Getting your job to pay for your schooling?!

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Specializes in Trauma and Acute Care Surgery.

Hey guys!

I'm a senior level nursing student at a university in New York.

I intend on graduating with my BSN, Spring 2018.

Hopefully by then I'll have a job as an RN.

I have heard nurses say they know people who have gotten their hospital or organization to pay for their schooling (either a percentage or whole cost), to achieve their NP or DNP while working. Is this true?

Have any of you done so? - If you have, please describe your experience, I'd love to hear about it.

Thank You! :-)

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Specializes in NICU, ICU, PICU, Academia.

It's called tuition reimbursement, and is available in most organizations of any size. You pay up front- and the employer reimburses you for part of your cost after you complete the semester. Example, when I was working on my MSN, my employer reimbursed $2500/ year. Cost cutting reduced it to $1000/ year during my DNP program.

If you are envisioning getting an entire degree paid for- that is a pipe dream. You would do best to plan on nothing- and then be pleasantly surprised to get something.

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Specializes in Trauma and Acute Care Surgery.
It's called tuition reimbursement, and is available in most organizations of any size. You pay up front- and the employer reimburses you for part of your cost after you complete the semester. Example, when I was working on my MSN, my employer reimbursed $2500/ year. Cost cutting reduced it to $1000/ year during my DNP program.

If you are envisioning getting an entire degree paid for- that is a pipe dream. You would do best to plan on nothing- and then be pleasantly surprised to get something.

@meanmaryjean, DNP, RN : Thank you for your informative reply! And the reality check! lol. If you don't mind me asking; did it help you significantly?

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Specializes in NICU, ICU, PICU, Academia.

My MSN program - tuition reimbursement paid about a third- the rest came out of pocket. (Our family does not do student loans- ever)

My DNP program I only got $1000 in tuition reimbursement- but I got two scholarships which - all together- paid over half of the cost. The rest came out of pocket.

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Specializes in Trauma and Acute Care Surgery.

meanmaryjean, DNP, RN ,

Oh okay, wow, that's very nice for the duration of your MSN Program.

For the DNP program however, that $1,000 can only help so much - but as you said, the two scholarships you received covered over half of the cost, which is amazing!!!!

I might look into federal agencies for work, I just found out that they will reimburse whole tuition costs(excluding books, I believe).

Thank you!

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Nothings free though and while the assistance is great it's usually tied to some kind of commitment to remain at the job for a specified time frame which I think is fair considering the investment. It would be prudent to understand their expectations before committing to anything.

Every little bit helps, I was able to pretty finance my BSN this way but had to work an extra 4 months more FT than I would have liked starting out my FNP program to fulfill my obligation.

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Specializes in Trauma and Acute Care Surgery.

Thank you for your response; I definitely appreciate your input. Like you said, every little bit helps. Thank you! :-)

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