Does your school discourage working?

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Hey, so our school really discourages the students from working. It's kind of weird because how are we supposed to support ourselves? It's a fairly expensive program and I guess they expect us to survive by living off of someone else. They do this thing where we have 2 weeks In between semesters, and they don't give us our schedule for the semester until the first day of class, and since more than half of the class is working, it just causes extra stress because we don't have a scheulde to give our jobs to work around with any notice. We only have 8 months left, so I'm just going to suck it up and stick through

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My school also discourages working, luckily my job is super flexible...for now

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Our school also discouraged working. It's such a hard profession to study for since there is sooo much to learn. I worked my first time and failed a class. The second time I quit work , got rid of unnecessary stuff like cable and graduated second in my class.

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Specializes in Case mgmt., rehab, (CRRN), LTC & psych.

The nursing administration at my former school discouraged working while attending school. However, I worked 32 hours per week throughout the entire length of the program. As a single person with no spouse or partner to help with my bills, I had to support myself financially since no one else would.

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Specializes in Pediatrics, Emergency, Trauma.

Ah, yes...

Nursing school generally discourages working; however, when people have grown up bills we must do what we have to do.

Fortunately I had a job that was very flexible because the program was for working people, but we still had to put the effort in as a full time profession.

There was no way I was going to stop working; it was impossible financially.

Keep organized, hope you have a flexible employer, and best wishes.

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Specializes in Hospital Education Coordinator.

let me guess - private school??? The ones I have been around all think they are the only thing going and should be the center of your life. So antiquated. I would stick it out at this point and consider your life YOUR life.

There is one in my area who asked the Advisory Council how to attract more students. They did not like our reply that they should be more flexible in scheduling and offer online courses. They want a brick and mortar school like 50 years ago

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Some schools discourage it because they know that the program is hard. Time management is crucial. But if you're already that far into your program, I'm guessing you've got the hang of it :) I'm working 40 hours a week and currently taking 3 classes. gotta do whatcha gotta do. Good luck!

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My program does discourage working. We had our orientation today and they basically said, "Have a work conflict? Too bad, we don't care, get your butt to lecture/clinical." I understand it, because it is a rigorous program. They want everyone to succeed and they want their pass rates to look good. I'm very fortunate that my hours at work are flexible but many of my friends will be working full time.

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Our programs recommends working 16 hours or less per week. I work 24 hours a week and have been ok. However, some classmates who tried to work more than that have struggled. I think a lot depends on what type of student you are and how organized you can be with studying and homework.

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Our school does the same. I am in an accelerated program and we had 26 credits our first semester. I didn't work. I moved home and lived off of financial aid and tax refund. Ha it was hard, but doable. I was blessed with a grant this year that will help out even more (and I won't have to pay it back). Even though we had such a heavy class load there were many in our program who continued working. One girl worked full-time (doing overnights on the weekends) and still pulled off a 4.0. However, I am pretty sure she is having SVTs due to this. Anyways, many have done it and the reason they don't recommend working is because if they say that you cannot use working as an excuse for doing poorly in classes. Good luck!!

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Specializes in Hospitalist Medicine.

Ours discourages working in the accelerated program, recommends no more than 12-16 hours per week in the full time program. However, we have a part time program that's designed for students to work full time at the same time. Takes much longer to complete, but at least you're able to work. I'm in the full time program and I couldn't imagine working at all while doing this. I treat nursing school as if it were my job. I think my grades would suffer if I had to work.

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I will also say that I work as a CNA in home care. My company is small and family-like, and my boss is wonderful. They completely work around my schedule and even try to send me out to patients who sleep a lot so that I have time to study. I'm fortunate. If you must work, I would recommend a job in home care. (Just research the company first because some of them are really crappy to their employees.)

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