GRE and Grad School

So part of the reason that I have decided to go back to school for my BSN is that it is required at work for us to obtain it within 5 years.  The other and main reason is that I would like to attend grad school.   I am scheduled to take the GRE on April 16, 2016.  I am really nervous about it as it has been a long time since I did any sort of math that is being tested!

Grad school wise, I would like to eventually become a CNM (Certified Nurse Midwife).  I checked out one school, Vanderbilt, and really liked it, but wasn't fond of Nashville, and their hospital was overwhelmingly huge.  Plus it comes with a pretty hefty pricetag.  So now I am looking at ECU (Eastern Carolina University) as they have a CNM program and for NC residents, the cost is really good!  Depending on when I finish my BSN program, I am looking to apply for Spring or Fall 2016!

Starting back to school!

Hi everyone!  I am creating this blog as I am returning to school to post my progress so others who may thinking about returning to school or going to a certain program, may follow and learn some information!

Let me tell you a little about me!  My name is Katie and I am 30 years old(I will turn 31 next month, YIKES!).  I have been married for 12 years come December 2015 and we have 4 kiddos that are almost 12, 10, 8, and 5!    I earned my Bachelor's degree in Sociology in May of 2006.   After working with the state of Louisiana for just under 5 years, I decided to return to school for nursing.  My twin sister and I enrolled together!  We entered Louisiana Tech Unversity's nursing program in September of 2011.  While it was hard at the time, gosh I miss those days with my instructors and my fellow students.   You become like a big family and I miss seeing them all daily!    We graduated from nursing school in May of 2013.  It passed by so quickly!  My sister accepted a position in the nursing residency program at Cape Fear in Fayetteville and moved off to North Carolina.   I accepted a position in Labor and Delivery at EA Conway(Monroe, LA, part of the LSU system) and started working June 2013.   I was very excited as my dream job was to always work in L&D. 

I enrolled into an RN to BSN program August 2014 at NSULA.  I attended there until May 2014 when I moved to Wake Forest, NC to work at Rex Hospital in Raleigh, NC.    I wanted to be closer to my sister, but I also wanted to try living somewhere else and see how we liked it and give the kids some different opportunities and to explore other areas.    The move was hard.  My husband, Bryan, had a very hard time with it and is still having trouble adjusting.  He misses his friends and family.     So I took the summer off from school to learn my new job(still L&D) and the new area.  The kids started school in JULY!  (Year round school).   I found out that I would not be able to continue on at NSULA due to some sort of conflict NC was having with online schools.   

I have now renenrolled into a new program at University of Louisiana at Lafayette.  I started March 2015.   Why did I not attend a NC school?  Because I am not a resident here yet for tuition purposes and would have to pay out of state tuition.  YUCK!  ULL accepted all of my transfer classes from NSULA so I don't have many classes to take, although I will have to take Chem.  DOUBLE YUCK!

My first courses are Nursing 353 and Nursing 354.  So far so good.  Nurs 353 is super easy and is more of an orientation in online courses and what is expected of you.  I had a couple quizzes and a puzzle to complete and was done with that course :)   Nusing 354  requires 2 papers that are 2-3 pages long and a final paper(not sure how long that one is yet).  There are 2 discussion forum posts and 5 quizzes.   Overall, not too bad so far, but I am only in the second week!   I will try to keep the blog updated on everything that is going on!