Esther
Can you minor in nursing and major in psychology?
I have no interest in becoming a doctor or in the medical field really, but my family is pressuring me to do something in it so I have opted to do what I want but with a little of their influence hence the nursing. #college #psychology #nursing #healthcare #higher-education #hospital-and-health-care
4 answers
Seth Daniel Bernstein
Seth Daniel’s Answer
I'm a former Associate Dean-Administration in a Bachelor of Science in Nursing program, and I can attest that there are not nursing minors. The reason is that a full complement of nursing courses (that is, pre-nursing prerequisites and a nursing major) would be necessary to pursue a nursing career, and there is not enough space in nursing courses for non-nursing students.
That said, I totally understand your desire to take courses offered to nursing students, because they do have relevance to other career choices.
So: I suggest that before you meet with an academic advisor at your university to finalize your course selections and degree path, take a look at the catalog and identify the courses required for students to enter a pre-nursing program. Often, high performance in pre-nursing classes is required to advance to the nursing major itself. Such courses would include science and math courses like Chemistry, Biology, Physiology and Algebra II (if not taken in High School) and also social science classes like Sociology and/or Psychology.
You could take as many of these courses as possible as electives, even if you choose not to enter the pre-nursing curriculum. Unless you enter the pre-nursing program and set your sites on a nursing career, you would probably not be able to take all the classes required to major in nursing, but you could take a number of those pre-requisite courses or at least courses that have similar content.
You could work with your advisor to see if a minor in in any of the sciences or human sciences (like Physiology or Kinesiology) would enable you take many similar courses as pre-nursing sutdents. You might not be in the same classes as pre-nursing students, but the content matter in generic science classes is likely to be similar to the content studied by pre-nursing students. If a minor in any of these subject areas is not possible at your university, consider taking as many of these classes as possible as electives.
Great response, Seth. One thing I would suggest is that if there is a nursing course you might be interested in you could contact the professor for that course. Most professors are more than happy to have non-majors on a space available basis.
Nick Collins, MS, RN, CNS
Cecile A
Cecile’s Answer
Simple answer? No. Nursing is a lifestyle. There is no such thing as minoring in it. It is an all-encompassing career and plan of study. So you'll have to make a decision by doing more research on both fields. Don't be lazy. Take the time to do your research including talking to a Nurse and a Psychologist. There are plenty of sources of information. Just google.
Angela Coffman
Angela’s Answer
Nursing is definitely not a subject you can minor in.
