Am I too old to change career?

mmc51264, BSN, MSN, RN · Sep 17, 2016

I graduated with my ADN at 48. BSN at 51. Will have my MSN at 53. Never too old.

CVICU-Nurse1.5 · Sep 17, 2016

Changed careers after 6 years in my old job to nursing at 26-27, will be 29 when I graduate. It's never too late unless you're dead.

secondlifenurse, MSN, RN · Sep 17, 2016

Age is, as they say, just a number. Changing a career at any age is totally possible, but it also involves looking at more specifics than just age. Nursing (and nursing school) can be physically, mentally, and emotionally taxing. Only you will know how "in shape" you are in each of these categories (and how on board your spouse is to carry the weight of things while you're distracted by school). Changing a career involves a significant financial and time commitments. If after being out of work for two months, you (and your family) are struggling enough to be possibly losing your living situation, this might not be the best time to incur debt for school and living. And you need to consider what kind of program you will attend: how long is it? how much does it cost? and how many hours per week are you going to have to devote to this new educational path that will be spent away from family? And, finally, once you have that shiny new degree, what is your new nurse income going to be? Will it be enough to pay living expenses and the student loans (if you used them) that got you through nursing school? Do a lot of internet digging to try to find out the financial costs and benefits.

As a second-career nurse, and one who arrived at it after the age you are now, I can attest that I had to do a lot of thinking and charting about all of this before deciding to dive in. And though I *love* what I am doing now so very much more than what I was doing before, I can attest to moments of panic during school when I looked at the loans accruing and the years between the present and the my someday retirement shrinking as months rolled by.

It's an individual decision....made in tandem with your partner. Good luck

Alex_RN, BSN · Sep 17, 2016

Guttercat said:
On the other hand, an MBA + RN can open a lot of doors within healthcare.
Something to think about.

Not necessarily. The MBA will work against you as you look for your first bedside care position. No one wants to train a new grad (an older new grad, especially) when there is a chance you will jump into administration a few years down the road.

If you DO want to get into administration, you will really need to sell yourself to get that first bedside care position, if you even want to go that route.

secondlifenurse, MSN, RN · Sep 17, 2016

Without going into the finite details, I too had a higher degree (and a lot of years of experience in that field) when I jumped ship and went to nursing school. Some people in the nursing field had told me, too, that I might be a "difficult" hire (my age, my former degrees, my new-nurse status after nursing school). My experience has been anything but that. Many doors opened for me both in regards to choosing the nursing program I wanted to attend as well as first-job offers. Plenty of job offers came in well before graduation. Plenty of places courted me and very much appreciated the professional experience/s I brought with me before nursing school.

Though I'm happy to report that doors opened for me, one of my nursing instructors had a great piece of advice not only to me but to everyone else in my nursing school cohort (many of us were career-changers) when someone voiced concern about new-nurse marketability and being "an older" hire as a new nurse. Our instructor told us: "well, if they don't want to hire you for those reasons, why would you want to work there anyway?" And she was right. Plenty of hospitals, from Level I trauma centers to community hospitals and plenty in between, are happy to have a new nurse who brings with him/her life experiences as well as those from another career.

And I never had anyone ask me if I was going to run for the hills after I got a bit of experience to go do X, Y, Z with my former career experience. Truth be told, plenty of nurses who are not career changers or who are of the "typical" new nurse age (is there such a thing any more?) leave their jobs after just a few years of experience. In fact, I remember reading an academic article in the last few years that studied RNs of various ages and their longevity in their first hospital job. (I tried finding this, but can't right now.) The study in fact found that new RNs over 40 were actually more likely to stay in their job if they got the kind of unit they wanted right out of the gate.

Anyway, just another perspective to add to the bunch.

NuGuyNurse2b · Sep 17, 2016

Alex_RN said:
Not necessarily. The MBA will work against you as you look for your first bedside care position. No one wants to train a new grad (an older new grad, especially) when there is a chance you will jump into administration a few years down the road.
If you DO want to get into administration, you will really need to sell yourself to get that first bedside care position, if you even want to go that route.

I don't see the issue with that. No one realistically expects a new grad to remain a new grad. I'm pretty sure half (and I'm being conservative here) of my graduating class had their eyes on becoming nurse anesthetists.

djh123 · Sep 17, 2016

I have no idea what a 'LOW letter' is, and as some others said, looking for a new job for 2 months really isn't that long. But I can tell you that I got my BSN at 54.

mmaku2020 · Sep 17, 2016

Bless you!

mmaku2020 · Sep 17, 2016

Thanks everyone for your comment. I really appreciate it. I have a question here. Do you have to be an RN to be a nurse administrator or do you have go for a training/exams I can take to be one since I already have my MBA? Any advise or directions will be appreciated. Bless you!

daisy8762 · Sep 17, 2016

Tom Hanks states, ''we should always examine where we are and start over at anytime if your are not happy with the results". I think is never to late to be happy.

MechelleMyBell · Sep 17, 2016

There is a HUGE shortage of nurses where I live, so it depends on your area.

Guttercat, ASN, RN · Sep 17, 2016

mmaku2020 said:
Thanks everyone for your comment. I really appreciate it. I have a question here. Do you have to be an RN to be a nurse administrator or do you have go for a training/exams I can take to be one since I already have my MBA? Any advise or directions will be appreciated. Bless you!

Question back at you: why would anyone want to go into nursing admin who is not a nurse in the first place?

If you are looking at administration roles within the medical field, you can get a degree in healthcare admin. like an MHA. If healthcare interests you, you might also look at an MPH (Master's Public Health) which can be quite an interesting field.

If you are a CPA and hold an MBA as well, there are certainly positions within healthcare and hospital systems you can find with those two degrees alone.

You have a lot of options. Good luck!