A career in nursing allows you to work closely with people, as you are the primary contact in the monitoring and assessment of your patients and their recovery. It is a career in high demand, with a variety of specialties and plenty of opportunities for career growth and advancement. You are able to enjoy schedule flexibility, although it sometimes can be an emotionally and physically taxing job. Nurses are an integral part of a treatment team because they are primary points of contact and patient advocates, which makes their work extremely rewarding and fulfilling. 

Nursing programs do not have a standard list of competencies that they expect from their applicants. However, the American Association of Colleges of Nursing provides core competencies that nurses should exhibit. Therefor, we encourage you to begin to develop these skills to prepare for your future career. The AACN core competencies include:

• Knowledge for Nursing Practice
• Person-Centered Care
• Population Health
• Scholarship for Nursing Discipline
• Quality and Safety 
• Interprofessional Partnerships 
• Systems-Based Practice 
• Informatics and Healthcare Technologies 
• Professionalism 
• Personal, Professional, and Leadership Development

Because there are so many different nursing degrees and programs as well as varied paths to nursing, we find many programs have very different requirements for admission. It is critical that you research the programs to which you plan to apply to ensure you will meet their requirements. However, here is a general list of prerequisites to get you started: 

• Introductory Biology 1 and 2 (each with lab)
• Microbiology with lab
• General Chemistry, 1-2 semesters (each with lab)
• Anatomy and Physiology, 1-2 semesters
• English composition, 1-2 semesters

Almost all nursing schools and programs require some sort of admissions test, but these vary across schools. You will need to research the requirements of the programs to which you plan to apply. Some of the varied assessments include:

• Test of Essential Academic Skills Exam (TEAS)
• Health Education Systems, Inc. Admissions Assessment (HESI)
• National League for Nursing Pre-Admission Exam (PAX)
• Nursing Entrance Test (NET)
• Kaplan Nursing Admissions Test

Nursing schools and programs do not just focus on test scores and grades. They look for engaged experiences that prepare you for the rigor of nursing school and the profession itself. Activities such as community service, leadership, clinical experience, shadowing, and research supplement your application.

Experiential Learning

The application process looks different for each individual nursing program. Spend your first few years of your undergraduate education taking the prerequisite courses, getting involved in experiential learning opportunities to teach you about nursing, and studying for any required admissions exams. You can apply to programs using NursingCAS, a centralized application service. Some programs use their own application service.