So how do you become an RN? First off, if you are in high school now, here is some things
that you need to do. You need to make sure that you take college prep courses. This would
include your maths, your sciences, your chemistries, all of those things. We would prefer that
you would have a foreign language, preferably four years. Foreign language is very important
and, as a nurse, nowadays you need to be bilingual. You need to focus on anatomy physiology, chemistry.
You need to focus on algebra, pre-calculus, calculus, statistics, psychology and definitely
English and communication. So that's the basic thing that you need for high school. You also
need to make sure that you have a GPA of 3.0 or higher because, depending on where you'd
like to go, nursing programs and nursing institutions are very competitive. So the higher the GPA,
the better. Now, if you're already out of high school, so if you have a high school
degree or if you have a GED, either of those will work fine. Here's the thing. What you
need to do is make sure that you research which nursing facility you'd like to go to.
Whether it's at a college, university or even at a community college you need to make sure,
before you get into anything, that it is an accredited nursing program. In order to find
that out, you need to do extensive research. What you also need to make sure is that you've
taken your SATs and your ACTs. Now these scores, if you are going to a competitive school,
those are going to be what's going to make or break you when you get into a program.
Now everyone joining into a new college will have to take a college entrance exam, and
this is required by all colleges and universities. That's where they're going to place you and
then therefore, once you are there, you can go ahead and start your courses. Now depending
on which school you go to and what program you want, whether it's an Associates degree
or a Bachelors degree, you need to know that there is a waiting list that you will need
to put your name on before you can get into the nursing program. So this means that once
you're enrolled in a college or institution, they're going to put your name on a waiting
list, and this varies by state, so you need to make sure whichever state that you're attending
with that college, you need to know how long the waiting list is, and it may vary from
a year to even two years. Now once your name is on the waiting list, that is when you want
to get your prerequisite courses completed. Now, for the Associates degree program and,
like I said it's going to take about two years to complete this. However, it's going to take
about a year and a half of prerequisite coursework in order for you to get into the nursing program.
So once you have your prerequisite classes completed, then once you're enrolled, you
can go ahead and start your core courses for your nursing program. Now, once that happens,
you will have theory work and you will also have clinical work. This also applies for
the Bachelors degree program. Once you're done with your prerequisite courses, you will
then be able to take your curriculum courses for that nursing program. You always want
to make sure that you read the fine lines before you decide to enroll in the program,
and this just makes sure that you know that you're on track. You always want to have an
academic adviser that's working with you, just to make sure that the credits that you've
taken, especially if you've taken at another institution, will count for credit towards
your degree. It is very important that you take your NCLEXT RN exam shortly after graduation,
because all of the knowledge that you have learned will be new and fresh. The longer
you wait, it may be harder to pass your exam. After you take your exam, it may take between
two to four weeks before you get results. If you do not pass your exam the first time,
there is a wait time between forty-five and ninety days, but that depends on each state.
Once you get your RN license, you will be required to renew your license every two years.
This is Andrea Graziano and I want to say thank you for listening and good luck!