Working while going to school?

Nursing Students General Students

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My original plan was to get a ADN and then get a job working as a RN. It will take several years to get into the local community college before I will be able to start those classes. So I have decided that it would be best to attend the local university and just start classes for a BSN. I figured I could be about done with the BSN program for the wait I would have for the ADN.

I also HAVE to work full-time. But I'm starting to worry that working and going to school is going to be too difficult. Especially when I am doing clinicals. If you work in a hospital setting is it possible to use your "job" as credit for clinicals? I currently work as an apartment manager but was thinking about getting a job at a hospital.

Any ideas or pointers would be greatly appreciated.

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Specializes in Corrections.

I could be completely wrong, but I dont think your job time even if its in a medical facility can be swapped/credited as clinical time. I know that my school strongly advises not working while in the nursing program, the clinical times there are usually either 6:30 am-3pm or 7am-2pm but it can definitely be done! One thing you could check on is swapping the hours around. I have considered working an 11-7 shift at a nursing home close by onThur-Sat.

Sorry I wasnt of more help to you, Im just getting started myself!

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I seriously doubt that any school will allow you to use your job for clinicals, otherwise all of us who worked our way through school with healthcare jobs would have done this! You can work your way through school if you do your planning carefully. However, please take this bit of advice. Many schools give you lectures about how you can't work and go to nursing school at the same time. Keep it to yourself that you have a job. More than one student has been "failed" out of nursing school, not due to their inabilities, but due to prejudice when TPTB found out that they were holding jobs. Sad but true. Many nursing schools actively discriminate against students who work. So keep the info to yourself. Good luck.

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Specializes in Med/Surg, Tele, IM, OB/GYN, neuro, GI.

I know at my school you can't trade clinical hours for job hours. You can't even pick a clinical site at a hospital or facility that you work at because 1) they are concerned with the floor nurse playing favorites/resenting their fellow employees and 2) most nurses like to just assume that because you're a CNA at work and you do certain things for the patients that when you're on the floor you'll do the same things. They don't understand 9 times out of 10 that even though you're able to draw blood or start an IV while at work you can't do it during clinicals.

I'm guessing that you have no medical experince so if you got a job at the hospital it would most likely be CNA type work. Once you get past fundamentals you're CNA type skills are over and you start doing other things in clinicals like dressing changes, meds, injections, etc which most CNA aren't able to do because it is out of their scope of practice. Check with the hospitals in your area alot of them offer a CNA type for position for nursing students that they let you pick your own schedule. Some will even pay a portion/all of your tuition once you're in the program but you have to work for them a certain amount of time after you graduate.

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I seriously doubt that any school will allow you to use your job for clinicals, otherwise all of us who worked our way through school with healthcare jobs would have done this! You can work your way through school if you do your planning carefully. However, please take this bit of advice. Many schools give you lectures about how you can't work and go to nursing school at the same time. Keep it to yourself that you have a job. More than one student has been "failed" out of nursing school, not due to their inabilities, but due to prejudice when TPTB found out that they were holding jobs. Sad but true. Many nursing schools actively discriminate against students who work. So keep the info to yourself. Good luck.

I totally agree with this suggestion. It is frustrating when you hear the lectures that you shouldn't work while going to school...but unfortunately for many, there isn't an option. It's just easier not to admit to anything. I'm going to have to work full-time while I go to school, but thankfully it will be Friday/Saturday/Sunday nights and I'm off Mondays from school. I am, however, not going to say a word. The truth is that I will probably have more study time working nights than I would if I have the weekends off.I'll probably have at least 4 hours a night to study and if I didn't work...I would have more things to distract me. I also feel that I will have a wealth of information where I work...if a certain patient care concept needs further exploration, I've a number of experienced nurses whom I can refer to.

Kris

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Specializes in RN- Med/surg.

I worked full time nights the first two years I was in school. Once I started clinicals...I found it impossible...and cut down to 20 hours a week, and took out student loans to supplement my income. Noone can answer if it'll work for you but YOU. I agree though....keep it to yourself.

Our nursing program orientation...I felt like they spent 8 hours telling us all the ways to fail...and most came back to working. What annoyed me was....they said 85% of all of their failed students worked over 20 hours a week. I thought it was a manipulative statistic. Without telling us what % of students worked over 20 hours..it's incomplete.

Good luck to you. Night shift in healthcare might afford you time to study. I also found i got more studing done when I worked nights.

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Specializes in Family Nurse Practitioner.

Imo if you are making a decent living doing what you do now I wouldn't swap it for a tech position in health care while in school because at least in my area CNAs are only making in the $10 per hour range.

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When I started my pre-reqs and went to my first nursing seminar, they made it VERY clear that working and trying to do clinicals were near impossible. I was told that at the most you could get 16 hours because of all the studying and how time consuming clinicals are. Then they said if you have kids, send them to Grandma's or another family memeber, dn't worry about keeping your house clean, and to try to cook meals that would last a couple of days because cooking everynight will get exhausting.

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Specializes in Family Nurse Practitioner.
When I started my pre-reqs and went to my first nursing seminar, they made it VERY clear that working and trying to do clinicals were near impossible. I was told that at the most you could get 16 hours because of all the studying and how time consuming clinicals are. Then they said if you have kids, send them to Grandma's or another family memeber, dn't worry about keeping your house clean, and to try to cook meals that would last a couple of days because cooking everynight will get exhausting.

Yeah we heard that also. Its not far from reality but many of the students in my class worked and were very successful. Depends on the individual, imo. Good luck.

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