Published
Please feel free to post any comments that you have right here in this discussion thread by clicking the "Post Reply" button.
I was 20 when I started LPN training. I was 21 two weeks before graduation. Went back and received my ADN when I was 40. But my mother did one better she graduated with her LPN when she turned 55. She altered her birth certificate and drivers license to get a job because no one would hire a new grad that was 55. Yes she did look younger than her age. She had many years of life expereinces that made her a very seasoned nurse upon graduation. She had to go on disability at age 62 from COPD. She stated her only regret was she hadn't done it sooner. I love being a nurse and wouldn't do anything else.
I graduated from an AD program in 1976 at the ripe old age of 19. Have been in nursing ever since. After more than 20 years in the ICU, got an undergraduate degree, but in Biology, not nursing. Had this brilliant idea to somehow combine the healthcare background with the coming biotech revolution. Was hoping to go on to grad school and get a dual MBA and MSBiology to further my probabilites in this field. Ended up with a Masters in Public Affairs this year. I've since found out that most of the opportunities in my dream field are going to PharmD's. Research will be my "pre-retirement" job, if I can find someone to hire me. In the meantime, I'll probably get back into school for an MBA or an NP ...as soon as I figure out what I want to be when I grow up. If I had my way though, I'd end my career the way I started it...at the bedside somehow, where the true reward is.
By the way...my mother was a nurse as well...graduated and entered the field at the age of 52...this may not be unusual in today's world...but this was in 1968!
Peace to all, and I pray everyone's families are safe tonight.
I was 20 when I became a CNA, and didn't start nursing school until I was 25. In March of 1999 I had full-filled enough requirements in my 2 year RN program to sit for the LPN boards in New Hampshire and passed, then graduated that same year and waited until September to sit for my RN boards and passed those. Still loving it!!
Totone656
78 Posts
I stayed home and raised 2 great sons. After working as a receptionist at $6.35 an hour I decided I had to do something. So, I signed up for a medical transcription course at a local community college. I was 39....8 years later and a story to long to go into I got 2 degrees and one licence. I do not regret going to college. I just regret some of my personal choices I made to get to this point in my life, but hopefully those choices help improve a nursing department for the better.