Nursing vs. Teaching?

Nurses Career Support

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I have now been a nurse for 3 yrs and have worked in 3 different places. Most recently I took I job I thought I would love, some days are good but about 75% of the time I get no breaks and end up staying after work. I also work 5 days a wk. I am only 26 yrs old and the physical demands (lifting heavy patients) is already taking its toll on my back and neck. I have worked with quite a few seasoned nurses who have already had to have spinal fusions-this does not sound good to me! Some days a really great patient will make me feel like it is all worth it but 75% of the time I feel very stressed and anxious.

Now on my 3rd job which I thought I would love I am starting to become discouraged about my career choice. I want to start a family soon but always feel stressed and tired. I make really good $ (24/hr on days no wknds) and have thought about pursuing other types of nursing besides floor nursing/direct pt care. My aunt who is also a nurse and was also always stressed and unhappy recently took an MDS Coordinator job and loves it. She has holidays and wknds off with her kids and flexibility on her work hrs if she needs to make a DR appt. She is also much less tired and stressed than when she was working the floor.

My second career choice if I did not get accepted to nursing school was becoming a school teacher. Before nursing school through my job at a bank I volunteered one morning a week tutoring 3rd graders in math and I loved it. I know that teaching would be a pay cut but I am wondering if it would provide me with the less stressed lifestyle I am looking for. Does anybody have any thoughts on this? I know a lot of people want to go into nursing, am I crazy for wanting to leave it?

Specializes in Pediatrics, Geriatrics, LTC.

depending on where you are there may not be jobs for teachers. Less stress? Forget it! The kids are mostly great, depending on where you work, but dealing with administration, parents, etc... You take work home every day, you pay for supplies out of your own pocket. Sure you have lots of days off and no weekends, but you are always planning, grading papers and taking classes.

I was a teacher for 15 years and got laid off. Substituted for 3 years while applying everywhere within 75 miles of home---nothing! Unless you are certified in special education, math or science there are no jobs. Schools are closing, budgets are being cut everywhere. They reason I became a nurse is while I was looking for a teaching job, all I saw were nurse jobs. That's my story---good luck with your decision.

Specializes in LTC, rehab to home, PACU.

Being laid off after 15 yrs sounds terrible, you would think your experience would be more valuable than that. What state are you from? Where I live it does not appear to be that bad. I don't think budgets are growing but I don't hear about teachers getting laid off in my immediate area. I graduated HS 8 yrs ago and classmates of mine who have teaching degrees have work. My longest sibling just graduated this year and she had the same teachers I had or they had retired nobody was loosing their job. I am sorry to hear about your experience, I hope you enjoy nursing, I sure do want to someday. When you say you have to "pay for your own supplies" what does this consist of?

I am also a teacher, considering a nursing career. First of all you have test score stress. If the students don't preform up to a certain level the test scores go under your name and you are seen as a bad teacher. Some students are also out of control, if you have no control over a students behavior how can you control their learning.

If you need anything not provided by the school for your class or lesson plans you have to buy it yourself.

I teach Math, last year I was assigned to teach all the students in the school who had failed math and spoke zero english. It was horrible. I had to do that all day and all year long. They tested those students and found only 25% of them passed the test, so now I am seen as a poor teacher.

The state is threatening to take our school over. I teach in a low economic and transant school (students don't stay there long, they move in and out all the time)

Where I teach there is mostly single parents, raising kids.

It is a very hard situation, my principal is asking me to teach the students using something that they are interested in, and in a round about way, then teach them math. I am like, okay, I am not sure I know how to do that.

Also, the principal wants students up and active in order to learn math, ridiculous. I am not sure how to teach like that either.

Administration and the state is expecting miracles and teachers are not miracle workers. The student has to be willing to work also. If students chose to sleep in class, is that the teacher's fault?

Consider teaching Nursing, you can get student loan repayment for it now.

Specializes in Tele, ICU, ED, Nurse Instructor,.
I am not sure why you say that it would definitely be a pay cut. Working 10 months a year, all holidays off, starting pay in my area is close to identical starting RN pay.

Follow your passion. As was said above, you can teach nursing. If it is interaction with children or younger students that gets you going, have you considered peds home health or other peds patient education?

