Nursing can be a great career choice for anyone interested in healthcare because there are different career paths within the profession to accommodate people with different financial resources, time constraints, and levels of education. From the quickest and least expensive nursing assistant programs to the time-intensive and expensive registered nurse programs, there is surely a nursing program to accommodate your individual needs and aspirations.
Nursing assistant
Kentucky
We've organized a comprehensive list of Kentucky nursing schools. Below you'll find information on specific nursing programs such as LPN certificates and ADN, BSN, and MSN degrees. You'll also find a profile of nursing education and careers in each major Kentucky city.
Kentucky school overviews
Kentucky nursing programs and careers
City-specific information
Licensed practical nurses (LPNs) often provide for their patients’ basic everyday needs, but they have more responsibility for their patients’ medical care than nursing assistants. As an LPN, you might help a patient eat, bathe, or get dressed, but you would also perform tasks like changing bandages, checking vitals, administering medication, and drawing blood.
Nursing assistants provide for their patients’ most basic care, helping them with everyday needs such as eating, bathing, dressing. They also assist with basic medical care, checking patients’ vitals, taking their temperatures, and giving them their medications. Nursing assistants may also help patients exercise or remember to do certain tasks. As a nursing assistant, you could be employed in a hospital, small clinic, assisted living facility, or in patients’ homes as a home care aid.
The healthcare field is growing steadily, and you can enter it with minimal formal education by becoming a nursing assistant. In Kentucky alone, there are approximately 24,000 employed nursing assistants. With a little more education you could become one of the 10,500 licensed practical nurses (LPNs) or 42,000 registered nurses (RNs) working in the state. If you commit to your education even further, you could become one of Kentucky’s 3,000 nurse practitioners, midwives, or anesthetists.
If you’re aspiring to go back to nursing school, you may be wondering how to pay for it. College tuition is already expensive, and that isn’t the only cost you have to consider. There are also the costs of the application process, other registration fees, textbooks and supplies, and of course your personal living expenses.
Unlike public schools, private colleges and universities are not subsidized by the government, which means they are often more expensive. However, they are frequently viewed as more prestigious, offer a number of advantages that public universities do not, and often make up for their higher tuitions by offering scholarships and financial aid.
If you want to pursue a degree in nursing, you should consider attending a public college or university. Public colleges and universities are traditional schools that are subsidized by the government, meaning that in-state students will pay lower tuition. Thus, public schools have several advantages over private schools, especially for in-state students.
Community colleges and vocational (or career) schools provide short, accessible programs that help people launch new careers. They are cheaper and faster than traditional four-year colleges and universities. In fact, to become a licensed practical nurse (LPN), you only need to complete a 12- to 18-month program and pass a national licensure exam. To become a registered nurse (RN), you must complete a two- to three-year program and pass a national licensure exam.
Attending a four-year college or university is considered the traditional college experience. Most university students focus on their bachelor's degrees, but some continue through postgraduate master's degrees and doctorates.
Nursing can be a great career choice for anyone interested in healthcare because there are different career paths within the profession to accommodate people with different financial resources, time constraints, and levels of education. From the quickest and least expensive nursing assistant programs to the time-intensive and expensive registered nurse programs, there is surely a nursing program to accommodate your individual needs and aspirations.
Nursing assistant