Nursing Student and Uber Driver?

meanmaryjean, DNP, RN · Jun 14, 2017

In terms of nursing school, you would be far better served taking an entry-level CNA position. Not sure what your desired pay is, but CNA probably isn't it. There's a ladder you have to climb when entering a new field of endeavor, and you always start at the bottom. This type of experience is so helpful in nursing school.

That said, Uber/ Lyft can be lucrative depending on where you are. My Lyft driver the other day is putting two kids through college with this income (in addition to his full-time gig - which pays his day-to-day bills).

I think I can..., ADN, RN · Jun 14, 2017

Hello Meanmaryjean,

Thank you for responding!

Yes, I agree. Working as a CNA would be ideal and I am not opposed to starting from the bottom of the ladder. I could absolutely work one day a week as a CNA in order to gain the experience needed for my future career. It is just that I need to make enough to pay for my mortgage, food, taking care of my child (single parent), and other necessities, and I would have to work 35-40 hours per week as a fresh CNA to achieve all that. I would really like to avoid working that many hours while being in school full-time. Ideally, I would like to work 30 hours, preferably less but that would be lucky :)

It is very impressive that your driver can help his children with college with a gig as a Uber driver! Good for him! So, it could be a good option for myself...

In terms of nursing school, you would be far better served taking an entry-level CNA position. Not sure what your desired pay is, but CNA probably isn't it. There's a ladder you have to climb when entering a new field of endeavor, and you always start at the bottom. This type of experience is so helpful in nursing school.
That said, Uber/ Lyft can be lucrative depending on where you are. My Lyft driver the other day is putting two kids through college with this income (in addition to his full-time gig - which pays his day-to-day bills).

C0SM0 · Jun 21, 2017

I'm going into my last semester of nursing school after the summer and I did the Uber thing for a while. It really depends on what kind of city you live in as some places just don't get much business for Uber. My metropolitan area has a population of about 1.3 million and a majority of my driving had to be on weekend evenings when people were wanting to get out to the bars. It got to the point where all I was doing was picking up drunks that acted like idiots so I'd had enough. Not to mention the fact that all those miles I was putting on my car wasn't worth it either.

Like meanmaryjean said, you'd be better off taking a CNA position. The pay won't be great, but the experience will pay off in the long run.