[bnehls]

I am a 31 year old male who would like to get into nursing as a new career. I graduated with a BA in 1999 in Ohio and am still living in the Cleveland area. I am divorced and am a single dad of my two boys who are 3 and 6 years old. I work 60 hours a week Sunday through Thursday and do not have any family around to help watch my boys, nor am I financially able to take off work and pursue an accelerated program to get my RN license. I think that is the bulk of the pertinent details...I was hoping to hear from some experienced nurses on what the best route to transitioning into the nursing career path. I have a feeling that I will need to wait until my boys are older and I can do night school, but I've been told that there may be other options. I know I'm fishing a bit here, but if you have any advise, it would be greatly appreciated.

[mrsportsmedicine]

There are always options out there. You could look into an online program? You might not get into a 'nursing' program perse' but you could start by taking some of the prereq classes now. I would suggest looking at local programs and then branching out from there. Find out from the local programs what classes are prereq's, or go online and search for their prereq's.
It's never too early to start. Yes, it might take you longer due to family responsibilities, but it doesn't hurt to start planning now!

Best of luck.

[Larry77]

My school had very reasonable child-care and you could work part-time and apply to federal grants for living costs. It can be done while raising two kids but things would not be easy for you for the next few years.

[PICURN74]

many single mom and dads in my program. It is not easy ( I worked full time and did school full time) but you do what you have to. My program was very family focused. It was not unusual to have a couple of kids in lecture watching DVDs on the computer. Some programs have enough financial aid to provide a meager existance but the number of those are decreasing. Where there is a will there is a way. Online courses are another good bet or community colleges often have prereq available at night/online.

[bryndamor]

I had classmates that had their ADN (Associate degree in Nursing -- enough for you to score yourself the RN certification) tuition and books paid 100% for by the state of Florida, due to the need for Nurses. My ex-fiancee had the same deal. Tho she only had herself to take care of and worked as a unit secretary at a hospital full-time'ish while going to school. Obviously tho, this is for Florida residents, based on need (you can't lotsa assets on your tax return and expect the gov't to give ya a need-based scholarship), and they had to keep at least a B avg. Check what programs that your local/state employment agency have. Good luck.