RN with ADN considering BA in elementary education

[mrshurstnurse]

Hey there nurses!

I need your feedback.

I am a new grad RN working a med-surg floor. I am almost to my 1 year milestone. :) I currently have an ADN & all prerequisites for my BSN completed. However, teaching is looking appealing to me after all this fast paced stressful environment has got me burnt out in only 10 months time. I appreciate all I've learned. The job experience has been eye opening and strengthened me as a person. However, plain and simple: its not for me. I was considering a dramatic career change these past few months. I don't want to quit nursing entirely. I just want a job that will support my personal strengths. So, I started thinking school nurse. I'm great with kids. Everyone says I would make a good teacher.

How about 2 career options? Everyone knows a good nurse has experience with patient teaching. That is one of my favorite parts of my current jobs is teaching patients. :)

A BA in education & an AD in nursing?

Can you think of any disadvantages that might occur from having these two different career degrees?

I do not have any interest in continuing my BSN at the current time.

Any nurses out there that have heard of this before or have any advice??

I'll take all I can get from you seasoned nurses / teachers!

Mrs. Hurst Nurse

[xoemmylouox, ASN, RN]

I have that same feeling. I want to leave nursing and go into elem. teaching. Now you need to know it also is a fast-paced, high stress career as well. In fact teachers pay is getting linked up with student scores, so you have to teach students to pass the tests, not to learn. I gave up on that dream.. at least for now. There aren't jobs . Schools are cutting back on staffing, and just like in nursing, schools keep accepting more students than there are jobs. I figure perhaps when I am older, but I am not willing to take on all of that debt when I know it is the same situation all over again.

[noahsmama]

If your goal is to be a school nurse, not a teacher, I would look very carefully into your state's requirements for school nurses. In California, where I live, you have to have a BSN to be a school nurse. I'm pretty sure that an ADN plus a BA in education is not considered the equivalent, even for school nursing. I could be wrong -- just wanted to suggest that you really need to look into this for your own state before you commit yourself to a path that might not get you where you want to go.

Good luck!

[Disneyfanatic,RN]

I have an ADN, plus a BA, a state certificate in teaching, and 6 years teaching experience (I was a teacher before I became a nurse. I am not qualified to apply for a school nurse position until i finish the bsn. If you want to be a school nurse, definitely need a bsn---our school nurse is an MSN. I sometimes think about going back to teaching, but one thing to remember is right now there are very few teaching jobs---its not in demand. Thousands of applicants for each position. Nursing, even if its not in demand at this instant, at some point, it probably will be again. As far as job demand, I have a difficult time leaving nursing even though I really miss teaching.

[elkpark]

Before you make a decision, you might want to look at how many threads there are on this site (over time) from teachers who are fed up with teaching and wanting to become nurses ... :)

[Disneyfanatic,RN]

the one nice thing about teaching, though....no matter how bad it got, I always had the summer to look forward to LOL, but yes it could be very stressful as well. I left teaching to be a stay at home mom, and then went to school for nursing because I wanted a job with some flexibility. I wanted to be able to work part time, nights etc, while my kids were very young. Very little flexibility with teaching. Now I can work a few nights a week, or work weekends, and still be available to volunteer for activities at their school, be at field trips, work science fairs...with teaching, that's really hard. Nursing definitely has advantages. Lots of things to think about.