Experience This, Experience That...

TheCommuter, BSN, RN · Jan 8, 2015

While officials in charge of nursing programs advise students to not work while in school, this advice does not mesh with the realities with which many of us contend.

I was 23 years old when I enrolled in an LVN program and 28 years of age when I enrolled in an LPN-to-ASN transition program. During both of these times in my life, I was a nontraditional-age student with a mortgage, bills and other obligations that required money, so I worked full-time against their advice.

Anyhow, you could quickly get a CNA certificate and work as a CNA or patient care assistant (PCA). You could also work as a direct care staff member at a group home for mentally delayed adults. You could also work as a phlebotomy tech.

nurseprnRN, BSN, RN · Jan 8, 2015

Freshman year I didn't work during the school year (but all summer and vacations). Then I took a year off from college and worked full-time as a nurse's aide in a hospital geri women's ward; it was hard work but boy did I learn a lot, most importantly how to prioritize and manage my time in a patient care environment, take personal responsibility for getting to work on time (a challenge when I was 18), and work as a team member.

I went back to college a year later and worked 24 hours/week (three 8-hour shifts, 3:30-midnight), every weekend and one midweek, plus all my vacations and all summer my 2nd and 3rd year of school when I had to support myself. I took my senior year "off" because my new husband (who graduated a year before me, not in nursing) was earning more than the two of us had earned together in the previous two years combined.

My GPA rose gratifyingly. But not enough that I didn't have to take some grad level coursework as an unenrolled student to demonstrate that despite stellar GREs I could do graduate level work and apply to grad school. (aced 'em and made it).