new career...pilot to nurse

[bell47]

This is my first post here. I'm looking at going to nursing school. I've been a pilot for the last ten years. I'm really sick of aviation, and looking for a career change. I have to take some pre-reqs, then try for nursing school. I'm 32 years old and a little leary of such a big change. Have any of you made such a change? Am I too old to do this? My sister, mother, and grandmother are/were nurses and think it's great. They are really encouraging, but I would like some other guy's opinion's who have made such a change. Any incite would really be appriciated. Please let me know what you think.

[Raymond CA]

Wow, thank you for such a fantastically detailed and thorough answer! I had no clue about how greed helps reduce the pleasure out of your husband's life. (DH means "dear husband," I assume?)

As someone changing careers from engineering to nursing, who is also interested in business, I will always remember your comments---both about greedy management and about the decreasing quality of life in nursing. If I ever get into a position to make decisions that affect employees, I will keep your stories in mind.

[tntrn, ASN, RN]

Raymond:

Thank you for your comments which prove to me you actually read through my whining and got the underlying issues. Yes, my DH was born to fly. I have no pictures of him as a child on a pedal car, but I do have many of him "flying" different kinds of airplanes. His love of flying has not diminished, rather shifted to GA and Ultralight forms of it. even remote control aircraft.

I should also mention that currently, many airlines, are managed by people who have no real aviation background: no pilots, no jobs with airlines, just a bunch of letters behind their names, like CEO and that. That should sound familiar to nurses as well.

Pilots who aspire for the airlines should know that in their early years they will spend more time away from home that at home (actually that's almost true for my DH also; if you count his sleeping time at home, he is away longer); they will get put on furlough at some point, meaning they are on pertetual hold until the management decides they need more pilots. No pay, no job, no guarantees the airline will ever recall them. Most of these folks try to find other flying jobs, charters, frieght, whatever, further stressing them out, and always at lower pay. Well, I guess it's better than the no pay at all when you're on furlough. All of us, but especially pilots need to have another marketable skill, not only for that reason, but if they lose their medical licenses, that's it. No more flying unless it's a correctable malady: Even then they must petition to get reinstated. Not impossible but it's not like taking a note in from the doctor saying you're well now.

That being said, if your passion says "I want to fly" then by all means do it. We have seen some wonderful places of the world that we most likely wouldn't have seen if not for his aviation career. And we literally have friends all over the world.