Published Oct 5, 2020
NurseJamillah, MSN, NP
82 Posts
I am 1/3 of the way into my PMHNP program full-time. I recently quit working as a floor nurse at a hospital part-time and I have just begun working per diem at an outpatient psych facility. I only need $2k/mo to live off of, ideally. My program was beginning to become demanding and I will be starting clinicals next year. When I started at the psych facility, the hiring manager said she had lots of availability, actually much more than I alone could fill. I told her my availability and she said "I can give you that".
I love working there, so I decided to leave my hospital job. The hospital was back breaking and mentally/emotionally exhaustive. After I do my psych job shift, I can actually do homework, exercise, etc., things that I was too tired/stressed/sore to do after work at the hospital. This semester, I started failing my classes because I couldn't keep up. I did take an additional day off here and there, and was able to get caught up on my assignments. I didn't stay per-diem at the hospital because of these stressors, AND I was worried that the minimum commitment requirement would conflict with the minimum for the psych job (or that the combination of the two would have me working every weekend/every holiday, for example). Fast-forward to today, the psych facility hired a staff nurse and now there is no availability in the near future. I do have money saved up that will last me a couple of months, because I knew that by working per-diem, this could potentially happen.
I am unsure what to do for money now, as I have no experience in LTC (which is what is mostly available for part-time jobs, in my area), and I am not seeing a lot of per-diem opportunities. I may be able to go back to the hospital per diem, but in order to make enough money to live off of, I would be working the same hours as before, and I am unsure if I would be able to keep up in school. I've seen lots of full-time job at primary care clinics and psych hospitals (also no experience), but then I would probably have to withdraw from school. My last option is to take out personal loans (my school loans cover my tuition), as my credit is very good, and just worry about school right now. I already have a lot of school loan debt, so I don't want to do this unless I have to.
Advice please?