considering nursing school at 45 yo

[turtlesrus]

Has anyone else starting nursing school at the age of 45 or so? My youngest will be a senior in high school next year and my other two in college. I have waited a long time to go back to school. I wanted to know if others have gone back in mid life.

[kcochrane]

Went to LPN school at age 42. Currently working on my RN and should sit for the boards next Jan. - I will be 47. Just do it!

[kcochrane]

If I can devil's advocate here for a moment, is it healthy for the profession to fill it with a large number of second-career folks who will spend a thrid to half the time at the bedside as a conventional-college-age graduate?

Is it fair to that young person to be denied a first chance when the fifty year old is on the second or third? (particularly if the younger person is going to be of use at the bedside for so much longer)

I don't have horse in this race, and am not sure what the right tack is. A thread like this one tends toward circular reinforcement while skiping the hard questions that should be asked.

Happy Thanksgiving,

Pete Fitzpatrick

RN, CFRN, EMT-P

Haven't had the chance to read all the posts, but...there is no guarantee that a "young" person is going to stay in the bedside all that time either. The fact is that there is not enough nurses practicing to fill the gap. I think the last figure that I heard was that 1/2 million nurses are not practicing anymore - and I would guess a good many of those started nursing at an early age. It is easy to get burnt out for many reasons. I still have a good 20-25 years to practice, depending on the state of social security. I think that is worth the investment. :) A young person has just as much chance to getting into school as the older student. There are no points or advantages to being old. After being laid off, I had to do something to support my family and I had wanted to be a nurse my whole life. As someone else mentioned...welfare was not an option for me.