Long stories short...

I graduated in 2006 with a BS in Biology from Ursinus College in Collegeville, Pennsylvania.  (Creative name of the town, no?).  Then, I became a paramedic.  It would have been all fine and dandy, but yeah, I was quite possibly out of my league, I just didn't have the right mindset for the job.  (Or I was looking at getting into too many arguments and bad times with the administration, who knows.)

So, after moving 2000 miles to Salt Lake City, I decided (with lots of pushing from my family, I will freely admit) to go back to school for my nursing degree.  Looking at the options around here, my really only option for achieving a RN degree in any sort of time was a BSN, so from a list of 5 colleges or so, it meant the University of Utah or Westminster College.

Taking the tour of the two schools, it was a tough decision.  The deciding factor, however, was the odds of getting into the nursing program itself and how hard it would be to get the classes I needed.  So, Westminster it was.  Okay, I will also admit that meeting with one of the nursing advisors at the U of U also heavily influenced my decision - to me, it felt like all of my seven years of experience with EMS was tossed out, and that even though I did have some good grades, they weren't good enough for her program.  Also, she recommended that I become a CNA, implying - to me - that it was pretty much the only way to get accepted into any of their programs there.  (My thoughts were: how about NOT.  I'd rather not shell out several hundred dollars that I don't have on a certification that I would probably end up not using)  And while I wasn't exactly impressed by the transfer admissions councilor at Westminster at the time, and my questions were tough ones, she didn't have anything to do with the nursing department.  Plus, they have a critical care specialty option, at least according to their website...which is what I'd like to try to get into, or at least see if it's something that I'd like to do.

My goals as a nurse?  Right now, well, to become a nurse, obviously.  I've some other life goals that are unrelated to all that, but the first step is to get that RN behind my name.  I'm thinking of going into critical care, which means my CCRN, and then trying transport, perhaps?  Maybe the ER?  In the long run, however, I do want to get a masters, either as a CRNA or go into clinical research.

Lucky for me, I only have to take or retake a grand total of 6 pre-requisites.  Two a semester, which means that I can quite nicely fit in a minor there, too.  Have to, actually, to maintain 12 credits and full-time status.

This semester, anatomy, statistics, french, and ballet (hey, I could...).

Next time: I thought that books were expensive, but this?