Can I become a Nurse at 40?

Nursing Students CNA/MA

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I am currently a Certified Medical Assistant and a Certified Nurses Assistant. I do PRN work as a CNA for an agency. I enjoy working with people. It would be great to become a Registered Nurse but I now wonder if it is to late. I just turned 40 years old.

I recently received my certification in medical assisting. The job market seems saturated and no one will give you a chance if you don't have over a year experience. It is a little frustrating.

I would love to do more to help people.

My circumstances are a little challenging because I am a single mother of 3. My youngest is 2 and she is my little "Downs" baby. I am waiting for her to enter the school system in order to possibly start my dream.

Am I too old?

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No my dear your not too old, but you do have a long and challenging road ahead of you. I admire your spirit and your perseverance. I am 47 and just finished CNA school and now I have to retake my skills test for the 2nd time. Hang in there and follow your heart, you can do this!!!!

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Never too old! While you are waiting for your baby to become school age, work on the pre reqs needed for nursing (if you haven't already). Keep some schools in mind, check their requirements for their particular programs, and also find out which entrance exams are needed. Good luck!

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You are far from old! I graduated with someone over 50. That is still young in my eyes. You can and will achieve your goal when the time is right. I agree with a PP about completing your pre-reqs while you are waiting for your youngest to enter the school system. It will make your road a lot smoother to get these courses out of the way sooner rather than later. There are many threads on going back to school as an "older" student that you might find of assistance.

"You're only as old as the woman you feel."

Best wishes. 

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There are people in their 50's and 60's who attend RN school, so no, you are not too old. You just need to figure out how to balance your personal responsibilities with the challenges of nursing school. You can do it if you set your mind to it.

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Specializes in Emergency Department.

OP: You are younger than dead. Therefore you're not too old! As caliotter3 has stated, you must simply balance your personal, educational, and employment responsibilities... and that's not often all that simple. I'm now 41 and I earned my RN license about 4 months ago and I'm now looking for a job. It's tough going, but that's true for pretty much all new grads.

If you choose to make this happen, stay resolute and make it happen.

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Thank you all for giving me so much sound advice. To touch on the prerequisite advice; I have completed some courses already. They were apart of the course work to complete the MA degree. So I just need to sit and talk to someone to find out what is left for me to do. Just a little scared with a lot of passion.

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This is my first comment on this site. You are NOT too old. I just turned 52 and am hoping/planning to finish everything for my RN early next summer. I don't know if anyone will hire me, and I wish I'd decided to do this years ago, but I'm not letting age stop me. Forty is NOT too old, and don't let age worries stop you from pursuing your dream!

I don't know that much about the various nursing schools, but I would recommend looking into online learning as well as the traditional types of schools. Online learning might work well for you since you could do a lot at home while your kids are young.

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This is my first comment on this site. You are NOT too old. I just turned 52 and am hoping/planning to finish everything for my RN early next summer. I don't know if anyone will hire me, and I wish I'd decided to do this years ago, but I'm not letting age stop me. Forty is NOT too old, and don't let age worries stop you from pursuing your dream!

I don't know that much about the various nursing schools, but I would recommend looking into online learning as well as the traditional types of schools. Online learning might work well for you since you could do a lot at home while your kids are young.

Online learning is sound advice for completing the rest of your pre-reqs. It is flexible and as the PP stated it would allow you to be home with your young children. However, your actual nursing courses and clinical must be completed in the classroom at this point. If you are completing your ADN, then, later down the line you can complete an RN-BSN program online.

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I turned 40 a few weeks after I started my first RN job. I don't think it is too old.

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I started nursing school at 33 and I was afraid I would be alone, but as it turns out, there were plenty of people who were late 30's into their 40's in my cohort, mixed in with the spring lambs, of course.

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Specializes in Geriatrics, Dialysis.

No, you are not too old. Look at it this way...you can be 40+ and a nurse, or you can be 40+ and not a nurse. Either way, you will still be 40+ so go for it if you want it!

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