It would be a pay cut for me because I work nights. If you decide to work extra there is no bonus pay or shift differential. I am not use to base pay. So I continue to be a nursing instructor and work in the hospital setting where I can make double the money. Both of my jobs are prn.

I am in my first year of teaching and most likely will be my last. I got accepted into an LPN program in Alberta and am still waiting about the BN program. Teaching is very exhausting, and very contrary to popular belief, the days are very long, sometimes 7 days a week for no extra pay. I get to work 90 mins before the school day begins and stay usually 3 hours after, with more work to do on weekends. Do not go into teaching for less stress, do it because you want to teach. You will be taking work home with you every day, and working lots of overtime every week without really having any choice in the matter, but if you are okay with that then good! I am feeling that I need to have more of a life for myself, and although we get the holidays most of it is just recovery time from all of the extra hours (I know alot of people who will spend an entire week marking, planning etc. on holidays...). Good luck to you in whatever you decide to do!

I taught school before becoming a nurse and there were many perks. You just have to be sure you're there for the right reasons and not the benefits. I consider going back to teaching all the time and doing nursing on the side. It's not that I don't enjoy nursing, but at this time in my life, teaching fits my goals at this point.

Lifelongdream,

I have been following your posts (always informative-thank you) and I noticed we are in the same area of Texas. I am currently teaching but considering a career change into nursing. My first choice program at this point is the Texas Tech Second Degree Program. Would you mind sharing information regarding difficulties of the program (in particular, how difficult was it to be accepted into the program)? Also, how many do they accept in the Odessa cohort and how many apply? I realize you may not have the answer to that last question, but I am concerned from reading other posts about all applicants having 4.0s across the board, 150 interviewees, etc. I am very interested in your thoughts given the similarities in our situations (teaching-nursing). Any feedback would be greatly appreciated.

I am interested in the TT 2nd degree program as well. I am interested in knowing what acceptance into the program is based on. I am trying to decide whether to do the pre-reqs or not. I would like to know I had a good chance before doing all the pre reqs. Thanks for any info.

Okay if you want to teach than just do it, but "less stressful" HA HA!!! I have taught 3rd and 1st grade and I can tell you all it's one of the hardest jobs in the world. You have no nights or weekends off because you are spending your "free time" making centers, lessons, data, and grading about 700 papers (7 subjects x 20 students x 5 days a week= 700 papers). Oh parents will call you 24/7 at dinner time or 10 pm or 6 in the morning on weekends! Summer is nice, but you are planning your future curriculum and going to professional developments. And you don't slap things on a calendar. You have to use standards and tools. Then your evaluated based on how you teach. You can't teach relaxed, it's all hard core teaching now. I'm so tired!!! I love teaching children because I love the feeling you get when a child learns something new, but personally...when I come home I want to leave work at work. I want that balance between home life and work life. I am married don't have children, but I don't want to teach or model this type of lifestyle to my future kids. It's not fair to my family. So anyone wanting to be a teacher, really research it! I am switching to do what I wanted to do in the first place, nursing! I know nurses have stressful types too, but teaching is life consuming.

I'm currently a pre-nursing student and I really would love to get the best of both worlds with teaching and being a nurse. I know there are the options of being a school nurse and such, but I'm not sure if that's the right fit for me. I was wondering if it's possible to be a nurse on the side and a elementary school teacher? I want to work at a Catholic elementary school like where I grew up in.

Hi,

I just finished my master's in special education and all the jobs I can get are for $39,000 with a case load of 30. That's a lot of students to check on each day/week and to write progress reports on. I also went into teacher for job security and health insurance which is a really stupid reason. I enjoy working with the kids but not teaching itself. Should I get out now?

I am thinking about going into nursing but I am so scared of wasting my time. A full year (maybe two) and then not getting into a nursing school. I took A&P as a 17-19 year old and got Cs. But I didn't really study much. That was the only science class I took in college. I would need to take A&P again along with Chemistry, Microbiology, and Biology. I am 24 now, can I do it? I need advice. I am so scared about failing that I'm making myself sick.

Any advice would be great.

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