Nursing School Programs

There are a lot of searches on the internet for the term “Online LPN school”. Unfortunately - or maybe fortunately - there is no such thing.

Online nursing programs are geared towards Licensed Practical Nurses who have already gone through a year of school, done clinicals, interacted with patients under the supervision and direction of a registered nurse, etc. etc. There are things that a nurse needs to learn that can not be learned online.

There are LPN to RN degrees online, LPN to Bachelor of Science in Nursing Degrees online, and many other degrees that a nurse can get - once he or she has gotten that all important Licensed Practical Nursign degree first.

When you’re applying to nursing school, you can’t control how many other applicants are applying for the same slot - and these days, that number will be HIGH. You will be facing some stiff competition if you are applying to a community college or traditional four-year degree program.

However, here are two things that you can do to make yourself more attractive to a nursing school.

1.) Get some health-care experience before you apply. One way to do this is to volunteer at a local nursing home or hospital. Make sure you do this for at LEAST a few months before you apply to nursing school. This shows that you are comfortable working in a healthcare environment and you have a genuine interest in caring for others. Or, you can get a job as a certified nurse’s aide. To do this, you need to take a short course - if you look online for a CNA course in your area you can usually find a course that takes just a couple of weekends to complete. Then, you will take a test on the CNA skills that you’ve learned, undergo a criminal background check - and voila, you can work as a CNA! The pay is not high, but there is very high demand.  Again, this shows the nursing school admissions counselor that you are serious about a healthcare career.

2.) What is your GPA? If there are any pre-requisite courses that you’ve taken and did not do well in - it would be worth your while to retake those classes at a local community college and improve your GPA. Again, there is a lot of competition to get into nursing school these days.  If you can retake a class and this time participate in study groups, ask your school for help with tutoring (often offered free to students), find study groups online…boosting your GPA will boost your chances of acceptance.

Parade Magazine recently discussed the nursing shortage, citing the very same reason that I’ve frequently mentioned here on this site: not enough nursing teachers. Which means not enough nursing classes. Which means not enough students can graduate from nursing school to replace all of those registered nurses who are leaving the field.

Nationally, the article says, 42,866 qualified applicants were turned away from nursing school programs last year. That is very unfortunate; think how much better off patients everywhere would be if all of those qualified, eager nursing school applicants had been accepted. Eventually, of course, some of those applicants are going to get discouraged and give up and seek other fields.

Before they do, of course, I would suggest that they explore some alternative methods of getting past the nursing school waiting lists.

Pensacola Junior College has received a grant from several partners and is expanding a number of its programs. They will be accepting more paramedic to RN students ( a two-year associate’s degree program.)

Recently many paramedic students suffered a big letdown when Florida’s Board of Nursing decided that they were not going to accept the Excelsior online Paramedic to RN program  - even while some students were halfway or all the way through the program.  However, Pensacola Junior College is just one of many community colleges in the State of Florida which offer state accredited paramedic to Rn programs - so there’s no reason to give up.

And here’s an exciting option that we haven’t come across before: CNA to LPN! Apparently it’s a brand new program, and 60 students will be enrolled. Check out the information at the Florida Center for Nursing Webpage, which also has information about other Florida schools which have recently received various nursing grants.