Transferring to another BSN program?

[Fragaria]

I was in nursing school in 2016, the program was relatively new and it was a hybrid type course. We met once a week and that was to quiz over materials we were expected to study and watch lecture videos over.

I had a hard time with the program because I am much more into traditional face to face lecture than a hybrid program. I did not know how I would’ve handled a hybrid program but lol now I know. The biggest thing I hated about the program was that we were thrown into clinicals with honestly no idea what we were supposed to be doing. As a result, most of us ended up failing courses in the first semester. I failed two but our programs policy said three failures equaled dismissal. Since I was a transfer student who applied to the program I only had 12 hours of credit at the school and failing a 3 and 5 hour course put me on academic probation. I decided not to retake those courses at that particular school because I just couldn’t learn with their method of teaching.

Fast forward to now, I am much older and I have a degree in Biology now. I am pursuing veterinary medicine (which was always rhe but I would like to also go back into nursing to finish what I had started. (Nursing was my backup plan and I plan to still pursue veterinary medicine but need a realistic career to fall back on)

If I apply to another program in my state with a traditional method of teaching, will my previous failures be held against me? I do not technically want to “transfer” the courses I took because I don’t really remember anything I learned from them anymore so I would prefer to retake those along with the ones I failed.

Any ideas?

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[Noisewater-TDX]

I personally would not mention you were even in the program. Just don't transfer those credits. Especially if you are wanting to get into Vet school one of these days, failures don't look good on a transcript.

 

[pamac]

They might ask you in the application, or else somewhere else in the process it will come up. If it doesn’t, then great, but you don’t want to lie to them if it does come up, because that would settle everything right then and there if you do lie. Every program I’ve ever applied to in any discipline asked me to provide all transcripts from all of my educational endeavors after high school. Omitting a program in that case could constitute deception as well. As to whether they will catch this, or whether they are even trying to catch anyone is a different story. They probably wouldn’t find out. I’d puts odds at 99.5% against. But if they did, you could be tossed out of a second school. I’m not even sure what kind of damage it would do to you to disclose your full history. I’ve found that being honest in all things is a better way to live, so I’d rather roll the dice on including all your historical information if they specifically ask you. Honor is the easiest way to distinguish yourself in this life. Might as well carry a positive track record.

Another suggestion is to simply commit to what you want to do. If that is veterinary, then go all in. BSN is a great thing to have in your pocket, but it will always be tempting you to go work shifts as a nurse when times get rough as a vet. Instead, place that effort into succeeding at what you really want to do, and then reap the benefits of that focus. Burn the ships that would take you home so that you can focus on the task at hand, which is conquering veterinary medicine. Besides, you are no more of a nurse than you are a veterinarian at this point, because all you’ve accomplished so far is to get into a BSN program that you subsequently failed.

BSN programs... and all nursing programs, are pretty much a pain in the butt, even though they don’t have to be. The faculty is usually nuts. Even though the goalposts don’t tend to move, in nursing school they tend to be difficult to recognize. Distance learning is the norm these days, and you need to be able to adapt. You will have a hard time finding any nursing school that is “supportive”, or caters to any of their students in the slightest. It could be so much better, but it isn’t. That’s the price to be paid for entry into an excellent career.

You’ll have your hands full getting through veterinary. I don’t know why you would take time trying to also get through another difficult academic program.

 

[Fragaria]

You’ll have your hands full getting through veterinary. I don’t know why you would take time trying to also get through another difficult academic program.

I 100% agree with honesty, I am not going to risk any part of my future by omitting anything lol.

The reason I’m considering going back into nursing is because I need a realistic backup plan if I don’t get into vet school. The application cycle is only once a year and what I’m currently doing isn’t going to really be something I can do lifelong and actually sustain a life.

I do realize that, yes, I did fail two courses but I failed those courses with a 74% but subsequently made A’s in my other nursing courses. I’m more than capable of handling the rigorous workload of nursing I just would prefer to be in a different program. I understand they will not cater to me, and that isn’t what I’m asking. I believe there is a difference in actually teaching students clinical skills over what I experienced. We had no method of instruction for clinical skills, no textbooks, nothing. We were on our own and they expected the rotating nurses to take the time out of their schedules to teach us, which wasn’t what any of the nurses i worked with signed up for.

 

[pamac]

Don’t get me wrong, nursing is great. But the variables that you aren’t thinking of could complicate your situation. You’ll spend over a year completing RN school just to have a backup. And upon getting that degree, would will need to work in the field and get at least a little experience, or else you won’t have the skill set to get good jobs as a nurse. You might be able to land a job, but keeping a job and a license takes a certain amount of proficiency. And then you have the debt from your ABSN.

I just see this plan having too many moving parts to be one that seems reasonable for you achieving either goal. Pick one and throw everything you have into it. I haven’t seen convoluted plans succeed. Think again what you are suggesting:

You want to find an ABSN program that fits your learning style, get into it, obtain your degree, Come out with a large chunk of debt, get RN experience, go to veterinary school, get through veterinary school, graduate with a lot of debt, practice as a starving vet, etc.

I don’t see where you are “sustaining life”. Under the best case scenario, you graduate BSN with plenty of debt, and go directly to veterinary school, where you amass an even greater deal of debt. And you are planning to accumulate that very large amount of debt to end up doing what? Do you plan to make minimum payments while you struggle to keep the lights on as a vet? Also, the prescribing professions tend to expect students to be self starters, similar to your RN program. They tend to assign reading, present power point slides with massive facts and figures, and then feel like that gives them license to test you on anything that is contained in a couple weeks worth of reading, which can be several hundreds of pages of info.

I’d suggest you pick one path. We live so easy these days that we give in to the temptation to feel like we aren’t living unless we have it all. I know people who are collecting degrees and certifications and never slowing down, yet they are producing close to nothing for themselves or society, and are squandering potential (and yet they don’t even recognize that). Heck, go to vet tech school instead of wasting a seat for someone at a BSN program. I suspect I know what’s going on here, but I’ll hold off so I don’t come off as confrontational. I really legitimately want to provide you with good advice.