Career change - teacher to nurse stories and advice

[fitzelliott]

Hi, as the title says I’m seriously contemplating a career change into nursing.

I went to school for premed and after two unexpected and devastating deaths in my family junior year, I took a leave and then couldn’t bring myself to go into the medical field anymore. 

I just really fell into teaching and have been an elementary teacher for 8 years. For the past 5 years I’ve been thinking and off thinking I could do it…but as I approached my 30s I felt my “time” had passed me by.

Now, I’m SERIOUSLY thinking about it and have been in contact with local ABSN programs. I know what I’m getting into because I know an accelerated program is ridiculously intense. Covid teaching has accelerated it and as the media says teachers ARE leaving and it is just as dire as they say. I’m over children and the lack of accountability for behavior while I’m expected to do magic 5 days a week.

I just want to hear from people who were teaching and the whys and how you left and how transitioning into nurses was.

In a way I may be jumping from the frying pan into the skillet because I know everything that is/has made me lose my somewhat joy of teaching is in spades in nursing - hella toxic administration, toxic direct coworkers, the petty, the gossip, understaffed, overworked, underpaid, too many students, ungrateful patients/parents, no breaks, no time to eat, sit down, go to the bathroom, verbal abuse, physical abuse, etc. I know all the negatives are the same as teaching.

I know there are many joys as well.

I’m not naive into it…though please correct me if I am or wrong about the flexibility. As a teacher I’ve ALWAYS wanted to move grade levels because I enjoy the variety and seeing the development and being well rounded. Well, admin in education is toxic AF and if they think of you as XYZ you can NOT leave that. Or you have a good uphill battle to. I doubt in nursing you’re stuck on the psychiatric floor because those nurses are hard to find and “you’re so good taking the punches and building relationships with the families” what I heard as a special education teacher and in interviews over the years trying to reel me back into those positions. 

I’m open to speciality moving forward sure and look forward to it. 

But overall, as a still single woman, teaching really is a career for someone with a well paid spouse. I don’t want to move into admin…I haven’t played the politics to do that and that is the only way to leave the classroom despite having the degrees or certifications. 

Medicine was my first love and not want I simply fell into. I prefer having more frequent time off vs a straight 5 days and barely a weekend. My sleep habits are out of whack due to 8 year of chronic stress so I’ve been living on 2-6 hrs for years so all of that doesn’t bother me.

My stress tolerance is acute stress and physical stress.  I’ve been in chronic mental stress and exhaustion and those two for my own well being are the worse.

The school year is about to start and I’m about to work through the science prerequisites I dropped in college and never went back to and am giving myself time with August 2023 or January 2024 my goal to finish this year and then either as an ABSN start date. 
 

Fellow nurse teachers…how did you do it? If you did it recently 2015 to present please chime in!

[chemteach]

you'll notice my username is chemteach, actually made an account here when I was a teacher looking to get into nursing. I was a high school biology and Chemistry teacher before I went to nursing school. Teaching actually gives you a lot of skills necessary to be a good nurse, and I felt very prepared to talk to patients and other healthcare providers in nursing school and once I was in the field. I actually went back and taught high school again for a couple of years after getting my nursing degree, I taught a high school clinical rotations class which I really loved. Now I'm working on my PhD and teaching at a nursing school. Nursing education is a Big Field if you ever want to return to teaching in a different environment. I eventually went back into academia because I didn't like working nights, weekends, and holidays.