Does your school discourage working?

[remotefuse]

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

[jordiRN]

Weird! My nursing school encouraged us to work in a hospital as a nurse tech after the first semester!

They told us working on the floor would give us valuable hands-on experience that would help is both in clinical and after nursing school when we apply to our first RN jobs. And I will say that those nursing students who worked in healthcare in some sort during nursing school were the first new grads to get snatched up for RN jobs after graduation!

[PVCCHoo]

Start nursing school this week. I work 45 hours a week or so. Super flexible job where I set my own hours and can choose not to work late the night before early classes the next day, etc. I am basically self employed.

Anyways, I have a wife, 2 kids and a mortgage, so giving up two years of income to go to school is just not an option.

Of course, my program discourages working as well. But on the first day of class they asked how many of us were already working at hospitals. Then they recommended the rest of us get jobs at hospitals to help with placement after graduation. Go figure.

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[Mommy_RN1211]

I think most nursing programs discourage working. I completely understand why however I feel my school almost looks down on you if you work. I have to work to support my family. I do believe it makes the difference between A's and B's but I finish my courses and pass. Do what you have to do and give it your best!

[marcbladebreaker]

A good college will discourage working during any program, but especially during a program as intense as nursing. It can be done but then again, so can climbing K2, but that does not mean that everybody can do it.

[Margotrita]

I work and I am in an accelerated program. My program prefers us not to work. I had every intention of not working once I started the program, but life didn't work out in the manner I had originally planned. My boss is letting me work flexible hours (evenings and weekends) and I am grateful. The only reason I can do this is the flexibility of my employer. I am stressed but it is what it is.

[CSTtoRN]

The traditional program at my school discourages working, however, I'm in a partnership program through my work with the same school. Everyone in my class is employed by my hospital system. We all work and many of us are staying full time. Luckily my school schedule works out great with my work schedule.

[bagface]

Ours also discourages working. However if you work at the hospital affiliated with them you get a 90% discount off tuition so -- why WOULDN'T you work with that discount? I work for a different hospital in an ER as a tech and I love it. I think my hospital experience brings a lot to my education. I feel far ahead of my peers at clinical. I can do a cath in less than two minutes, I can draw labs first try, I can interpret EKGs without using my guide book. I work per diem at the hospital though since I don't really need to work (my husband has two jobs). However I love what I do so I pick up 12-20 hours per week during the semester and go full time during breaks. If you ever get the chance at a tech job - take it

[ellaballet]

My accelerated program pretty much told us on the first day that if we tried to work we would fail out. Plenty of people in my program work part time and manage to make it work. Just get really good at time management and don't bite off more than you can chew!

[akulahawkRN, ADN, RN, EMT-P]

My program very much discouraged working at all, but said if you must work to keep it 20 hours or less per week. I worked 40 hours every week. Fortunately for me, the school schedule usually meshed well with work and when it didn't, there were people willing to swap shifts to make it work.

[augurey]

I wouldn't say my school necessary discourages it, but I don't think they really encourage it either.

I was talking to the director of nursing and she was explaining how clinicals will usually be on Saturdays (or Sundays if there is a Saturday scheduling conflict); however, some clinical rotations will be during the week (ie phsyc, home health, etc). They do provide sufficient notice for the clinical rotations during the week and they are flexible, but they do expect more flexibility with the student as they have chosen the program.

Basically, do what you need to do & we'll be flexible, but ultimately it's on you to be at scheduled clinicals.

I decided to quit my job because I know there would be no way. With it being an evening class, having a 1 year old, and my company not allowing part time, I know, for me, it would not have worked out. I know I wouldn't have been able to keep up.

[meeep, BSN, RN]

My school made us sign a contract in which we agreed we would not work more than 20 hours per week while in the program.

[KStudentNurse70]

My school also discourages working, pretty much tells us we'll fail if we work.