Becoming a nurse then going to law school?

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I am a new CNA/HHA (just got certified and started working this year in SW FL):yeah: my high school offers a 2 year LPN program which i should be starting next year (my senior year) and finishing the year after i graduate. I've want to be a lawyer for the longest time and have a good background in both the courtroom and behind the scenes and for the most part i know the work that is involved.

my main question is, can i get my BSN and still go to law school? is it better to get a BSN or an ASN? I really want to work with infants and pregnant women to be honest with you. Can I do specialty nursing with only a BSN or do I have to have extra degrees and certifications? In this economy, can lawyers even get jobs? I know nurses can...is it better to get my ASN first then go BSN or should I just go BSN in one fell swoop? Does being a CNA actually prepare one for true nursing?

I know it's a lot of questions, but this has been bothering me for a long time

Specializes in Home Health/Geriatrics.
Honestly, if you are not interested in nursing for NURSING, you will likely not do well in a nursing program.

Why else would i be enrolled in a nursing program? it's not like it's going ot particularly help me out with law at all...even medical law...if i wanted to just be a lawyer right off the bat i'd major in psychology and waste my time being a waitress while i beg for work in a law firm...

and yes...i am confused...but i'm pretty positive that i'm going to enroll in the 4 year nursing program after i graduate

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I went to law school after obtaining my BSN and have been practicing law for 7 years now, so I wanted to share a few of my observations about the profession.

As other posters have said, make absolutely sure practicing law is what you really want to do. Also, evaluate how you want work itself to fit into your lifestyle. I was very fortunate after law school to get a great job practicing health law (not medical malpractice, but Medicare/Medicaid reimbursement, licensing, fraud investigation defense etc. for hospitals and health providers) making a six figure salary and I am still doing that practice full time today. I am one of those people that actually enjoyed law school and enjoys practicing law, BUT law, at least in my opinion, is an all consuming profession if you do it right. It isn't that lawyers that tend to be successful in practice are that much smarter than other lawyers, they usually just work harder (and by success, I don't necessarily mean money -- I mean lawyers that can get good outcomes for their clients). So, although I make a very nice salary, I easily work 60+ hour weeks, week after week after week. That wasn't so bad in my 20s, but now in my 30s, the time I devote to work starts to wear on me and my family. Being good at practicing law can really consume you and, at least in my experience, it is hard to find a way to provide more balance. I would certainly take a pay cut to work less, but that just isn't possible in a lot of practice areas. For most practices, it is an all or nothing thing.

Nursing, at least for me, provided a lot more balance. While shifts can be long and grueling, when they are over, they are over and you report to the next nurse and go home. You also have more control over how much you work. Believe me, when I think about 3 12 (or even 14) hour shifts a week, I long for those days sometimes.

One final thought -- the law is very competitive for a lot of practice areas. I was lucky that I got into a top tier law school, graduated in the top 10% of my class and was on law review. Those things make life after law school a lot easier. I wish I could say those achievements were all because of hard work, but frankly, although I worked very hard in law school, grades can be quite subjective and a lot of it is just luck and how you do, for most people, really dictates your career path.

Just wanted to share my thoughts and experiences with you for whatever they are worth -- both nursing and law are great professions.

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i'd major in psychology and waste my time being a waitress while i beg for work in a law firm...

That's rather pompous.

Trust me Agrippa, I know what being a lawyer entails...

It seems as though you are in the "know it all" stage of life.

I sense an attitude and an echo of elitism with your responses. If you have not worked as an attorney yourself, you do not know exactly what it entails despite how much you may have observed. If you ask for opinions, consider those that correspond with AND contradict what you hope to hear. An open mind and open eyes can go a long way.

Good luck in your endeavors and I hope you find your niche.

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Well...I tried. Kind of ironic i guess. I was in a similar position the OP was in. I even worked in a big law firm to "see what it was like." Yet, i still went to law school. The confidence of youth...ah well. Cant say I didn't try.

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Specializes in ED.

I have my BSN and I'm in law school right now. I agree that you should really know that you want to do both. There are a lot of wrong reasons to go to both law and nursing school. I have always been interested in law, but I wanted to go to nursing school. I like my job, but after working for a while I wanted to try my hand at law school. I think I'm more of an exception in the law school world, I'm not going because I want to get into a big law firm and make a ton of money, I'm going because I'm interested in it. I really like law school, and I tend to do better than the vast majority of other people there, who grudge through their day and hate very minute of it.

