Advice for a working RN student

Nursing Students General Students

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  1. What do you think I should do?

    • 7
      Stay at your current job.
    • 1
      Take the new job.

8 members have participated

Sorry I have been MIA for the last few weeks. Been busy getting thing squared away with school and of course finishing up A&P II :arghh:.

Needing some advice from you all.

So basically, I have to work in order to keep my bills paid, currently I work the regular 9a-5p work hours everyday but this will not be a schedule I can keep when nursing school starts in January.

I have two options.

1. Stay at my current job. They have told me they will work with me on my hours. I have class Mon. and Wed. from 2p-8p and then clinical Thu. 1p-8p. So I would work all day and then immediately go to school the rest of the evening. I work in busy Doctor's office with little sit down time. The best part about this option is that I will get reimbursed for my nursing courses. The worst part about this option is that I will be busy all day and I am worried that I won't have adequate enough time to focus on my nursing courses.

2. Take this new job. This job is an overnight job. I would work 3-4 nights a week 11p-7a with the option to take more hours if requested. The job is very rewarding, I would be assisting disabled individuals in a group home. I am most worried about this option because I have never worked an overnight shift ever. But I feel like I would have adequate enough time available to focus on nursing school.

I am leaning towards option 2, but I will miss getting my reimbursement for my courses.

Advice please?

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Specializes in OR, Nursing Professional Development.

How much you can work during nursing school is going to depend on your personality and your support system. I worked full time while attending a 4 year college full time and graduated with honors, so it can be done. I also worked more than full time while completing my masters program.

Personally, knowing that I have and can work while in school, I would go with option 1. To me, knowing that I have a job who is willing to work with me on hours while also providing tuition reimbursement would matter more to me than trying to rearrange my life to accommodate a brand new shift, which is also likely to be the same number of working hours as option 2.

Have you tried creating a mock daily/weekly schedule for yourself? This could help you in seeing where and when free hours occur. You may find that one option or the other works best with when you study best or provide more/less time than you expect.

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How much you can work during nursing school is going to depend on your personality and your support system. I worked full time while attending a 4 year college full time and graduated with honors, so it can be done. I also worked more than full time while completing my masters program.

Personally, knowing that I have and can work while in school, I would go with option 1. To me, knowing that I have a job who is willing to work with me on hours while also providing tuition reimbursement would matter more to me than trying to rearrange my life to accommodate a brand new shift, which is also likely to be the same number of working hours as option 2.

Have you tried creating a mock daily/weekly schedule for yourself? This could help you in seeing where and when free hours occur. You may find that one option or the other works best with when you study best or provide more/less time than you expect.

Thank you for the advice! I have a meeting coming up with my supervisor for the new job, she is going to give me tour and some more background about the new job. I think that I will be able to make a more adequate decision after that.

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I worked 6-2:30 M-F and has classes/clinicals during the evening. I was on my feet all day at work as well. I will tell you, that for me, it actually helped me working full time. I had to budget my time and I knew that I only had certain times I could study, so I would actually study during those times. I think if I had had too much time, I would have procrastinated more.

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I as many fellow students work full-time and have do school. It's doable, but difficult. Which position offers better pto? I would lean towards the second job if you think you might be able to get some studying done and it wont be as physically demanding

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