Going from plumbing to nursing

[CareerChange2010]

Hello,

I'm a 26 year old guy and i'm halfway through a plumbing apprenticeship program. I've been laid off twice already with no prospects of work in sight. everyone keeps telling me to get into nursing and that i cant go wrong in health care.

I agree, and seriously considered the nursing field years ago. Stereotypes and my youth made me shy away from it, and go for other things. Now i'm completely sick of this dead end industry. there's just too many plumbers and not enough work. I've reached a point in the apprenticeship that i only have to go to school at night once a month. I fully intend on finishing the plumbing program and getting my license, but I am going to go back to school starting this summer. Looking back about 7 years into the past, i realize that i am about 1/2 to 3/4 finished with an associates degree so i'm practically starting with nothing. Do you guys have any advice? I think i'd like to be an E.R. nurse, or do something in a fast paced environment. Id wanna do my best to avoid maternity and O.R. any pointers you guys can give me would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

[mccartjm11]

Im in a fairly similar situation. Through my early/mid 20's i worked in construction and found it was extremely inconsistent. I had a degree in psych but was not using it because entry level jobs in psych did not pay nearly as much as i was making. I had every intention of going to grad school eventually. Then back in about 2008 the floor fell out of my job and i was forced to use my psych degree. I ended up in a hardcore mental hospital doing about 4 restraints per day and watching people get thorazine IM's all day. It sucked. I persevered and ended up being shift coordinator on the peds unit after only 8 months (there was a high turnover). I found that i envied the nurses. They sat in their little station writing notes and calling doctors and making $30 an hour while i was making $14 an hour and under much more stress. So instead of going to grad school i started nursing school last year at the age of 27. So far i have a 4.0 and im finding the academic work fairly easy. The main problem i ran into was that they did not accept students part time. I was about to buy a house, work full time, and attend school part time. But I ended up having to move back in with my parents (oh the indignity i feel like such a loser sometimes) because i can only work about 20 hrs per week max (more lke 16) and I cant support myself on that. Nursing school is a crap load of work ill tell u that. Be prepared to make major adjustments. And i have a few years experience working in an estrogen soaked environment at my psych jobs. At times it will rot your soul and suck the life out of you.