Working and nursing school?

Students Pre-Nursing

Published

You are reading page 3 of Working and nursing school?

mjo07

170 Posts

This is soo true! The other day someone told me the only reason reason I got all As last semester was because I didn't work. Like are you serious?! Try raising a two-year, without any babysitters, cooking everyday, cleaning ( with two-year old) the kitchen, bathroom, bedrooms, living room, laundry(with two-year old), foodshopping (with two-year old), and not fall asleep at 8pm along with your two-year old, to stay up and study and do endless homework until midnightish. and then proceed to wake up at 5am to take her to daycare and go to school myself. If I did work, and if I did have babysitters it would definitely be a lot easier, but unfortunately I sacrifice a lot (not including my two-year old lol) to further my career and be able to give my daughter a better life. I jut think some people are jelous and need someone to blame when they aren't able to get the grades they want. Suck it up, work your butt off, and you won't feel the need to blame those who work hard without getting paid. Oh and that's another thing, those who work have it better because they get paid! hello! Ok im done...sorry guys haha

duchessbettie

14 Posts

Congratulations on your acceptance! I am in my second semester of nursing school and just switched from 40 to 32 hours a week. I have class at night and clinical on the weekends, so having Fridays off became necessary to do things like go to the bank, and it also gives me extra time to study. It has NOT been easy, but you can do it. I think it's a great idea for you to save up, especially since you don't have rent, until you get into school. Create a financial safety cushion for yourself while you can. You won't have time to think about these things when you're in school. I live with two roommates and have car payments, too, so when the semester gets crazy it's nice not having to worry about making rent when my checking account isn't ideal. Also, get and STAY organized. Your sanity can unravel pretty quickly when you're disorganized and up to your elbows in papers and skills assessments. Most importantly, you CAN do this. Part-time nursing school and full-time work has been the most difficult experience I've gone through and it WILL change you, but it has also been one of the most rewarding experiences of my life. When you get bogged down, just remember to breathe, that you've gotten this far, and surge forward!

mjo07

170 Posts

I just got accepted to nursing school for August I am super excited to start this new stage in life. However, I have been told over and over that working is not a good idea during school. I live in an apartment in my parents basement so I am rent free. But I have a car payment, have to buy my own food, pay for my own gas and have one credit card bill for credit building. (It is an amazon card so cannot help with food, gas, etc.) I am working full time right now and plan on saving as much I can until school. When I get in school I am able to work at the hospital towards tuition reimbursement. So I'm just wondering what is normally too many hours to work. I was hoping I could handle 20 hours and school. Any suggestions?[/quote']

I think you should start out working part time (20hrs seems good) and see how it goes. It's all about time management. See how well you feel youre doing in your classes and if you think you've got the time management thing going well, go for more hours, if not try to cut down a little. Sometimes i sacrifice sleep to study, school comes first for me, but make sure you stay healthy. healthy snacks and lots of water. It's all about what you can handle. I do recommend you work at least a little, because school is expensive and you don't want to graduate with a huge debt, but don't sacrifice your grades! If you can't do it, make sure to stop and work harder in school!

MeekaNichole

38 Posts

10-15 hrs should be enough..

-Sent from my iPhone

nurseprnRN, BSN, RN

1 Article; 5,114 Posts

I just got accepted to nursing school for August, I am super excited to start this new stage in life. However, I have been told over and over that working is not a good idea during school. I live in an apartment in my parents basement so I am rent free. But I have a car payment, have to buy my own food, pay for my own gas and have one credit card bill for credit building. (It is an amazon card so cannot help with food, gas, etc.) I am working full time right now and plan on saving as much I can until school. When I get in school I am able to work at the hospital towards tuition reimbursement. So I'm just wondering what is normally too many hours to work. I was hoping I could handle 20 hours and school. Any suggestions?

I worked 24 hours/week (eight-hour shifts) (3-11, every weekend and one evening during the week) plus every vacation day plus all summer while I was in college. You can do it if you are willing to sacrifice your GPA. My senior year I was married and since my husband had graduated a year ahead of me we had his income, which was more than the two of us had earned in the two previous years COMBINED. My GPA skyrocketed.

Nursing school is a lot of work. Anything you can do to minimize your working hours as much as possible will pay off in better grades; nowadays when it seems that everybody plans on going to grad school, the GPA is important.

(I applied to grad school 7 years after graduation from college; they told me my undergraduate GPA wasn't enough to go, I said it wasn't fair to tell me I could never go to grad school because I was too busy at 18, 19, and 20; they said, "Take some grad level coursework and the GREs and w'll talk." I got 99th%ile in the GREs and aced the classes, so I was in. But it took me a little longer than I expected.)

SueLaura

5 Posts

I started nursing school Fall of 2012, with the hopes of working 20 hours a week and go to nursing school. Well that didn't last long. I now work weekends only. I am in my second semester and its intense and takes a lot of time. Good luck. :)

Wrench Party

823 Posts

Specializes in Cardiology, Cardiothoracic Surgical.

