I'm a 50yo and have a high paying job, but I am very interested in being an RN (starting out as a CNA-- hopefully in peds). My goal is to work as a Neonatal RN, perhaps in NICU. I'll have to take all the prereqs, etc., and there's no way I can do all that's needed AND hold down my current job.
Am I nuts to quit a cushy job and take a huge pay cut to start all over and work as a CNA and go back to school?? I have spent a ton of time at our Children's Hospital, as well as taken care of my 13 yo with CP (spastic quadriplegic in w/c and 24q care). I've learned a lot over the past 13 years.
The idea of helping children manage their pain and feel better and be able to go home makes my heart sing!! BUT... yikes!! Advice? (Thank you-- and thank you for all that you do!)
You need to consider how much care you need to provide your son and how it will effect obtaining your goal. How much help fo you have. Will you have help working 12 hr shifts? Nursing school is hard, you will need to have complete focus on studies. Trust me most professors are heartless, they dont give you time off to go to a funeral of immediate family let alone care for a child.
OP, I would like to clarify the role of the teacher in the the pediatric hospital (since i mentioned it and you asked).
In my larger children's hospital (and even a smaller one that I worked at for a while), there are teachers that meet with the children that are in the hospital for extended periods of time, but also "well" enough to do schoolwork. They coordinate with the schools to get what work they are missing while they are out, and if they meet with the school teacher for the day and do the work, it counts as a day "in school" so they aren't counted absent (i'm not sure about the particulars about how that goes). They just mainly try to help the kids not get too behind while they are out.
There are also teacher positions in child/adolescent psych facilities. It's a state and CMS requirement. Every child or adolescent psychiatric inpatient unit has a classroom, and the kids spend part of every day (typically a few hours in the AM or afternoon) in school. In acute care settings, in which the kids are expected to only be there for a short while, the teacher communicates with the kids' home schools and helps them stay up to date with their schoolwork and homework while they're there (as A&O describes). In psych facilities with longer average stays (higher acuity acute psych units or residential units), the teacher often operates more of a "one-room schoolhouse," teaching kids of different ages and grade levels in a group setting, and doing more actual "teaching" (rather than just supervising the kids doing their homework, which is most of what "school" in the shorter-term settings is).
In larger, longer-term, specialized facilities/hospitals, there are often actual schools, with multiple teachers and more developed curricula. I worked a number of years ago in a well-known free-standing psych hospital that had a entire, separate building for its school, and a pretty good-sized faculty. It was licensed as a school by the state, and you could actually graduate and get a state HS diploma from them. In fact, the local school district contracted with the hospital to provide school services for their emotionally/psychiatrically troubled kids; instead of having those services in the local schools, the district paid the hospital to take those kids and they came to school on our campus along with our clients.
There aren't a huge number of those positions "out there" and most teachers are probably never interested in doing something like that but, in my experience, the teachers who are in those positions really enjoy them.
I agree that there are a number of other professional opportunities to help kids besides nursing.
When my parents got divorced when I was 7, my Mom had to find a job. She had previously been a high school teacher before kids. At the time there were no teaching jobs available in the LA school district. So, she pursured Special Ed, contingent on her obtaining a Masters in Special Ed within a period of time.
Her first job was as a hospital and home teacher for severely ill or impaired kids. She ended up falling in love with Special ed and had a very successful and diverse career in Special Ed.
I'll never forget the yearly Christmas play at Widney High, put on by teenagers with a multiplicity of handicaps, physical or intellectual. That was before mainstreaming, when all handicapped kids went to special schools.
My Mom was a gifted teacher who touched many lives.
Maybe you should shadow a nurse for a couple of shifts before you make that big leap. I've been a CNA and its not fun. Granted it did motivate me to work harder during nursing school. But the long hours and pay had a little something to do with it as well. Also maybe you could work in a pediatric hospital in a different capacity (child life specialist) depending on your degree. Don't make that jump just yet. Do more research.
Dacatster, ADN
97 Posts
You need to consider how much care you need to provide your son and how it will effect obtaining your goal. How much help fo you have. Will you have help working 12 hr shifts? Nursing school is hard, you will need to have complete focus on studies. Trust me most professors are heartless, they dont give you time off to go to a funeral of immediate family let alone care for a child.