I am 95% certain that I'm going to pursue the LPN certificate at a local community college in 2015. I have a B.S. in geology and have worked in the environmental field for a number of years but for various reasons am strongly looking towards the LPN and eventually the ASN route. The area where I live has a number of jobs for both LPN & RN via ASN. I realize I could go straight to the ASN route but I really am leaning towards LPN first to gain practical experience before sinking time and money into an ASN.
The LPN program classes when school is in session run from roughly 7:30 am to 3 pm Mon-Friday for the first two semesters. Seems like the third semester is maybe (can't remember exactly) similar hours but only 3 or 4 days a week for a shorter summer session. I spoke with a rep at the community college I'm considering RE: working while in school and she indicated that they strongly recommend students not work or try to limit to a job to part-time.
Did your LPN school have a similar class schedule? Did you work while in school? Just curious more than anything.
I went to a school with a similar schedule. I think the DON of the program gave me the same speech regarding working and school, but sometimes its not possible to only work part time or at all. I didn't have someone to help me pay my bills. Mom and dad said I was on my own and I refuse to rely on anyone else. Anyway I worked for a gym, had to open it at 430am monday-friday, went to class, then worked for an insurance agency after school and on saturdays. Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights I bar-tended and waited tables at a popular bar and grill. About half way through my program I started working as a CNA again and worked second shift. Its all about time management and making the most of the time you have. Many people in my class had kids, went to school and worked. So its 100% doable.
My schedule was 8-4 non clinical days; 7-3 clinical days.
I worked as a tech on a Tele floor every other weekend; I was able to schedule a double during my Saturdays that I worked and kept Sundays eight hours. My off weekends were committed to additional study time.
I was an LPN then an RN. I worked full time as a pharmacy tech while I was in LPN school, then worked full time while I was in school for my RN. I decided to go the LPN route first in case I didn't like nursing, so I understand not wanting to invest a lot of time and money in something you may not like. (That was 20 years ago, and things have changed since then, so expect your options to be limited as an LPN.). Good luck!
I worked as a CNA prior to starting nursing school, and my last trimester in my LPN program I stopped working. I passed boards and then got a job very quickly at a local jail. Then I went back to school in the fall to finish my BSN . Worked about 16-24 hours a week. The last few weeks during my finals I did not schedule myself at all. I would recommend everyone to work while in school, and I'll tell you why: most of the interviews I went on as a new grad RN were impressed that I worked while I went to school. My current job even gave me credit for my years as a LPN and RN and so my starting pay rate was (a bit) higher than a new grad RN. Even if it's just a PRN job, it will look good on a resume.
The following is cut and pasted from a post that I wrote a few months back. Working and going to nursing school are not mutually exclusive ~ just be prepared and ready to do them both. Best of luck to you!
I decided to pursue nursing as a second career - something to work at part-time in my pre-retirement yrs. I already had a BS degree in my previous profession as a biologist. Going back to school at 56 - wow! I did so much better, straight A's, perfect attendance, I had total focus, and also worked about 20 hrs/wk as I phased out of my previous career.
Went through an accelerated LPN program (3 clinical and 2 class room days/wk) in 11 mos. A combination of day/evening/weekends classes/clincals.
What it took was organization and structure, with little, if any, deviation from scheduled:
* meal preparation for my husband and I (lunches, dinners)
* dedicated time for doing housework, laundry, grocery shopping
* dedicated time for the massive amt of studying for school. We were tested daily and could not get behind
* limited family/friends time. There were numerous events that I simply could not attend because of the above...
It was hard but I worked part time/Per diem. I had Class Monday-Friday 7am-3pm I worked Thursday Friday, Saturday and Sunday 10p-6a got off at 6am and went right to class. My night job was in residential mental health so all I had to do was sit in the living room while the kids where sleeping and make sure no one went awol or burnt the place down. It was super easy but hard to stay awake. When 3rd term started it got really hard and I had to stop working all together because I needed the sleep.
I went though an accelerated program that was 10 months. I was also a single mom and n the process of going through a divorce. Needless to say I was tired and couldn't wait for those 10 months to be over lol. Would I do it again...? Probably not.
Thanks everyone for responding, love hearing all the different backgrounds and how people went about.
I may not go LPN, May just go either straight to ASN (eventual bridge to BSN) or do CNA for experience then do ASN or BSN. Going to talk to an entrance counselor at the school I'm looking at. My grades for my geology degree were very low (there were medical and personal reasons behind them) which concerns me regarding ability to be accepted into a program.
My eventual mid term goal is to earn either ASN/BSN, gain experience in a hospital setting for a few years then focus on occupational health. My background in environmental work that I have enjoyed deals a good bit with investigating toxicological effects. Toxicological effects on humans and other living things. Occupational health nurse uses some of that knowledge and considers it in the context of work place exposure. Not set in stone, but that's my current thought.
Hafisch12
6 Posts
I went to a school with a similar schedule. I think the DON of the program gave me the same speech regarding working and school, but sometimes its not possible to only work part time or at all. I didn't have someone to help me pay my bills. Mom and dad said I was on my own and I refuse to rely on anyone else. Anyway I worked for a gym, had to open it at 430am monday-friday, went to class, then worked for an insurance agency after school and on saturdays. Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights I bar-tended and waited tables at a popular bar and grill. About half way through my program I started working as a CNA again and worked second shift. Its all about time management and making the most of the time you have. Many people in my class had kids, went to school and worked. So its 100% doable.