I've been doing the part time work/full time school thing for the last 3 years, and most of my classmates also work in the 20-36 hr/week range. It is great you can save up money till then; nursing school is expensive and you'll need all that money. The advice I can give you is:

1) go out and buy a planner before school starts. When you get your calendars and syllabi at the beginning of each semester,

write down all of your assignments (pages to read, study guides, online assignments, tests, etc.). If unclear, nail down clarifications.

This is your bible. Use this as a basis for planning the rest of your life. Be realistic about how much time you need to study (i.e. don't schedule 2 double shifts before your big test on Monday).

Also schedule in important things like work, exercise time, hobbies, and days off. If you write it down and have to stare at it, it's a lot harder to ignore.

2) Get ahead early in the semester. I cannot stress this enough. My program always stuffs a lot of lecture into the weeks before clinical starts, so we are forced to do this anyway, but trying to climb back on the hamster wheel after falling off is twice as hard.

3) Choose a part time job that is not overly stressful and may allow you to study during downtime. Life is going to be chaotic enough without drama at work.

4) Take studying everywhere you go. You never know when you may have a few minutes' downtime.

5) Make friends in your program, and share study aids when feasible within your school's academic honesty code.

6) Try to keep at least 1 hobby or workout routine going during school. If you don't get stress relief in some healthy form, it will blow up in your face sooner or later.

7) Be efficient in your life skills-buy books and pay bills online, save big cleaning and domestic tasks till breaks.

And finally- you may not make all As. This is ok. Learn the material, do your best, get the most out of your clinical experiences, and you will succeed.

Specializes in ER, progressive care.

You won't really know until you start. I worked all during school. I had an apartment with two other roommates so I had rent to pay + cable and electric bills, gas & food (though my mom helped me out a bit with the food part). I worked as an aide than a nurse tech during nursing school. I worked on average 12-16 hours/week, sometimes I would do more depending on the week. I worked PRN so I was able to make my own schedule and the units always needed techs, so I would never get cancelled or put on-call. Sometimes I would pick up 1:1 assignments so that I could work and study, but it depended on the assignment (some 1:1's were easy-peasy, others were a constant battle to make sure the patient wouldn't rip out their IV or something lol).

Specializes in GI, ER, ICU, Med/Surg, Stress Test Nurse.

Working and Nursing school....... most of my classmates did work including myself, those who did not work they were the ones with the A's. I made solid B's throughout RN school. I worked full time as a LPN in a hospital and pulled an extra 8 hrs every week that my employer would let me. I was in class one day a week clinicals two days a week and sometimes had to drive to the school for testing on one day every month or so. School was 1 1/2 hr drive from home clinicals were sometimes 2 hrs away

.

I had to work I was the only employed person in my home at the time. I would not reccomend doing what I did. I always took Sunday off no work no study. I was very organized with my studies. Some Sunday's I would sleep til lunch get up and have a snack, return to bed just to sleep all night too. Other Sundays I would be up with the birds and had plenty of energy but when I finished my last semester I worked my regular 40hrs and nothing more for three months before I felt like my rest to energy ratio was back to normal. When I was in LPN school I worked part time on week-ends (Friday and Saturday Nights) I was a "personal activity instructor" which is fancy name for a sitter for 3 mentally challenged residents of a group home. I came in intime to prepare the evening meal with them helping me, we all ate together then we proceded to prepare for bed they would watch TV til about 10 or 11pm then they all would go to bed and I was left to sit up incase they needed me during the night and I spent that time studing - had straight A's. loved that job.

It really depends on the job and you. Congratulations for getting into nursing school now you decide the right mix for you to stay in nursing school.

CacaoHeart

32 Posts

I work 3rd shift as a med tech at a retirement facility and have a few hours down time during most 8 hour shifts where I can study if no emergencies come up. I'm in my 2nd semester in an ADN program and working ~30 hours per week hasn't been a problem so far, but I feel it would be if I were working 1st or 2nd shift in which case I'd have much less down time. I have coworkers that work each of those shifts and manage it, one while doing a BSN program, but it seems to be much more challenging. If at any point I feel my workload is hurting my GPA I'll drop my hours, but for now it gives me structure and peace of mind from still having my own money.

reagansm

39 Posts

Whether or not you can work while in nursing school all depends upon you. I have friends that worked practically full time. I worked in a nursing home through out nursing school. I worked 2 -3 days a week my first year, and a lot less the last year. I looked at what I had going on and scheduled myself accordingly. Nursing school is about sacrifices for most of us, but you have to choose what you will sacrifice for your education.

niikkayx

22 Posts

I really appreciate all of the feedback, i am taking all of these things and making decisions based on my reading. Including a nursing school survivors guide I bought. I have a planner and plan to stick to it just like suggested. It has been my bible for two years. As well as I am organized, including my apartment. I shouldn't have any house work except typical maintenance because I have a worsening case of ocd and things are constantly organized. This is all a lot of help, and I am getting completely mentally prepared to start.

+ Add a Comment