And Off I Go!

waiting4ivpush · Sep 11, 2015

Hello,
I've finally decided to make something out of myself. I have wanted a more meaningful job than the one I have, sitting at a desk, opening accounts, pushing products/life insurance/investments. It's not me. It never was. I have been thinking about changing careers for quite some time now, and I've learned a lot about the nursing field through my two sisters and recent nursing graduate mom.
I really do believe it's for me. So, I have applied to a community college and I'm starting my prerequisites this fall. I initially wanted to get all of the classes out of the way as soon as possible, but I thought better and decided to stretch it out to two classes a semester and one during the summer session to really focus on the classes I'm taking and get the best possible grades. I work full time as a personal banker in a local mutual bank, so this is far outside of my experience, though I've always been fascinated with health articles and read endlessly on topics in the health field.
Is there any advice I should follow to start myself in this field? Should I keep my full time job (which is decent paying but not as much as a starting nurse would make in my area) or go to part time CNA work while in nursing school? I might be able to do that because my mom has moved in with us to help us financially. While I am completing my prerequisites I am definitely going to remain at my job, but I'm not so sure what I'll do once I am accepted into nursing school.
I want to start by getting CPR certified (because I should have already with a 3 year old child, heck everyone should have that) and maybe get some experience volunteering. Any advice for me? Thank you.

volunteer at a local hospital is what i would recommend. looks good on resume, introduces you to the hospital setting. If you can, maybe consider doing a phlebotomy course? that would help with IV and drawing blood skills. EKG course is a benefit also.

I hear a lot of people saying it's hard managing a job and nursing school at the same time. I think if your job isn't stressful and you have a lot of down time where you can use it to study, I would think it's doable. That's what I might consider doing. I work at a local hospital by me on the weekends, and usually I have time to study here and there. We'll see how it goes once nursing school rolls around.

cracklingkraken, ASN, RN · Sep 11, 2015

Working FT while in nursing school is difficult. Doable, but difficult. I would work PT if you are able.

What kind of volunteering did you have in mind? I don't know about your area, but the hospitals here limit volunteering to clerical work and stocking. CPR certification is unneccessary as a volunteer, since you have little/no patient contact.

lunanarya, BSN, RN · Sep 11, 2015

I can totally relate to your situation!

I started my pre classes a few semesters ago, and I've been putting myself through school part time, and working full time. I've had my job for several years, so I was glad that I had the option to start off part time and still work full time for the time being. I work in a case management unit for workers' comp cases, and through that I've picked up some medical knowledge which has been a great help. Unfortunately, it doesn't afford me the time to study at work (haha!) I will be done after the Spring term with my prereqs and starting clinicals next fall, and I'm looking at swapping working full time/school part time to working part time/school full time as my current employer doesn't offer part time work, or anything overnight.

I agree with the suggestion of volunteering at a local hospital. You may want to check with your local hospitals to see if they require a CPR certificate, although I would recommend picking that up anyways. Most of the ones around here require a basic CPR certificate before you can even walk in the door. You should be able to find classes in your area either through the American Heart Association or the Red Cross. I recently took a class through the Red Cross that was CPR & first aid. They offer both "layman" and nurse level classes; the nurse level ones being more technical.

With balancing work and school, you'll definitely get a feel for it after this first semester. I would say, be sure to give yourself plenty of space to study, especially when it's time to start memorizing terms. Even if it's 5 minutes on the toilet with hastily written flash cards, it really does help.

One last thing (as I just thought of it), your school may have a chapter of the National Student Nursing association onsite. I would give them a look and see if it's something you would be interested in down the road. Each chapter has different requirements for joining (at my school, you have to have completed at least 6 pre nursing classes.) The chapter at my school does a lot of group events for studying and local volunteering. There are some other resources as well for test prep. The only drawback (at least to the chapter at my school), is my schedule is fixed and a lot of the events were in the morning, or during the day during my working hours. But it's an idea!

fyrephish, ADN, RN · Sep 11, 2015

These are great suggestions, thanks. I have a three year old daughter so finding time to study is putting me into sleep deprivation mode. Ideally I'm going to leave my job and hopefully work part time when I'm in nursing school but my current job is retail banking which is hellishy inflexible schedule wise. I'll make it work somehow, im determined to put in the effort to the finish line.

MsCupcakes · Sep 11, 2015

I worked almost full-time while taking my pre-requisites (with an 18 credit course load fall/spring, and 13 in the summer), and was able to manage it fairly well. I have just begun my first semester of actual nursing classes, and have had to drop down to working two days a week. I am finding even that difficult. I don't have any down time at my job to study, and the work load (especially the reading) is just too much to handle for me while working full time. I would try to aggressively budget and save as much money as possible before you begin the actual program. That way you could work less and utilize some of the savings if it gets overwhelming. Are you able to keep your current job and just work part-time? CNA pay is generally somewhat low, and the workload quite high for the rate of pay. A desk job might afford you more time for studying, as well as more flexibility since you've been there longer.

fyrephish, ADN, RN · Sep 11, 2015

I don't see my job being flexible as the demands for my time both at work and after hours seem to be increasing. I could go part time, but even that is around 30 hours a week which is pretty darn close to full time but with costlier benefits. I'm going to stay at my job as long as possible. I also have retirement funds to draw on as and emergency. I hate to do that but in pursuit of higher education and a better paying career I think this would be the only circumstance I would allow myself to do that.

nurseprnRN, BSN, RN · Sep 11, 2015

I like your plan to take no more than 2 classes at a time and one over the summer. I hear your eagerness to get this the heck DONE. You also need to consider that nursing school admissions are VERY competitive; a little extra time send in rocking out prerequisites will translate into sooner admission to better schools, so totally worth the time. Also, fewer classes at a time means more time to really learn the material, and you WILL be held to a standard of having a good working knowledge of all your prerequisites.

