What Are The Easiest Nursing Schools To Get Accepted Into
Nurses are in high demand throughout much of the developed world. A national U.S. nursing shortage means nurses’ wages have increased, making it a professional field that captures students’ interest. A major contributing factor to the nursing shortage is a lack of qualified instructors, leading to strong demand for nursing education. Nursing programs are usually competitive. A few select aspects of nursing education have a noncompetitive admission process.
Entry To Nursing School Competition Vs Nursing Shortage
I understand the shortage is fundamentally because of the retiring nurse workforce. Does this mean nursing school is competitive to get into because so many of us pre-nurse younglings are applying, and those who are already RNs are very slowly filling the retiree gap? I kind of thought the ratio of nursing students and established RNs would balance itself out with the amount of veteran nurses leaving, unless my scope year-wise is too narrow.
Edit: Wow, I guess my scope overall was not that good after all. Thank you all for your input. I neglected to think about new nurses leaving, among other things. I know this isn’t an easy field like “others” assume it is, I’m not taking any toughness for granted, and that getting accepted into school is worlds away from securing the job hunt . But my current student self tends to keep the hope alive somehow by thinking that new nurses won’t “give up easily”
Wish I could predict what things will look like 8-10 years from now, but for now, I appreciate all the perspective.
What Your Journey Could Look Like
Your First Year
- You’ll start to find your place on campus and begin your core classes in English, math, science, history and chemistry.
- Attend one of our nursing advisement and info sessions to learn about applying to the nursing program.
Sophomore Year
- You’ll finish up your prerequisite core courses.
- This will be the year you apply to the BSN program. Admission is competitive and is based on your GPA and HESI test score.
- Once you’ve been accepted into the program, you’ll celebrate by buying your official UNG Nursing scrubs and lab kit.
- You’ll learn the fundamentals of nursing practice, including health assessment, pathophysiology and pharmacology
Senior Year
- You’ll study specialized topics in nursing, including obstetrics, pediatrics, mental health and population health.
- As you prepare to graduate from UNG, you’ll also be preparing to take the NCLEX exam to earn your professional licensure.
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Accelerated Nature Of Absn Program
As mentioned above, nursing school involves complex concepts that can be challenging to learn, synthesize, and apply to real-world situations. Even in traditional nursing school programs, which generally take 36 months to complete, processing that much information can seem like a lot to take on.
But add in the fact that in an accelerated nursing program like Mercers ABSN you will be studying that same amount of material in a 12-month online-based curriculum, and it seems especially difficult.
Taylor says while she chose the Mercer ABSN program due to its accelerated nature, she underestimated how quickly her studies would progress once she started.
You truly hit the ground running. That being said, the faculty were so excellent at communicating and making things clear that even though you felt like you started at a sprint, you had such clear guidance and structure on what was going to happen, that I never really felt like I was getting out of breath or it was unmanageable.
It is very doable if you are passionate about it and you put in the work. That is really all it comes down to.
Take Advantage Of Admissions Assistance
When you apply to our ABSN program, we pair you up with a dedicated admissions counselor who is there to support you every step of the way. They will first get to know you as a person and ensure that you are a good fit for the program. When speaking with them, be prepared to answer why you want to become a nurse and why you might be a good fit for the program. Nursing is a demanding career that requires plenty of patient care and advocacy, so its their priority to make sure you have the right qualities to succeed as a nursing student and beyond.
Dont be shy about asking for their assistance or sharing your concerns about the application process and nursing school in general. After all, your admissions counselor is there to help keep you on track and guide you in submitting the most competitive application possible. They can help explain how previous academic experiences affect your chances of acceptance and the traits you have that will allow you to succeed in nursing. Whatever you need as an applicant, they are here to help you achieve it.
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How Hard Is Nursing School The Challenges Of Becoming A Nurse From A To Z
Becoming a nurse is not for the faint of heart. The field of nursing is competitive school is challenging from the moment you start the admission process to the moment you sit in for the NCLEX exam. And the current pandemic isnt making it any easier for aspiring nurses who want to pursue an education in the field.
Most nursing education has moved online, which has affected students and institutions alike. While for some schools, such as Nightingale College, the switch to virtual learning has been instead a natural transition due to the extensive experience with online teaching the academic institutions have found it harder to cope with the challenges of moving everything from lectures to clinicals online.