Personally, I would go straight to the BSN. You're going to need a bachlor's degree anyway to apply to law school. If you were not going to nursing school, then I would recommend majoring in English. Don't major in political science or history. You should take at least one course in government, one in business and one in logic. All of your other classes should focus on reading.

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Specializes in Psychiatric Nursing.

Not to sound totally nasty but it really bothers me when I hear of people going into nursing for just a few years just to pay the bills while they are pursing another career. :banghead: Nothing against all the other amazing occupations out there but with the limited available seats in nursing school now a days don't take a spot away from someone who is more likely to use it 10 years down the road. It would not bother me quite so much if the waiting periods to get into nursing schools were not so long and the fact that so many facilities continue to be short staffed without enough nurses to employ. The school I went to had and continues to have an 18month waiting period for a BSN and yet right down the street where I work we are often unable applicants to have adequate staff. Its a free world and you are entitled to do what you please but please keep this in mind when making your decision

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Specializes in ED.
Not to sound totally nasty but it really bothers me when I hear of people going into nursing for just a few years just to pay the bills while they are pursing another career. :banghead: Nothing against all the other amazing occupations out there but with the limited available seats in nursing school now a days don't take a spot away from someone who is more likely to use it 10 years down the road. It would not bother me quite so much if the waiting periods to get into nursing schools were not so long and the fact that so many facilities continue to be short staffed without enough nurses to employ. The school I went to had and continues to have an 18month waiting period for a BSN and yet right down the street where I work we are often unable applicants to have adequate staff. Its a free world and you are entitled to do what you please but please keep this in mind when making your decision

To be fair, I didn't go into nursing to "pay the bills." However, I don't know if want to be on my feet for 12 hours a day when I'm fifty. I know there are other areas of nursing that don't take as much dexterity, but I do want to broaden my horizons a bit, dip into some other areas out there.

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I never understand why it seems that some people think of others less of a nurse because someone is not at the bedside. i think a nurse/lawyer or a case manager or a educator as all equally important and every much a nurse as someone who works at the bedside. One of the most wonderful things about nursing is the endless possibilities.

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Specializes in Home Health/Geriatrics.
That's rather pompous.

.

Call it pompus all you like, but that was what i was really planning on doing for a while. That's exactly what I was planning in doing actually. Majoring in psych and then somehow supporting myself while i go beg for jobs before during and after law school. I've been told by lawyer friends that they had to waiter and bus tables while they were searching for jobs just so they could eat, i didn't want to wind up like that.

Sorry this might be going into another topic but...if there's such a high demand for nurses why don't the let more people into nursing program rather than making it so competitive? I truly don't understand that. There's a shortage of nurses....buuuut, we aren't going to supply areas with anymore...? Seriously...is it a quality thing?

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Specializes in Emergency.

to the original poster. im in the same boat. i too want to go to law school after nursing. i want to specialize in medical malpractice and possibly criminal law. i didnt read any of these long winded comments from people, so i dont know what they are trying to tell you, but i just wanted to let you know that you are not alone. you do need your BSN because you have to have a bachelors to go to law school. so if thats what you want, eventually get your bsn, if you're starting lpn first, study for the LSAT apply to a lot of law schools and see how it comes out. good luck to you.

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Specializes in Med/Surg, LTC, Rehab, Hospice, Endocrine.

Sorry this might be going into another topic but...if there's such a high demand for nurses why don't the let more people into nursing program rather than making it so competitive? I truly don't understand that. There's a shortage of nurses....buuuut, we aren't going to supply areas with anymore...? Seriously...is it a quality thing?

The main reason is that we can't pull qualified nurses out of healthcare facilities to teach those classes so more students can graduate. It's competitive because you can't get a decent nurse out of an overcrowded classroom/clinical situation. There are student/teacher ratios for that reason. And to be honest, not many nurses are willing to give up the flexibility and pay of a floor job to teach students. The stress that comes with teaching is a whole different ballgame from working the floor for your eight or twelve hours and going home.

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Specializes in Home Health/Geriatrics.
to the original poster. im in the same boat. i too want to go to law school after nursing. i want to specialize in medical malpractice and possibly criminal law. i didnt read any of these long winded comments from people, so i dont know what they are trying to tell you, but i just wanted to let you know that you are not alone. you do need your BSN because you have to have a bachelors to go to law school. so if thats what you want, eventually get your bsn, if you're starting lpn first, study for the LSAT apply to a lot of law schools and see how it comes out. good luck to you.

Thank you, it's nice to know that i'm not totally different and alone on this course of action :D

and thank you Kylea that makes a lot of sense now

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