I need some Advice: can you work and go to NS?

[morganvibes]

Hi, I just joined the forum and I am taking A and P 1 and psychology over the summer, and very exited about it. I will have all the pre req's finished by next summer and hope to start the 2 year nursing program in fall of 2007.

I am also involved in local politics and am considering running for city council, kind of a stange combination. the elction would be august of 2007, right before school starts. Council is supposed to be a part time job but some of the councilmen say it is more like full time. the time is unpredictable and probably mentally stressfull at times. Certainly not a job where you could study while at work.

For those who are in school, is this reasonable or am I asking for failure to try to do these 2 things at the same time? It's so hard to get an answer as this is an unusual combination. (I am older and a good student generally)

From what I hear and read, some people have done it with several kids but that is different as well, and who knows maybe it is harder.

(I could work it out so that I could attend school and not have to work at all- which i know whould give me the best chance at success, I heard that a lot of people drop out becasue of being too busy.)

Just don't want to be a bad student and a bad council person.

I have no children and I am single.

Thanks for your help!

ps: another question: do nurses get good health insurance?

[morganvibes]

thanks again for all the responses, i know there is no magic answer.

From all that I am hearing it sounds like it would be ideal not to work of course but still there are lots of people that have done it while working and/or having several children and even driving over an hour to classes!

my school would be 5 minutes away.

I have decided that I will run for office while taking my pre-reqs this year. If I lose the election ( August 07) I will go right to nursing school, and if I win, then I can either go ahead and do both or maybe wait one year to get myself acclumated to being a council person and get really organized to go to shcool the following year. It might be extra hard to do 2 new things at once.

on another note:

I attended a nurses union meeting yesterday and heard about a lot of bad conditions are stlill going on in nursing with not enough staff especially the main concern. Some of the nurses were very frustrated to say the least, but they said the patients are the ones that get them through and they all loved being nurses. I hope that the ratios will improve for nurses to patients in hospitals because that is dangerous to anyone in the hospital. in CA they are going to be 1 to 5 ratio soon, but that is the only state that has that in their contract. NY is good too becasue they have unions there too. some nurses said thay had 12 or 13 patients to 1 nurse and could not possibly give good care and people died becasue of it.!

that is just crazy. Who knows, Maybe as a politician I can help to change this stuff, I had no idea this was going on. the bottom line is always money money money with managed health care.....

[morganvibes]

It seems though your other job would be TOO demanding and inflexible to pair with NS. IMO, you would be a better candidate WITH that nursing degree and license.

This election is really all about the timing and this is kind of my year.

I have a lot of support and have just won a big battle with city Hall and that has helped to make up my mind .

thanks and hope you get though it all too. it's nice to be busy...