working while in nursing school

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i just want to know what you think about working while attending nursing school. i am starting nursing school in fall 2005, and i heared that nursing school is tough. so i am wandering if it is possible to still work while going to school. I have financial aid and i am thinking about taking a small amount of student loan just to help offset some little expenses if i chose not to work. Believe me it is a great deal of hardwork and perseverance to get to this point, and i don't wanna be kicked out of nursing school because of maybe a $7 or $8 paying job. i will appreciate your advice and suggestions.

Specializes in Medical/Surgical/Maternal and Child.
i just want to know what you think about working while attending nursing school. i am starting nursing school in fall 2005, and i heared that nursing school is tough. so i am wandering if it is possible to still work while going to school. I have financial aid and i am thinking about taking a small amount of student loan just to help offset some little expenses if i chose not to work. Believe me it is a great deal of hardwork and perseverance to get to this point, and i don't wanna be kicked out of nursing school because of maybe a $7 or $8 paying job. i will appreciate your advice and suggestions.

Our nursing instructors tried to discourage us from working because the nursing theory and clinicals were so intense. I went through a very intense ADN Program at a Community College and was dropped twice from the program but the instructors thought I had potential so the let me back in. Altogether with my pre-reqs I went to school 4 years. I worked part time nights as an EKG tech then as a monitor tech in my last year of nursing school. It was so quiet on the unit I worked that I was able to get some studying done. If you work you need to really hone your time management skills. You didn't mention whether you are married and have kids. My husband took care of my daughter and took over the household so that I could dedicate as much time as possible to my studies. If you really can hold off from working until you graduate, it would make your life alot easier.

I worked part time during nursing school for the last 18 months. I would not have made it if I had had to work full time. I worked night shifts on Fri and Sat as a nurse tech...which was nice because a lot of the shift was quiet and I was able to do a lot of studying. If you don't have to work...take advantage of that and don't work. I know of only one student in our class of 60 that had to work full-time...she really struggled, but she made it. There were a handful with part time jobs, but most everyone else was supported by financial aid, loans, parents, husbands and for the second career students...their 401k!!

~Lauren

I worked part time during nursing school for the last 18 months. I would not have made it if I had had to work full time. I worked night shifts on Fri and Sat as a nurse tech...which was nice because a lot of the shift was quiet and I was able to do a lot of studying. If you don't have to work...take advantage of that and don't work. I know of only one student in our class of 60 that had to work full-time...she really struggled, but she made it. There were a handful with part time jobs, but most everyone else was supported by financial aid, loans, parents, husbands and for the second career students...their 401k!!

~Lauren

I didn't work and it was still plenty hard. Got harder the further I got in school.

Those who worked graveyard shifts talked about it being more conducive to study than those who worked days.

Sometimes though I wish I'd had a little hosp experience before I graduated.

If you do work, do as little as possible.

Anyway, my two cents.

I am starting an ADN program in fall too. I want to work part-time in a hospital as well. I think it is worth to try for a while. But I wonder if the hospitals accept nursing students.

my former employer accepted me (after i took the cna certification class, which was necessary, if i'd wanted to go the adn route. though i went the bsn route, i'm so glad i took the class..can change a complete in my sleep) now that i'm done with my 1st year of nursing school, 2 or 3 of the teaching hospitals in my area will hire student nurse externs during the school year, working either 8 or 16 hrs/payperiod. i'm in the middle of an awesome externship at the moment, and hope i can get another job during the school year as a nurse extern, not a tech. but the tech job was great, for what it was worth; 8 hrs/payperiod (more if i had a few 4-hr shifts i could pick up), and as my externship is going, the techs i think are grateful that i will clean up s*i% and vomit and not be scared about changing a diaper. so...check with your hospitals. some hospitals may have a thorough pct training for very new techs....but i think most (at least in illinois) either want cna certification, or 1 year of nurisng school, with one med-surg clinical completed.

as for working while in school, some manage to do it, some don't. i had a friend who recently graduated, and she worked 12-hr dayshifts every sat/sun, and somehow managed to do it; i'm not that organized- though i have to say, i never would have psychologically gotten myself to study on a saturday morning...so working sat am's was not a big deal. i'm hoping, this year, to get an externship at one of the hospitals that hire sne's during the school year, and work mon am's (or every other mon...) so i can have the weekends off...getting married, as is my best friend (in ny...)...so btwn weddings, showers, etc, i think i'm going to need my weekends....

good luck!

i am starting an adn program in fall too. i want to work part-time in a hospital as well. i think it is worth to try for a while. but i wonder if the hospitals accept nursing students.
Specializes in Neuro, Critical Care.

