Nursing School Update

I've been checking my mailbox recently with a little extra spring in my step. I know the nursing school I applied to said that I'd hear by March "at the latest", and it is only December, but I don't know, I just hoped that I would hear something significant sooner.

About a week ago, after having sort of a crummy day at work, I got home, opened my mailbox and....there was an envelope inside with return address "Nursing Admissions" and the logo of the school I am applying to. I practically danced inside. I was so excited, and certain that the news would be wonderful, and was already planning when to share it with my family.

Inside, it read (roughly): Thank you for your application to blah-di-blah school of nursing. Your application is complete and your admission score was an 85. You will hear from us by March. Please do not call the nursing department for your admission results as we cannot give these out over the phone. Now is the time to start applying for financial aid and scholarships.... etc, etc.

So... not the big whooping news I was hoping for. But at least it's not a big denied stamp. I've already known what my admissions score was since I took the TEAS test, so that was no surprise.

There are all sorts of rumors that circulate around town about the nursing program I am applying to. During my phlebotomy externship, one girl told me that her friend who had an 85 admission score was 5th on the wait list to get in during her year (eep!). Another told me that she had a score "in the low 90s" which shot my confidence down a little further. Some say that you have to know someone in the administration in order to get in. I ran into my 5th grade teacher at Costco the other day, and when I told her I was trying to get into nursing, and about the admission process, she said "shouldn't teaching college biology count for something?!" I sure think so. She told me her sister in law is the assistant Dean (or something) of the program. I wonder if she'll put in a good word for me, and if it would matter if she did.

Someone told me recently that although the school I'm applying to doesn't put any time limit on how long ago you took your prerequisites, when you apply for your nursing license at graduation it matters. I took microbiology ten years ago. I hope that person was misinformed.

Another woman, someone I know well, told me that she was sure that nutrition class is required for getting your license. I looked at all of the state licensing web pages and school requirement pages I had the patience for, and didn't see anything about that. Not that it wouldn't be a good idea to take some nutrition.

So, I'm still waiting. And wishing. And Hoping.

Nursing School Application...Turned In.

I think I forgot to mention here that I turned in my nursing school application a couple of weeks ago. Things have felt so busy since I started my new job. But I guess it's worth mentioning.

I hand-carried it to the admissions office. I got a former teacher of mine to verify my proficiency in a second language, I had a previous community college where I took a music class send my transcripts (they already had my other ones on file), I included copies of my paystubs from the time when I was taking pre-req classes, and checked and double checked that all blanks were filled out correctly. I wrote a cover letter, not required or even suggested, but I thought it would make it come across as more professional.

When I handed it to the guy behind the glass window, he looked through all my documents I had included...I guess to check that the necessary stuff was there, and although it's not common practice, I specially requested that he write a signed note and date/time stamp it that he had received my application. This would not be the time to have the college lose my paperwork!

I probably won't hear anything for a while. But it's in!

Turning to Volunteer Work

About a week and a half ago now, I applied for another job, working front desk at an assisted living home. One of my walking buddies who works there let me know that the part time position was opening up, and I hoped that having that personal connection would get me an in, but apparently it didn't.

So I'm coming up on the end of March already (gasp! it's already the 23rd). If I want to show that I have some medical experience before the nursing school application process begins I need to get on that now, regardless of having an actual paid job in the field or not. It also is starting to seem like volunteer work may be necessary to get a foot in the door to a paid job. There was another opening at United Blood Services in the last couple of weeks but they specified that you could have no other time commitments (strike 1 against me, I'm a part time student) and that you needed a minimum of 6 months previous medical experience. No luck there for me.

One of the local hospitals has a formal volunteer program set up. I figure if I apply now, and I get lucky in terms of the whole orientation process going through in a timely manner (which it might not), it still will be quite a push to get 200 hours done by July 1st. If they do the scheduling like the humane society I used to volunteer with did it (all online, sign up for whatever shifts you want that are available), I could easily do 40ish hours over spring break, but they might not do it that way at all. We'll see.

I am going to go to the hospital and pick up an application tonight.

The nursing school I am applying to gives more credit in the application process for hours *worked* than for hours *volunteered* but there's not much I can do about that at this point other than keep applying, and in the mean time I should start the volunteer as a backup.