Soon to be student - Advise please

sheba123 · May 25, 2006

hello, Well I want to let you know first of if you're 37 yrs you're not that old.

Education do not have an age limit, be proud of what you're doing.

I'm not a nurse as yet, but I've doing alot of research for myself and reading alot of these threads. It seems as if there are lots of programs out there that could help you like the one you mentioned, but I think you have to be a junior Nursing student in other to be qualified?

There might be someone else to give you more insights, but I just wanted to say your age is not a barrier for accomplishing your goals.

I'm a single mother with 2 daughters, I have been in school forever. I have change my majors many times, and now I decided to go with nursing. It is very difficult but I'm not giving up.

School in general takes a while but at the end it will be well worth it.

I wish you good luck on your journey to become a nurse.

Slpask · May 25, 2006

Thank you for your kind words..

Age is not ther real issue.. The school I am going to is affiliated with the hospital, and "if I sign the contract", they will pay for my tuition, but I must work for them for 2years.

In the wonderful world of Corporate Culture, FIRST JOBS MEAN EVERYTHING, and I do not want to make the same mistake in Nursing. In otherwords, are wages tied to you?? If I start out on the "low side" of $$, do I stay there?

MIA-RN1, RN · May 25, 2006

Thank you for your kind words..
Age is not ther real issue.. The school I am going to is affiliated with the hospital, and "if I sign the contract", they will pay for my tuition, but I must work for them for 2years.
In the wonderful world of Corporate Culture, FIRST JOBS MEAN EVERYTHING, and I do not want to make the same mistake in Nursing. In otherwords, are wages tied to you?? If I start out on the "low side" of $$, do I stay there?

I don't know about the wages but something you really want to find out about is what schedule you will be mandated to work. Some hospitals in my area are rumored to give the new nurses with the committments the worst hours and the nurse either has to deal with it or repay all up front in order to leave.

SteveNNP, MSN, NP · Jun 2, 2006

Hey!

It's good to hear from another guy around here! Even if you are an old coot! ;>P BTW, check out the male nursing and male nursing student forums...they're pretty good.

If I were you, I'd figure out if I could pull school off financially without a contract. Also find out if they have a sign on bonus that might not apply to those who sign a contract. You may be required to work on hard-to-staff floors, rather than where you want to work. I would try to do it without a contract, in case you end up hating where you work, or want to work somewhere else on a floor you REALLY want. Then again, if you won;t be able to make it through without the contract, then do what's best for you.

As far as money, nursing's funny.....It will depend on whether you're part time, FT, PRN, working nights, weekends, and what kind of yearly raises are involved. When you transfer to a different hospital, you can get paid more or less, depending on where you're going and how much experience you have.

Here's a shameless plug: Check out NICU while you're in school. I've been here since I graduated. You get the best combination of cute pts who don't talk back or push call buttons, that require all the bells and whistles of critical care, like vents, art lines, chest tubes, surgeries, etc........

grinnurse, RN · Jun 3, 2006

Thank you for your kind words..
Age is not ther real issue.. The school I am going to is affiliated with the hospital, and "if I sign the contract", they will pay for my tuition, but I must work for them for 2years.
In the wonderful world of Corporate Culture, FIRST JOBS MEAN EVERYTHING, and I do not want to make the same mistake in Nursing. In otherwords, are wages tied to you?? If I start out on the "low side" of $$, do I stay there?

Another thing to consider with the wages is that if you "float" to different units this will also increase your pay. What size hospital it is would be another thing to consider. If it is larger, then there would be many different units to try until you found your "niche". What kind of reputation does the hospital have with regards to it's employees? Don't be afraid to hang out at the hospital and see how the attitudes are. If you can, find out the longevity of the staff, b/c longevity of the staff and good attitudes c/b a pretty good indicator of how satisfied people are with working environment and whether or not the hospital paid tuition would be worth doing. Also, don't be afraid to go with what your gut tells you. If you get a "weird" feeling trust that.

Daytonite, BSN, RN · Jun 4, 2006

i think this is a wonderful opportunity for you to get your nursing education. before you sign anything, however, read the contract very carefully and look at the benefits of employment as you would when considering any job. to my way of thinking you can always go with a lower wage if you are getting medical and dental coverage at a low out of pocket cost for you. how come the hospital is only giving you 24 hours of work a week on the 2-year contract? in most places that is considered part time employment and does not qualify an employee to receive benefits like health insurance. on the other hand, once i was out of orientation and feeling like i was more on top of the job, i'd be out looking for a second job to supplement my income assuming the hospital doesn't have a competition clause in your contract. if you sign the employment contract and end up leaving by your choice or theirs, you will have some clause in the contract that will spell out how the tuition and any penalties for breach of contract are going to get paid back to them. make sure you look at that and understand what it is.

don't be blind, however. the hospital offers 2-year work contracts because they need nurses. why is that? how come they don't have enough nurses working for them? the answer you don't want to find out is that they are rotten to their employees. if that is the case, think long and hard about signing the contract.

don't be naïve either and think that working as a hospital nurse is any kind of easy job. you will earn every penny you make and still think you deserve even more. hospital nursing is great if you're a workaholic and can't sit still. having a tapeworm probably helps too. ha! ha! some people can't work in an environment like that and where there is constant activity and noise all around as well. this kind of on the job stress is one reason why there is such a high turn over rate in rns at most hospitals. this is a condition that is countrywide.

the history of nursing education in this country was that in the early 20th century nurses went to hospital schools of nursing where they worked as employees in return for being taught nursing. they were a big part of the hospital staffing. they received no pay--only their education. times have changed. what you are looking at is a contemporary spin on an old idea. the positive side to all this is that you have a guaranteed job upon graduation. (are you also guaranteed on the job experience while you are going to school?) the hospital is looking for the long-term pay off just as you are. not everyone has that stressor removed from lives. i don't think you'd be limiting your options at all after completing nursing school by working for this hospital. the fact is that getting the first job out of nursing school is a crapshoot. most new grads have to go out there and pound the pavement looking for a job, hoping they will get a job offer from a place they want to work, on a unit they want to work. i didn't get my dream job. i got two very crappy new grad jobs. i never want to see anyone go through what i went through as a new grad. i'm willing to bet that most new grads don't get the job they dreamed of and more often than not settle for the first job offer they get and then stop looking any further. reality is harsh. how much of a gamble do you want to take? a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush. if you've already got a job waiting for you, even though it's a two year commitment, that's a big stressor off your mind. two years is nothing. after two years you pick up that experience and move on to the next nursing job. with two years experience you can pretty much write your own ticket for a job you want. on the other hand, you may find you love this hospital and could make a career for yourself there.

now, i see you're trying to convince yourself that you are reaching the status of an old man. get real, dude. the fact is you've got more than 25 years before you can retire and collect social security. you worry too much. the average age of working rns right now is around the mid-40s--that's a statistical fact. you're not even there yet, you little whippersnapper! you're too young to be fixating on your age.