career change????

IndyElmer · May 22, 2012

There are SO many people in their late 20s, 30's, 40s and even in their 50's who are in nursing school right now. I bet many of them would love to have made the change to nursing sooner in their lives. I definitely don't think it's too late at all! (say's the 40 year old nursing student)

I wasn't happy as a research scientist and spent years being miserable and wishing I had chosen something more "people oriented" that could use my nack for science. At the time, I thought it was "too late" to change and now I wish I would have done it 10 years ago. I'm so glad I finally made the switch to nursing!

Stephalump · May 22, 2012

My name is Josh and I am currently a high school grad, class of 2011. I am a volunteer firefighter and a construction worker. The Emergency Medicine career field and emergency service has always been a passion of mine. However during high school I got sucked into and stuck doing welding and fabrication at our technical school. I am now regretting that and am thinking of going to college to get at least an associates degree in nursing and fulfilling my goal of being either a paramedic or getting into being an ER nurse. Some people tell me its too late to do it, but I say it's never too late. And if it's not, how should i go about fulfilling this dream?
Any guidance or information would be greatly appreciated, thank you for your time...

Too late? You graduated a year ago! I don't think you're even old enough to qualify for the term "career change.". It's called being young and figuring out what you want to do.

Have you considered becoming an EMT? You could see how that suits you pretty quickly, and a lot of community colleges have transition tracks from paramedics to RNs. Also, with an EMT cert you're super qualified to be an ER tech at a hospital, which would be great experience to see if it's what you want to do.

OR, you could always go to your local CC and get a list of nursing prereqs and take one and see how it goes. I recommend Anatomy and Physiology, all by itself, so you can really throw yourself into it and assess how you do and how you feel about it.

leenak · May 22, 2012

If Paramedic is what you want, I'd look into Paramedic programs. It depends what you want though. Nursing or Paramedic and there is no saying you can't do one then the other.

Bobmo88 · May 22, 2012

It's not too late at all for you, a lot of people start much later in life, I personally know someone who used to be a truck driver then a peace officer and started nursing school in his 50s! I'm 23 going on 24, starting nursing school in the fall and will graduate (assuming all goes as planned haha) when I'm 26 and all of my hospital co-workers say that I'm still very young so I would say don't worry.

First of all, I think you should try to focus on which path you would like to choose between paramedic and nursing because they are not exactly the same. (although I know of paramedics who have become nurses) I don't know if you are already an EMT but that would probably not only help you as a volunteer firefighter but it would also be one of the steps to becoming a paramedic and might even be a requirement for working as an ER Tech at a local hospital if that is something you're interested in. As far as nursing is concerned, look into some programs nearby and see what their requirements are. Some of the main pre-requisites for many nursing schools (if not all) are English Composition, Anatomy, Physiology (or A&P I and II) and Microbiology and all of these classes have some sort of pre-requisite. Some might also require classes like Chemistry, Speech/Communications, Psychology, Nutrition, Sociology and possibly even more for BSN programs. Best of luck to you!

IndyElmer · May 22, 2012

I'm sure you're going to get a lot of comments that it's not too late, so perhaps we could all help you to address the "how to go about it" part.

I agree that there's no reason you can't do one and then the other, so it's not really an either/or choice between paramedic and emergency nursing, though you may end up deciding that you only want to do one or the other. You'll need to get to know more about both careers so you'll know what the pro's & con's of each is (shadowing, volunteering and informational interviews are all good ways to learn more).

In the meantime, it's probably worth meeting with an academic adviser at a public community college that offers programs in both fields. (I suggest a public community college over private because I've had some shady experiences with some of the for-profit technical schools that are typically more expensive than public community colleges, but I know others have had great experiences with the for-profit private schools.) You may find that both have some overlapping requirements that you can start now while you do your research to help you narrow down which you want to do of if you want to do them in series.

If as part of your RN considerations, you're thinking both ASN (ADN) or BSN programs, then you'll also want to check with the academic adviser on the transferability of community college credits to the BSN program.

knighton201 · May 22, 2012

my nursing class had from new High school grads, to a lady who was in here 60's, never too late, have you possibly done some research into flight nurses? i understand they sometimes blur that line between emt's and nursing and get to do a bit of both, though that might have to be more of a long term goal due to experience required