Since many nurses work three days a week, it is quite possible to work and go to school all while accelerating your career. While nursing school grades have a strong correlation with passing the NCLEX, what role do they play in your career?

The simple yet convoluted answer is – it depends.

It depends on your career aspirations. Are you trying to stay put as a registered nurse? Do you want to go back to school and become a nurse practitioner, nurse educator, clinical nurse specialist, or certified registered nurse anesthetist (CRNA)? Most recognized professional schools will use your grades to filter you out from other candidates.

If your grades are bad, all is not lost. Since not many nurses actually end up going to graduate school, most schools are possible to get into besides CRNA school with the proper clinical experience. CRNA programs are really competitive to get into; however, many less populated states have programs that are easier to get into.

Truth be told, it is probably more important to be better in the clinical setting than be book-smart. Because grades are not uniform in difficulty, it is impossible to set a bar for each student. However, some schools have started to require the GRE examination. Therefore, experience is key to your admission. All experience is not held equal – intensive care and emergency care units probably hold more value than mental health units, that is of course, if you do not want to become a mental health nurse.

As a nursing student, you should strive for the best grades thereby increasing your opportunities for success however it is not always so easy to do. Nurses should attempt to land positions in a clinical settings that suit their needs and career aspirations.

Estimated Costs Per Pasadena City College School of Nursing:
Listed are the items required for their Nursing Program. Please note however that these prices are estimates and subject to change:
1. Health Screening from Pasadena City College Student Health Services (costs will be higher in other settings):

2. Uniform (2 sets are recommended for clinicals) – $120.00
3. White Shoes – $150.00
4. Badging – $12.00
5. PCC Patch -$5.00
6. Stethoscope & other minor equipment – $100.00
7. Watch with second hand(optional) – $50.00
8. RN ATI or Kaplan Package (Books, practice tests, N& other modules). ATI/Kaplan cost is $575 per semester.
9. Background Check (Criminal) – $42.00
10. Textbooks & Syllabi (total cost for 4 semesters) – $1,200
11. Optional RN Professional Insurance – $22.00
12. Parking (per semester which include campus and possibly clinical sites) – $100/semester
13. Tuition (per unit for only CA resident) ~ $ 3400.00
14. CPR Card – American Heart Association(AHA) only acceptable – $65.00
15. NCLEX Exam fee – $200.00
16. RN Licensing application online registration- $150.00
17. Live Scan Fingerprinting fee (FBI database)-$150.00

The process to retest is bad, it takes another two to three months and you’ll feel like crap going through this again but it is better to get it done sooner than later because of how long it takes to re-register. No fingerprinting is needed again, but the cost and studying are.

The process is pretty simple, just go back online to your BRN and click the drop down for retest, then complete the application again and upload another passport size picture and the payment. Then you’ll log back into your Pearson Vue account and re-enroll in your test but you will NOT get the ATT until the BRN gives them the certification that you are again eligible.

• Costs $200 for Pearson Vue and another $200 to the BRN.
• You’ll have to pay an additional fee to continue your NCLEX study.
• Since the passage rates are so high, you’ll feel like sh*t because most of your classmates already passed and are moving on with nursing gigs.
• The BRN takes months to approve you to retest. If your BRN is anything like mine, I had to call several times to see what was going on. I applied on 09/05/17 and was able to get my second ATT on 11/16/17- OVER TWO MONTHS LATER!The retesting processing times are two to three months behind as you’ll see here: http://www.rn.ca.gov/times.shtml
• You’ll have to keep studying like a maniac until you can reschedule.
• Getting a test scheduled the date you want is difficult but possible and a nuisance nonetheless.

Getting a bachelor’s degree in nursing is supposedly going to be mandatory by 2020 https://www.americannursetoday.com/advancing-toward-an-80-bsn-workforce-by-2020/ . So what does that mean for you? If you have not already enrolled in a program and are working in the hospital, they’ll often offer you a tuition reimbursement of 2k-4k per year (after first year of work) towards your tuition because of the BSN 2020 rule and Magnet status – https://www.uclahealth.org/ucla-designated-a-national-magnet-hospital . If you have your Associates Degree in Nursing, the hardest and most expensive part is over and the Bachelor’s is the icing on the cake.

So if I were you, I would slowwwly take my courses each year so the hospital would front most of, if not all the bill. Nowadays, most BSN programs are online and are work at your own pace kind of thing. These programs are always competing for students and are fairly affordable.

To an outside observer, a nurse’s salary is simply a base however this is almost never the case. Nurses make a ton of money with shift differential – basically added bonus in the form of hourly rate for working non-traditional hours(day shift). Afternoon shift will typically give you a rate of $2-3 more per hour while the dreaded night shift will pay an additional $4-6 more per hour. Check out the union contract to see an example of shift differential, bonuses and overtime/double-time rules.

In addition, there are bonuses for missing meal breaks due to workload, preceptorship of other new nurses, working too many weekend shifts, and working holidays.

I’ll save the best for last, well sort of. Nurses tend to work a lot of hours because of the general nursing ethical principles which mandate staying with your patient(s). So the good news is, often times you’ll work more than 12 hours during a shift and that means double-time for every hour after your shift per law( https://www.dir.ca.gov/dlse/faq_overtime.htm) and is going to happen more often than you think due to the 12 hour shifts you’ll typically work.

Why is picking a nursing school so important? The school you select will be the place you meet classmates that will be with you through your long days and nights of clinicals. The school also pre-selects what hospitals you rotate to so having alumni at those hospitals helps your chances of landing a position after graduation. However, passing the NCLEX should be a defining factor in the school you select.

The best sign of a great nursing school would be the passage rates because if you can’t pass your NCLEX, then what’s the purpose? Here is a link to the nursing school passage rates straight off the Board of Registered Nursing. http://www.rn.ca.gov/education/passrates.shtml

Secondly, look at the cost of tuition. IF you’re going to a community college, then you’ve got not too much to worry about because the school is pretty cheap – click here to see the costs. The bigger question will be when you get into a school like Mount Saint Mary’s University or West Coast University and have a price tag of over $100k in tuition alone, would you want to wait and see what happens with your other applications or would you want to start school immediately? Personally, I would want to wait because the education is pretty much the same and you wont have to spend your paychecks paying loans for the next 10-30 years of your life.

Lastly, you’ll want to check out the schools you’re interested in, the drive time and where the clinics will be located, classrooms size/setting and professors. Most clinical sites are strict about coming to the hospital on time for shift change/report and because you must register a mandatory amount of hours per the BRN. So just some things you need to consider before enrolling.