Life without School

I have to seriously wonder why I complained about going to school everyday, because I find myself quite bored being home. I miss having a purpose to my day and a place to be. I have been studying hard though and enjoyed a week of time with my kids doing fun things.

Monday, I did something a little crazy. I had a home consultation with the Senior Program Advisor at The College Network. This school is basically an online nursing school affiliated with over 20 Universities in the United States. He came to my home, brought materials, and basically pitched the program; that being the RN program. After 90 minutes I asked a few questions, and decided to DO IT! The draw for me was the 5 yr financing available for tuition broken into monthly payments I can afford (i hope). There is no classroom time, no written assignments, no facility clinicals. I receive course manuals in the mail (also have access to course manuals online) and basically do it at my own pace (read, practice tests, etc) and when I feel ready I call a testing center, schedule a test date and go take the test. I pass, I complete the course for college credit. Available resources are online chats 24/7, 15 hr/day toll free call centers for tutoring questions, and online resources for help. To complete the RN degreee, I will complete 7 NURSING courses, and Microbiology (geared for nursing). The manuals are geared for passing the course exam, and only contain pertinent nursing material. I filled all the forms to have transcripts collected from all 4 schools I've attended. BEST thing is all college courses are accepted with no time limit on tranferability. This is why I only have 8 courses to take. I can start immediately as I was left with the first two course manuals. I will do one course at a time, focus in and get it done, then take the test, with the next course manual to follow. This college network has had over 110,000 RN graduates and the pass rate is 95%. Upon completion of all courses, I have a weekend 2 day clinical seminar where I go to nearest college center (Queens, NY) and go through a mock clinical with a small group of other students. There is another charge for this part of program, but there is also financing available. I pass this, I am eligable to sit for the NCLEX-RN boards. My degree will be from Excelsior. I am NERVOUS as hell, but also excited to not have to basically wait a YEAR to continue my education. I am spending a fortune doing this, so again, I have a lot resting on this. Tuition is almost double what I'd pay if I went to college in town, but this program will allow me to do this at my own pace, and gives me an extra year if needed, plus I can continue to work as an LPN while I do this. Working as LPN will pay for my RN schooling. Based on the fact that I completed my PN program with top 3 grades in class (of 20) I think I can do this. It will be tough, but kids are supportive for the most part and I have a strong desire to be an RN.

I completed and sent in all applications to sit for NCLEX-PN boards. I am currently awaiting my ATT# to call the testing center to schedule my test date. I am doing 200-300 questions/day preparing for the test. Its pretty much all Ive been doing all day. It's DO or DIE!

Life continues to amaze me everyday. I am truly blessed. To look back 4 years ago and compare that to my life now....WOW! In the words of Martha Stewart...."It's a Good Thing."