Going back to school to become a Psychiatric Nurse at 34 with 3 young kids?

[Mady0625]

I am 34 years old and have been out of the workforce for 7 years raising my kids. I have always been interested in Psychiatric Nursing and finally have the opportunity to go for it. However I have 3 kids ages 5,7 and 9 and with no previous post secondary experience I don't know what to expect! I have 2 friends who are RNs and one says the 3 year full time program is impossible with a family and they other says it's no big deal?!

I am looking for any information or advice on the workload, demands of the program and balancing school with family.

Thanks so much!

[chevyv, BSN, RN]

I did the 2yr program in 4yrs because I wanted to be home with my family more. It's a tough program and I'll be 41 this year. I have no regrets at all. Your babies will grow up so fast. School is there. If it takes a bit longer, so what. Nursing is the hardest program and add a family to that and its chaos. Not that you can't do it, but why hurry it along because of your age? I landed my 1month new job in psych and I love it! I wouldn't have changed a thing as far as going part time. I wish you the best in whatever you decide.

[Mommycakers]

I am 44 and did a 2 yr RN diploma program. I graduated May 2010. I just landed a my first job as a Psych nurse. My kids are now 12, 11, 6 and 4. What I did was I worked on my prerequisites for the nursing program at my own pace. I took my time. You could start doing that now by taking online classes. I think a lot of nursing programs want sciences to be within 5 yrs so you have to plan. Don't take them too soon if you won't be ready to enter a nursing program within that time frame. Also look into CLEP for testing out of courses if your nursing program allows that. It can save a lot of money.

I think what is key is having a great support system in place. My husband has his full time job but he was able to manage the kids so I could manage school. We worked as a good team. Well he mainly did everything and I helped. He got all the kids off to school and our youngest to daycare. He would food shop, cook, clean, boy scout leader, driver to kids different sports, kids doctor's/dentist appts., baths, bedtime stories and help with homework. He set up all of our schedules including each kids schedule and my school/work schedule in a Google calendar. The Google calendar kept us organized. We would get reminders sent to our phones to tell us where we had to go next.

The first year of nursing school was a little easier because I had one clinical a week and class time instead of two clinical days per week. I was able to still do everything like clean the house, laundry, occasional cooking, childcare and help with homework. The second year, forget it. I had two clinical days per week plus two classroom days and worked part time every other weekend. If I didn't have him I would not of made it through.

Good Luck and do what feels right for you.

[Noah'sRNMom]

I was pregnant with my first during nursing school. I had my son in the middle of a semester, and was back within a week to finish up because I was required to. Nursing school is hard, but doable. If you have the drive and are self-motivated. As someone else mentioned, work on your prerequisites first and try to do as many online as you can so you are not away from your family. Then, when you get accepted into the actual program, try to find one that has an accelerated or evening/weekend program if that fits your sechedule better than all days. That's what I did. Good luck!