<p>I have a couple of questions for you guys.
When you guys got accepted to the undergrad nursing school you wanted to go to, how many hours of health clinical experience did you have? Is it really that important? The only thing I have is 200 hours of volunteering; that's not enough right? Also, is it hard to transition from being a RN to a PA? Thanks in advance!</p>
<p>I’m guessing that the primary goal is to show you have spent enough time in a health care setting to show that you know what you are getting into. The schools want to see that you are serious about a nursing career, and not just doing it because employment looks bleak in other fields. </p>
<p>I don’t think you need to spend thousands of dollars at a special summer program to show you know what nurses really do.</p>
<p>My daughter had zero experience in a healthcare setting when she was applying to nursing school. She was accepted to Pitt which is quite selective. I think grades, rigor of classes taken and test scores are probably overwhelmingly more important that experience in a healthcare setting. We visited many nursing schools during the college search and I don’t recall healthcare setting experience ever being mentioned as necessary for applicants. If you already have 200 hours of volunteering, you shouldn’t need to worry about getting any more.</p>
<p>My daughter applied to several schools in Colorado and Wyoming - and half of them require CNA licensure before applying to the actual nursing program. (The CNA licensure requires a certain number of clinical hours.) The other half of the schools didn’t require anything in the way of clinical experience.</p>
<p>It sounds like there is a difference between the direct entry programs (which don’t expect much experience) versus programs geared towards older students or juniors and seniors.</p>
<p>Little to none. One summer working with ARC (which some consider a health care setting but others consider an educational setting - but they prefer to hire students in health care majors) and job shadow for her original major. Her program is not direct entry. It cared far more about GPA in her pre-reqs than any previous experience.</p>
<p>Zero. And I got into Mich, Pitt, UDel, TCNJ, PSU…and a few others. Just make sure you emphasize on your essay why you want to be a nurse. (Unless you happen to have an absolutely amazing story to tell.)
My app had more ec’s/leadership/volunteer/grades going on</p>