c in my area it's relatively easy to be a volunteer and work only at night or on weekends. volunteer where you can, be it at a clinic or a soup kitchen, and don't worry too much!

 

[Tweetie_bird]

Agent:
I answered some of your questions in the other thread, and I am not sure if you actually read it or not (since I did not receive feedback either way).....but that's fine.

Another option for you is to go into your school directory and look for all the clinical research projects they have. If you can line up a job at your university, working as a clinical research coordinator you might even get contacts for LORs etc. Just another idea.

For phleb, all you need is a course that probably trains for you 30 hours or so. The one in my state does that. They usually have classes (4-5 saturdays in a row) all day where they teach you this stuff. The class is much cheaper than the EMT class.

I'll keep thinking for more ideas.
Tweetie

 

[Tweetie_bird]

hey, here's anothe idea:

Call up your local United Way and see where they need help in your locality. They usually have TONS of contact names/places where clinical volunteers are needed. That could be good for you also, since you can work it all around your own schedule.

 

[agent]

tweetie, i have read ALL of your advice.. i totally appreciate everyone's advice.

i agree now that ADN is not the way to go. a BSN would be nice, but would require a commitment outside of pre-med that im not willing to make.

a short phelbotomy course and licensing would probably be smart so i could volunteer or get paid to work part time, plus get clinical experience