“A goal without a plan is just a wish”

For the last year or so, I have gone over and over the requirements for nursing school at Santa Fe College. I have been for it, and have also been against it. The more I think about it, the more I *wish* I had done it earlier. This brings me to, my plan! I plan to take the two courses I am lacking next semester, Spring 2011. Applications are due in May 2011 for the Fall 2011 start. The program is 5 semesters in length. This would put me at graduating in May 2013. It seems so far away, yet so close. I have pretty much fulfilled all of the other requirements to apply, minus a few small details. One of the major things I need to do is volunteer 100 hours somewhere. I have been told that they will take hours from even 5 or 10 years ago….hmm? I am sure I can muster up some hours from when I volunteered at a local animal hospital and the foal unit. I will have to work on that! I would love to volunteer at the hospital, but I am sure picking the department or area I would be in would be out of the question. You have to start somewhere, right?! Once I apply, it is just a waiting game. My ultimate plan would be to work with either pediatrics, or newborns (NICU, L&D, Newborn Nursery). Can you be a RN and work with the healthy babies in the newborn nursery??? Anyone know the answer to that? JJ

Well, that is the plan so far. This would obviously be bittersweet, knowing that I would no longer be working at NAH. BUT, in the long run, it will be easier to find a job in nursing somewhere closer to my family in Pensacola. I cannot wait to move back there! I miss it much!!