Has anyone ever worked as a CNA while going to nursing school full time?

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In the fall of 2013, I will (hopefully) be going to nursing school at either UTHSC Houston or UTMB Galveston for their BSN program. I also want to move out of my parents' house though but I'm going to have to pay for my own apartment rent. I have also heard that being a CNA is good practice to be an RN and is recommended. I'm just nervous that I will be overwhelmed.

Has anyone ever had to juggle both? How did it go?

Thanks for yall's advice in advance!

I have been thinking about this lately too. I keep thinking how am I going to go to Nursing school if I have to work to pay the bills? My husband is disabled and isn't working so I am the bread winner of the family. Although, he does receive SSI. Is CNA pay enough to be able to live if I were to only work 20 hours a week? I'm starting my CNA program on September 2nd. I live in Fresno, CA.

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I worked 40 hrs a week as a CNA when I was in LPN school, and 30-40 hrs/week as an LPN when I was in RN school. To say it was hard would be an understatement.

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I'm working full time as a CNA and going to nursing school.

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I worked as a CNA & was in a BSN program. I don't remember if I was full time or not (I don't think so). I know of people in my class who worked full time as a CNA, but I truly do not know how they did it. I did part time because there was no way I was going to be able to study, work on assignments, & do outside clinical work while working full time.

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Specializes in Cath Lab.

I work as a part time monitor tech and supplemental PSN (cna) and am in nursing school full time. I don't have a family or husband and I'm pretty young so I'm able to manage my time well having 2 jobs and school.

My director is aware of nursing school and we set up a schedule that works around it.

It's great to work while in school because you get to feeling more comfortable in clinical because of the hospital experience, and then things start to click when you see a nurse doing something and you're like "ah ha! I learned that last week." It just makes school a more "real" experience.

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Im a floater and I just switch to weekends only so I can have time to study for my classes. Im doing lpn

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