Accountant to Nurse

kdm115 · Feb 28, 2023

Hello!

It is such a coincidence that I ran into your post and I felt that I needed to respond, because there are not many people who have transitioned from accounting to nursing and I wanted to share my experience with you. :)

I am currently 28 years old. I graduated at age 22 with my accounting degree. My goal was to become a CPA and worked in public accounting (CPA firm) for about 3 years. I like accounting, however, working as an auditor for 3 years I was able to go to different client sites and see how accounting would be in corporate as well as non-for-profit organizations. Long story short, despite my positivity towards my career, I eventually noticed that I did not really desire to move up in public accounting and was not at all excited about the opportunities available in corporate/non-for-profit. I was working on passing my CPA exams as well when I made the decision to leave. Keep in mind that accounting is useful and it allows you to move into different department such as operations, marketing, finance, and even HR. However, I did not see myself in any of those departments and since they were different than my original career anyway, I thought to myself why not then change it completely to something I really want to do?

I always admired the nursing profession and deep down wished that I had originally studied nursing instead of accounting. I found out through a close friend of mine that there are many options to become a registered nurse in my situation (below I will clarify these options). Fast-forward a few months and in 2020 I left my job in accounting to complete pre-requisites for nursing school. After completing the pre-requisites, I applied to second-degree programs and got into one. The program was a total of 16 months and I am so happy that I made this transition. I recently graduated in December 2023 and will be starting my first RN job next month! I know from speaking to many nurses and seeing during clinical rotations that it is definitely a tough profession, particularly in a hospital setting. But what I love about nursing is that there are so many avenues. For example, if you eventually decide to not work bedside in a hospital, you don't have to work in a hospital forever, if at all. You can work at the bedside, outpatient clinics or surgical centers, legal nurse consulting, community nursing, and even corporate nursing jobs like working for insurance companies and hospitals (there are many other job options as well).

This is the general advice I give you to make the right decision for YOU, and this is considering you are looking to becoming an RN (there are also LPN programs but I can't speak to that due to not being my experience):

1 - How far are you in your CPA journey? I notice you said you're in the 4th level, and I want to clarify whether you are referring to the 4th exam or 4th year of school. Even though you like nursing, can you see yourself in accounting moving forward? If not, would you consider using your accounting knowledge/CPA license to move into other departments in corporate such as marketing, finance, operations? (If you can potentially see yourself doing any such things, I'd consider giving yourself some time before completely switching to nursing as of right now).

2 - What about nursing do you like? Be very honest with yourself. Ask yourself why you think you will be a good nurse and whether you will enjoy working in a team-environment and working with patients. Do you like the nursing-related content you will have to study in school? Nursing is generally a very hands-on profession as well. Do you dislike all types of hands-on work and completely dislike ALL types of body fluids (blood/mucus/vomit/feces/urine)? Not to say that you can't find a job that doesn't deal with all body fluids, but generally most nursing jobs deal with at least one type (unless you are working in the corporate-end, which then should lead you to further question whether you should leave accounting in the first place). For example, many outpatient services require nurses to at the very least insert IV's and draw blood - are you okay with that or do you have hemophobia to the point where you can't insert an IV? Again, there are jobs out there where you won't have to deal with any at all, but then that means your job prospects are much smaller (and potentially your pay).

3 - Look up different RN programs options and see if it is realistic for you right now. You can go the ADN (associate's degree) route, which is very cost-effective. Hospitals hire you and you can complete the BSN (bachelors degree) while working for them - many hospitals pay for this bridge. The other option, if you have an accounting bachelor's, is you can also apply to a second-degree accelerated program. These you complete faster than the ADN, however, they are expensive, and you still have to complete pre-requisites to get in. Look up the options in your area, see when the application deadlines are, and calculate what pre-requisites you will need and how long it will take you to complete them, and this way you will figure out if you'll be able to apply to the nursing programs either by this year or next year.

4 - Be realistic with the timeline and your finances. Completing a nursing program will take time, money, and A LOT of studying. Ask yourself if you'll need to work while in school. If so, be realistic with the effort you are willing to put into studying every day - one thing you should know about nursing schools in general is that the passing grade can be around 77-80% instead if the standard 70% for other majors, and in most cohorts there are students that either dropped out or failed out of the program. The switch will be challenging but absolutely doable if you really believe you are meant to be a nurse!

*Word of caution about looking into programs: make sure they are accredited and look into the program graduation rate and the NCLEX pass rate - these are all very important!

I wish you the very best and you have any further questions, feel free to message me directly! :)