I am not working right now as my schedule will not permit it. I go to class M-Th from 8am to 4 pm and on tuesdays and thrusdays I have to go to another college to finish up my AP sequence, those two days I dont get home till about 8 or 9ish...on mondays and wednesdays I had to go to micro as well, so I usually got home around 630ish,there is no way i can work! On top of the 40-50 hours a week i spend in class I have alteast that many in outside work/studying as our classes are accelerated! Im so stressed out as it is, I couldn't imagine adding a job or kids on top of what I already do..but there are people who do...there is one girl in my class that lives an hour and half away from our school, was still taking microbiology and ochem at her community college while taking the classes in our MN program, she has three kids and works a part time job! She tells me that she doesnt really sleep that much anymore, maybe 3-4 hours a night...our school is so demanding that i dont understand how she does it...shes my idol:)

I would definitely if you have the chance to go to school without working take it. I worked every weekend as a CNA during my LPN year and alternated between days and evenings. I had no family obligations, just had to spend a little less time with my fiancee :o But I made it. While I was taking classes for my RN I worked 3 days/week on 2-10, could get pretty rough sometimes when I wouldn't get out of work till 11 and had to get up at 5 for clinicals from 7-4.

I think it depends a lot on your learning style, I got way more out of the lectures than I ever could just reading the book, (:chair: so I didn't spend much if anytime reading my material)

my former employer accepted me (after i took the cna certification class, which was necessary, if i'd wanted to go the adn route. though i went the bsn route, i'm so glad i took the class..can change a complete in my sleep) now that i'm done with my 1st year of nursing school, 2 or 3 of the teaching hospitals in my area will hire student nurse externs during the school year, working either 8 or 16 hrs/payperiod. i'm in the middle of an awesome externship at the moment, and hope i can get another job during the school year as a nurse extern, not a tech. but the tech job was great, for what it was worth; 8 hrs/payperiod (more if i had a few 4-hr shifts i could pick up), and as my externship is going, the techs i think are grateful that i will clean up s*i% and vomit and not be scared about changing a diaper. so...check with your hospitals. some hospitals may have a thorough pct training for very new techs....but i think most (at least in illinois) either want cna certification, or 1 year of nurisng school, with one med-surg clinical completed.

as for working while in school, some manage to do it, some don't. i had a friend who recently graduated, and she worked 12-hr dayshifts every sat/sun, and somehow managed to do it; i'm not that organized- though i have to say, i never would have psychologically gotten myself to study on a saturday morning...so working sat am's was not a big deal. i'm hoping, this year, to get an externship at one of the hospitals that hire sne's during the school year, and work mon am's (or every other mon...) so i can have the weekends off...getting married, as is my best friend (in ny...)...so btwn weddings, showers, etc, i think i'm going to need my weekends....

good luck!

~~to work an externship as a nursing student, do you have to have any certifications...like take a cna class? or can you be an extern by just being a nursing student? and what does the kind of work a nusring student do while working in an externship program? thanks!

Specializes in cardiac/education.

If I get too stressed working and going to school, for whatever reason...I plan to take out aid to live, atleast for the hard semester one. I have extra classes to take so it will be tough for me.

You gotta keep in your mind that it is graduating this program that is important, NOT the $7-8 an hour job. Definitly not the $7-8 hour job (that's pretty low). My current job pays more but it still does not pay an RN salary and it is no long term career so even if I don't want to quit, I will have to. The only reason you would stay is out of fear and security. But the security would be very temporary. I have been trying to decide whether to quit my job beforehand simply because I know myself, and if it gets hard in NS, I am afraid I will tell myself nursing is not for me and go back to my crappo job. Then I will have nothing!! I thought if I quit it would give me a better chance in school since there would be NOTHING to go back to! :rotfl: So, I've compromised. I will drop the job at the first sign of danger. If I do that, I will get my CNA and start working in that capacity semester two.

I wish you the best of luck and by all means.........do what you have to do to get through if this is what you really want. You have come so far, like you said. Fight for it!!

I'm going to be starting my 2nd semester of year 2 nursing and I work almost every evening, and 24 hours on the weekend. It's doable, but my grades suffered.

I worked full time while attending nursing school full time the first 2 years, then took out what I could in loans for living expenses the final year. I still worked part time that final year, and don't know how I could have survived having to work full time that final year! I graduated this May, passed my boards, and feel like I have more free time that I know what to do with. I am also able to spend time with my husband, family, and friends. Stick with it and do what you have to do - it's all worth it!!

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