Having a job while in nursing school

[Britt0822]

I am going into nursing school next year, god willing, I am working on my pre-req's right now. I have a full time job right now doing office work, which I know will not continue when I start nursing school. I am going to get a ADN in Nursing from a Community College, but I have never worked in a health care setting at all. My question is, while I am in nursing school, could I get a night job working in the hospital, do nursing-type work without being a LPN or CNA. Even if it is filing or answering phones, I would just like to gain extra experience while I am in school because I am totally new at this profession. Are there other people out there going to nursing school that had no prior nursing or hospital working experience? If so, is it a total shock, or were you just as confident as students that were LPN's or CNA's working on thier RN degree? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

[Tweety, BSN, RN]

I had no hospital experience whatsoever when I started nursing school. What I did what work as a CNA my last semester and that helped tremendously.

My first clinicals in nursing school were a bit rough because I had no experience and no confidence and everyone in my group had CNA or LPN experience. So I was the fish out of water so to say. If you have supportive instructors and classmates, you will do just fine without having any patient care or hospital experience. So if you don't get a hospital job don't worry about it.