But even without the current constraints imposed on nursing education, studying to become a nurse is a tedious, time consuming, and plainly speaking, hard process. Before you decide to enroll in a Registered Nurse Program, you should know exactly what to expect. How hard is it going to be to get in? How difficult is it going to get once you are already in nursing school? Is it really that hard to pass nursing school? Will it get any easier once you graduate?
Keep on reading to find the answers to these questions and decide for yourself if nursing is the right career track for you.
Contents
Least Competitive Easy Admission Nursing Schools With High Acceptance Rates
If you aspire to be a nurse, you must have asked yourself this question at least once, what are the 10 least competitive easy admission nursing schools with high acceptance rates?
Being a nurse is not easy. On the contrary, it is, in fact, one of the most challenging professions in the world. Being part of the medical industry means you are responsible for someones life.
This could be the very reason why many nursing schools tend to be competitive. Being competitive equates to applicants having to go through a tedious journey before making it to the nursing courseit could be long waiting lists, low acceptance rates, and high GPA requirements. These things also discourage nursing aspirants from trying to get into a good nursing school. Then again, it has to be noted that the 10 least competitive nursing schools in America do not skimp on the quality of the education they provide.
Like most nursing schools, a huge percentage of dental schools in America tend to be very competitive as well. We have here a list of the 10 Least Competitive Dental Schools in America for you.
Rob Marmion/Shutterstock.com
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Enroll In A Nursing Program And Fulfill Your Calling
Everyones journey through nursing school is different: some find it easier, while for others, its painstakingly hard. Its not a career path for the faint of heart, but in the end, if youre passionate and driven, youll not only survive, but youll thrive in nursing school.
Nursing school is meant to help you become the best nurse you can be. Is it hard? For sure. How hard? That ultimately depends on you.
Reasons Why Schools Are Rejecting Candidates
According to the American Association of Colleges of Nursing some key findings related to the ongoing nursing shortage include,
- Dr. Peter Buerhaus and his colleagues addressed the accelerating rate of nursing retirements and projected that one million nurses will retire by 2030.
- According to the 2012 United States Registered Nurse Workforce Report Card and Shortage Forecast reported that the shortage of nurses will spread across the country between 2009 and 2030. The shortage is expected to be worst in the South and the West.
- The Institute of Medicine, supported by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, called for increasing the number of baccalaureate-prepared nurses in the workforce to 80%. This puts an increased strain on nursing faculty.
1. Retirement
A substantial portion of qualified nurses are reaching retirement at the same time, creating a sudden deficit that has been hard to fill. At the same time, Baby Boomers, which represent one of the largest generations, has increased demand on the healthcare system as they age and require additional medical care.
- The National Council of State Boards of Nursing and The Forum of State Nursing Workforce Centers found that 50.9% of the RN workforce is 50 or older.
- The Health Resources and Services Administration projects that more than 1 million registered nurses will reach retirement age within the next 10 to 15 years.
2. Shortage of Nursing Faculty
3. Reduction in Available Spots
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What It Means To Be On The Waitlist
The UW School of Nursing has extremely limited space in all degree programs. Competitive applicants who we do not have enough space to admit to a particular program or track will be offered a place on our waitlist.
Frequently, offers of admission are made to competitive applicants whose plans may change or they decide to accept an offer from another school. If an admitted applicant forfeits their offer of admission, we contact the next person on the waitlist.
Because we have no control over any individuals plan to accept an offer of admission, there is no way to know if or when a space will open up for anyone who is on the waitlist. There are many considerations in addition to the instructions stated in your letter:
Large Number Of Applicants
According to 2012 data from AACN, the number of applicants to nursing schools is staggering. AACN reports that nursing schools turned away more than 52,000 qualified applicants in 2012 alone. When you apply to nursing school, you are competing against other highly qualified applicants for a limited number of spaces, which means that nursing schools focus on accepting only the very best.
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Youll Strengthen Your Critical Thinking Skills
It takes brains to pass the TEAS test and become a nursing student. But the academic challenge doesnt stop there.
On our tests, there are multiple correct answers, but only one is the most correct, Megan L. says. You always have to know the best answer.
Tricky questions like this might seem frustrating, but is there a good reason for nurses to know the most correct answer? Their patients very lives are at stake! Megan L. describes a question on her last exam that presented the symptoms of four very sick patients. It asked which patient the nurse should treat first? In reality, theres likely other nurses in the hospital to help, but in this scenario she had to ask herself a tough question, Which one is going to die the fastest if I dont do anything? Though this a grim question, its also a lifesaving one nurses may face in emergency triage situations.
