Any social workers/psychologists that became RN's?

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Ok, so I am 34 years old. I have a degree in psychology and have worked in the social service field (I have worked with mentally ill adults as well as children and families). I really thought that I wanted to go into the nursing field. I wanted to do either psch nursing or oncology nursing ( at age 31, I was a 2 time breast cancer survivor....BRCA1+).

I have been accepted into a 12month accelerated BSN program. Currently I am finishing up my science pre-recs...I am taking chemistry, microbiology and physiology. To be honest, I am not liking my classes and I am thinking that I would enjoy getting my masters in social work better.

Are there any nurses that have worked in the social services field and then did a second career in nursing? If so, what has been your experience? Any regrets or not?

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Specializes in psych,maternity, ltc, clinic.

I got my degree in Psycholgy in 1981. I always managed to get jobs but never felt like I had alot of choices. At 32 I started Nursing school at a community college. Graduated at 34. Am now 49, with no regrets. A few years before I went to nursing school I took a couple classes toward MSW, but ran out of money, and by the time I had it together, I had decided to go another way (nursing). I work with mentally ill adults and there are lots of opportunities for nurses in psych.

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I'm about to finish up my accelerated BSN in 7 weeks. One of the women in my class was a psych social worker (master's prepared) for 25 years before starting our program. She is definitely not your traditional nursing student nor will she be your "typical" new grad nurse, but she loves it and plans on advancing to NP. I'm sure that there are others on this site that can give you more relevant advice, but my advice to you would be to follow your gut. Evaluate why you're considering a change and what benefits nursing would have over your MSW. Good luck!

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Specializes in Adult NP- post acute care.

Hi there,

I got a BA in Psych in 1995 then eventually went on to get a masters in community counseling in 2000. I enjoyed being a therapist to children (victims of abuse primarily), however I did not enjoy the increasing demand to meet productivity requirements and have my pay adjusted according to the numbers that I produced that month (the agency wanted approximately 74 hours of face to face contact per month in order to maintain full time employment and base pay- now it's up to 88 hours/month). I chose the nursing field because I am truly interested in the healing process and although I was leaving the mental health career behind, as a nurse I realized that I would continue utilizing skills from psych/social work/ counseling with my patients. My income has increased from making $36,000 (with a masters) to $45,000 my first year in nursing(with an ADN). The science based courses were extremely challenging for me, because I think I was accustomed to theory based and philosophy based courses. Nursing opens so many doors to so many different fields, I would encourage everyone to consider a nursing career. Best of luck to you!

Lynn

P.S. I was a B-C student and managed to get through nursing school, it wasn't easy but with hard work, lots of praying, and determination it is possible.

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