Nursing Students – You Must Do THIS Before Signing Up For An Online School
So you have a degree as a Licensed Practical Nurse, or paramedic, or respiratory therapist, and you want more. You want to advance in your career, you want to earn more money, you want to open up more avenues for employment.An online nursing school is an excellent way to pursue that registered nursing degree. It will allow you to work while you go to school, to take classes during the times that are convenient to you, and to save all of that time and money that you would have had to spend commuting to a “brick-and-mortar” school.You can also download many of your course materials from online, as well. And you can join online study groups to help you pass your tests and get passing grades in your classes.But – and this is crucial – there is one thing that you MUST do before committing to an online school.You MUST check with your state Board of Nursing to make sure that the online nursing school that you are considering is approved in your state. If it is not, you might up spending a year or two, and many thousands of dollars, on your schooling – only to find out that you are not eligible to sit for the NCLEX-RN in your state. That would leave you the option of moving to another state that does accredit that particular nursing school – or accepting that you just wasted all of that time, effort, and money.Also, some states approve the LPN to RN program but not the Paramedic to RN program. The State of Florida, for example recently announced that they would not approve a certain online nursing school’s paramedic to RN program – leaving many students who were midway through the program out in the cold.So before you commit to an online nursing program, you must contact your state Board of Nursing to find out if they approve the program. Do not depend on the online nursing program to tell you; they are not the final voice of authority in this matter, and only the Board of Nursing can approve a school’s program and say that students who successfully complete that school’s course can sit for the NCLEX-RN and work as a nurse in their state.