In that example, it is very possible that more than one of those answers could be right. All of those patients need care, but students should fight the temptation to select the first seemingly correct answer they read, says Natalia D., Rasmussen University BSN student and tutor. She reminds students to make sure theyve gathered all the necessary information and established priorities before selecting an answer.
Nursing school is not always black and white, just like real life, says Samantha S.
Nursing Student Balances School With Training For Ironman Competition
Brennan Black, Advancement
At 6 a.m., one can probably find most University of Calgary students just hitting snooze on their alarm clocks, but Kassidy Greulich is already at the Crowfoot YMCA getting in her first session of cardio.On top of being a fourth-year undergraduate student in the Faculty of Nursing, Greulich is a triathlete training to compete in the grueling Ironman triathlon.Greulich says she has been training as a triathlete since she was eight, after a cross-country racing rival started doing triathlons.Having a competitive instinct, I wanted to do them as well and I wanted race her, she says. It was second nature. Ive been running since I was young, and I fell in love with swimming and biking, so it kept me busy and fed my competitive drive.That training keeps her busy to this day. Greulich says her typical day includes a cardio session from 6 to 8 a.m., an online lecture from 9 a.m. to noon, a weight session for an hour, a class from 2 to 5 p.m. and then a second cardio session or studying.Despite this busy schedule, Greulich says she has been able to balance school and training because she has been training for so long, its normal to just work constantly and fill in the gaps in her day.I also work best under pressure, so I think it works really well, she says.
As a fourth-year nursing student, Greulich says she is hoping to gain as many skills and experiences as she can.
Kassidy Greulich
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What Makes Nursing School Challenging
When considering the next step in your education, you might ask yourself, What should I expect in nursing school? The answer depends on whom you ask. To give you multiple perspectives, we asked Mercer ABSN graduates how they worked through some of the more challenging aspects of accelerated nursing school, including the course material, the accelerated nature of the program, and studying for nursing school exams.
How Hard Is Getting Into Nursing School
Working as a nurse implies a huge responsibility. You are literally responsible for the lives and wellbeing of your patients, so it makes sense for the educational process to be reasonably tricky as to prepare you to the best of your ability for the important role you are to play in the healthcare industry.
But before you actually start studying, its notoriously hard to get into nursing school. From strict academic requirements, such as a higher than average GPA or having to complete prerequisite courses with good grades, to having to sit in for stressful, complicated entrance exams, nursing schools dont make it easier on the aspiring nurses.
Lets see what boxes you will have to check in order to get into a nursing program:
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Three Reasons Why Nursing Schools Are So Competitive
As we have noted, nursing school admissions are extremely competitive. Standards are justifiably high due to the responsibility and consequences of working as a nurse. But, high standards are not the only factors that play into the difficulty level of getting accepted. There are other factors that make it difficult for nursing schools to expand enrollment. Lets take a look at three of the most common explanations offered by nursing schools:
I Am In High School Or Have Never Attended College And I Want To Earn My Bsn From Unc
You should contact the Office of Undergraduate Admissions at UNC Chapel Hill to obtain information about admission to the university. Your first two years of study will be devoted to completing General Education requirements and the Nursing Science Prerequisites. Students seeking a first bachelors degree in nursing are typically admitted to the School of Nursing in the spring semester of the sophomore year for enrollment in fall of the junior year. Students must complete all General Education courses and all Nursing Science Prerequisites by the end of spring semester prior to entering the School of Nursing.
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How Hard Is It To Work While Youre In Nursing School
Another thing that makes nursing school particularly hard is how complicated it is to be studying nursing and holding a job at the same time.
Work and school are both major commitments and some people cannot simply choose one over the other. Having a stable source of income and not needing to work for a living is not a luxury everyone has. So, because the process of juggling a job and school is no easy feat, nursing school is even harder for working professionals.
Explore some essential tips that will help you balance working full time and meeting the demands of nursing school.
Some nursing programs are even harder than others: accelerated programs tend to be more demanding, so it would be even more complicated to divide your efforts between work and school. At the same time, you could choose a program that lets you study at your own pace but keep in mind that that might extend the duration of your studies.
All in all, you need to find your learning style and motivation to keep going even when you are tired and unfocused after a long day at work. We are here to help you through the process. Read our post on how to effectively study while holding down a job in order to make the best out of both experiences. With a plan of action, a well-defined schedule, and lots of motivation, nursing school might come just a little bit easier.