The other consideration is the money. The longer you can hold onto your full time, well-paying job, the more money you can sock away to live on when you are too busy with nursing to earn it. We see students here all the time who have incurred huge loans for tuition and living expenses, and then can't find work that pays them enough to live on plus make their loan payments.

CNA is useful, and in my opinion probably a lot more so than phlebotomy and certainly more so than EKG at this remove, so save those for way later when you figure out whether you are learning them well enough in school already. Working as a CNA for even a few months, perhaps over the last summer before you enroll in the nursing program, will serve you well in your first semester, when the nursing program related to patient handling and care motor skills is largely CNA-level anyway -- you'll be ahead of your classmates who are still squeamish about and obsessing over bodies and personal boundaries and touching, so you can focus on the actual nursing skills of communication, assessment, and planning care better than they will.

Nice to meet you! Welcome to AllNurses! Stay in touch!

Mavrick, BSN, RN · Sep 11, 2015

Also agree phlebotomy and EKG are way too advanced at this stage. CNA experience can give you a serious closer look at the actual work environment of a bedside nurse. Sights, sounds, and smells! It can rule out if you want to do nursing at all or cement your belief and get you really excited about school.

am27 · Sep 11, 2015

Yay! Happy to hear you've decided to start your nursing journey! Although it wasn't ideal, I maintained a full time job throughout school because I couldn't afford not to. In my opinion, volunteering at a hospital and/or becoming a CNA will provide invaluable experience and great insight on what nursing actually looks like, but if you're anything like me, doing more than one major life change at once (starting school/new classes, obtaining certifications, applying for new jobs, starting new jobs) totally sends my anxiety through the roof and makes it difficult to fully put my all into any one of those things simultaneously. Not to sound daunting, but it's kind of a long road. You know yourself best, so feel it out and don't feel in a hurry to do all of these other moving parts.

So in my opinion, a CNA position will most likely be a wonderful stepping stone for a nurse job when you finish school, but it's a TON of physical work so keep things like that in mind when thinking about what kind of work you want to do while in school. However, I did not work as a CNA at all, and I was so envious of my classmates who did. Little things that can seem simple like finding a flow for performing hygiene care, assisting with ambulating, obtaining vitals, and even just interaction with patients is a huge gain if you were to work as a CNA. I am a floor nurse now and I still fumble sometimes with the best ways to reposition, etc. and my CNAs are soo amazing because they teach me tricks all the time! So having that hands-on experience as a CNA will continue to benefit you even after you become a nurse.

Volunteer hours was a requirement for my nursing program, so keep it in mind that you might end up being required to volunteer at a hospital, also another great chance to gain insight as well as a potential foot in the door.

For me, being physically tired made it harder to stay up studying, etc. Make sure to take very good care of yourself throughout this, mentally and physically :) I'm not sure if any of this helps, but I hope so! Good luck!!

Awesomocity0 · Sep 12, 2015

I've read through the advice given here, and some of it is a bit different than what I would have given, and I think some of that is dependent on your area. In my area, a lot of new nurses are second career nurses, and a lot of them get hired on quite a bit easier than brand new nurses who are my age or younger. I've talked to the managers at the places where i've worked, and a lot of them have the same sort of mentality - if the nurse has a long work history elsewhere or if they have a family, he/she is less likely to be flaky. Although I know past doesn't dictate future behavior, and this peeved me off to no end being on the other side of that, I thought I'd throw it out there in case you live in an area like mine. The classmates I had in school (and the ones I met in my residency) had no issue finding a job without being hired on as a tech. The only people I know who had issues finding jobs were the ones who didn't work as techs and were young.

I'm not saying it's right or wrong. I'm just saying that's how the job market seems to be here. In my residency, the only ADN nurses were second career nurses, too. All the fresh nurses were BSN ones. That could have been coincidence, too, but these coincidences seem to have all matched each other very well.

So I'd actually suggest you keep working. If you're going to school part-time and you're motivated, I see no reason for you to cut down on hours on your job or quit it. I worked 30+ hours a week and went to school full-time, so I know it can be done. Granted, I don't have kids. But I think during the first couple years while you're doing your pre-reqs, at least, it shouldn't be a problem.

And another thing I'd heavily consider (again, in regards to your job market) is whether residencies and internships require BSNs or ADNs. My program was just about the only that didn't require a BSN, and they're actually changing that as we speak. So if you're doing your ADN, and the residencies require a BSN, the only way to get around that might be working as a CNA. But again, I'd leave that until the very end. :)

jjmm RN,BSN · Sep 12, 2015

I agree with working as a part time CNA or PCA in a hospital setting while in school. I worked as a full time CNA while doing prerequisites, although part time is good too. When I was n nursing school I worked as a float nurse assistant in a hospital, where I now work as an RN. It was great because I worked closely with the nurses and I got to assist with foley insertion, NG tubes and things like that. The doctors would let me watch procedures too like central line insertion, paracentesis, and lumbar punctures because they knew I was a student. Also, as GrnTea said it just gets you used to touching people, basic patient safety skills and all the sights and smells you have to get comfortable with if you want to go into acute care. Nursing was a second career for me too. Good luck!