the journey so far

About fifteen months ago I thought I'd like to start the process of going back to school to get a degree which would allow me to become a registered nurse and then, maybe, after that become a certified nurse midwife. At the time I was homeschooling three children and had one in college. At the time I wasn't do more than two or three births a month. It seemed like a good idea, at the time.

So I looked up different programs at different schools. It seemed like getting a second degree at GMU was a quicker way to approach this target than any other schools I could find. So I printed out the list of classes I'd have to take BEFORE I could apply to the program and tried to figure out when I might actually be finished. I guessed it would take 7 years. Then I enrolled in the community college and took my first class.

The first class was bioethics. I was really tentative about going to school again. I took a night class, in the summer and found that many of the people in the class were planning on nursing school as this was a prerequisite for many programs. I discovered that the professor was a very nice man who also taught full time at GMU. It was philosophy class, which I personally think would have been better 'taught' in a pub with a pint, but I digress. It also was clear that many of the students were not native citizens of this country. If there ever was a case to be made that the way to make your life better it is through education, this would have been a perfect example. There were students from former USSR countries, Africa, South America, Asia, and I think maybe one or two other white, middle class, middle-aged women (like me). Even the prof was from Poland.

I got an A in that class and I enjoyed it. It was a good start to the process and I figured it would take a year or more to get those prereqs out of the way. Two evenings a week for 6 weeks was pretty easy to adjust to, especially in the summer.

I also signed up for the online class in anatomy and physiology with microbiology. This class turned out to be MUCH more difficult. I liked it, but the books alone were over $500. Ugh. So I carefully never underlined or wrote in the books. Carefully put them in my backpack every time I finished using them. All for naught, as it turned out, because at the end of the second semester of this series of classes they switched to a different set of books! Argh!! But I'm not unhappy about keeping them. I've studied every page so often that I pretty much know where to look if I need to review something. These two classes and labs were a real test of my ability to concentrate and study and apply myself. They started in the summer but didn't end until January. I did get A's in both classes and wasn't sure that would happen until it did. They were HARD and made more difficult by taking them online. Some weeks it took 20 hours to go over all the material. But I do feel a real sense of achievement and I believe I have a better grasp of basic A&P+micro.

Side comment: heard on the radio this morning while taking J to hockey camp that a botulism scare has caused a big recall on canned meat. Microbes at work! Also, West Nile Virus has been found in mosquitoes in Northern VA, more microbes at work! It is amazing who much of our daily lives we are in contact and responding to microbes. Good thing the VAST MAJORITY of them are harmless to humans, or even beneficial! I'm reading a very good book titled Man and Microbes which I bought on Amazon that is particularly relevant.

Where was I? Part of the journey to where I am today took me through a period of investigation....

In my investigations I found the whole field of Physician Assistants. I liked the fact that they had some autonomy and most of the programs were Master degrees. I spent a great deal of time checking out these programs. The advantage of the PA's job is that it pays a whole lot more than RN's (average starting salary $79K) and it's a growing field. The disadvantages is that it's 24 months of school, full time, straight through; there were no programs less than 30 miles away; they are very expensive (at least $25K a year); PA's don't have as much authority as nurse pratitioners (that is what I was told, but I'm not entirely sure). When I asked my doctor what she thought the differences were between the two she just said they come at it through different directions. NP's are nurses first, PA's could have any backgroud before becoming a PA. And the want ads in the paper often say "PA/NP" in the job listing. It also looks to me since PA's are newer, the don't have strict specialties yet. Most PA's can float between specialties. NP's are highly specialized.

As a result of thinking about PA school, I realized I'd need more science and I'd need pharmacology. So I took a pharmacology class online in the fall. I also took a nutrition class that was half online and half in class. Turns out another birth assistant (one who shadowed me when she was just starting) was in that class. She was going to apply to NVCC's nursing program which would start the following fall ('07). We didn't have tons of time to chat, but it did put the thought of considering NVCC's program into my head. I went to their website and reviewed the requirements for that program and saw that I'd need pharmacology to graduate from that program, so it might really be a good thing I was taking that class, too. Last fall I was taking 9 credit hours, doing more births (thanks to my new partnership!), teaching a co-op class on Wednesdays to jr high science students, leading worship and worship rehearsal for church, and homeschooling three kids...plus I still had a few doula clients who were not strictly part of the partnership.

In the Spring, I had finished the classes I needed for the GMU 2nd degree program prereqs but I still needed a chemistry class if I was going to seriously entertain entering PA school. One of the students in my class was also interested in a 2nd degree program. She had applied to Shenandoah College and was accepted, but the tuition there was so high she opted for NVCC's nursing program. She inspired me to seriously consider applying to that program (and I thought it might be a good idea since I might not get in the school of my first choice, heavens!). So in March I submitted my application to GMU and in April I submitted my application to NVCC. The funny thing was that they counted my HIGH SCHOOL CHEMISTRY from 30 years ago rather than my college chemistry from that semester. Like I remembered anything from chemistry from high school!

In May NVCC sent me an acceptance letter with the new option of taking all the classes online and just going in for clinicals to various hospital settings. I liked this option and signed up for it. In June I got accepted at GMU in there 2nd degree program.

next: which school?