Hi everyone...I have been teaching now for six years and have gotten bruned out. I now want to became a nurse but I am so scared to change careers. I have high student loans debt because I went to a private school to get certified and my Masters in education. I also started working on a leadership in education degree and racked up even more debt because I stop when I found out me and my husband was expecting our first child which turned out to be twins! My husband is very supportive in my career change decision but we both have concerns about when I will have to stop working to complete nursing school. He makes ok money but we have never had to live off one income before.
I just wanted to know if anyone out their changed their career at or after 30 or later, in a "bad" economy, with high student loans to payback and small kids (the twins or now 17 months).
Is changing career with all this going on a good idea??? And do y'all (I'm from the south) think the nursing field will have picked up by 2013 or 2014 (the year I plan on finishing hopfully)?
i have 4 links for you. the first 3 jobs are from a website called rat race rebellion. they have more professional job offers. the first two jobs are praxis (ets). then i found one from kaplen u that i thought you might find interesting. the last job is pearson. i found this one on work place like home website. you will have to click on the careers option and apply. i hope these help you to reach your dreams. life is too short to be unhappy with your career choice.
I can see why you would want out of teaching, but if you read the boards here for a while you will see there is plenty of 'crap" that goes along with nursing as well.
It won't take long for you to find out that nursing has its own share of downers, as most lines of work have to some extent. I would concentrate on getting rid of that debt load and building up a family emergency fund before I embarked on more education debt. You need to get your financial affairs in better order before you do anything. What if something bad happened to your husband tomorrow and his income was no longer there? Such life events happen you know. JMO
I want to add one other thing that no one has mentioned yet regarding the student loans. If you are in school full-time, they put the loan payments on hold until you finish school. You will still accrue interest on them, but I know the fact I am not having to pay mine right now is helping a LOT.
I want to let you know what it's like to be on the other side :-)
I am a RN, BSN I've been working in pediatrics for the past 5 years and I want to switch careers and go into teaching... elementary or secondary. I am soo fed up with nursing and all the crap that goes along with it. I am not passionate about nursing and cannot imagine doing it for the rest of my life.
As a nurse you will soon see the similarities between nursing and teaching...except now the stress involves life or death. If you think parents get upset over their child's education, imagine how they are with their child when it comes to illness, especially if it is serious...even if you work with adults, the families are the same. You are still dealing with unreasonable expectations from administrators too. Don't forget that as a new nurse you will most likely be stuck working on an off shift as well as weekends and holidays, and units are never properly staffed.
The pay is okay, but in my area after 10 years of teaching, teachers are making more than RN's....teachers get paid for their advanced education, staff nurses that have ADN, BSN or MSN are all getting paid the same.
I am not trying to discourage you, I am just trying to present some of the realities of nursing...If you really feel passionate about nursing, go for it!
I am subbing right now in a local school district and I love it! I am planning on pursuing my dream of teaching starting this fall. I know all of the crap that goes along teaching (my husband, best friend and 3 cousins are teachers)however, I am willing to deal with it because I truly believe it is what I should be doing.
I posted something similar.. not exactly the same situation, but I really understand where you're coming from. I think at the end of the day, you have to be happy. You have to be ok with yourself and then everything else will fall into place. The debt will be there if you're a nurse or not, and if you think you'll be happier as one, go for it! Especially because your husband is supportive. If you can swing it, do it. Good luck!
Thanks for the insight jk82 those are things that I hadn't thought of within the nursing field that is why I really enjoy this sight.
But on the flipside teaching (for me) is not my calling. I was hit in the chest, just yesterday, by a 1st grader and it took everything in my NOT to throw him out the window. I had to remind myself that he is a child and someone loves him. He is in the wrong setting (I teach special education but this student needs to be in a special education school not class) but with all the budget cuts he ended up in my class most of the day. I can say out of my six years teaching, that is only my 2nd time being hit. I have never been called out of my name but I have heard students call the principal and vice principal out of their name to their faces. I know you maybe thinking that it has a lot to do with the school I'm at and the type of students I deal with. I have been at three different schools and my first two years where at a high school. I left highschool because I thought elementary would be better. I was NEVER hit by a student in highschool just didn't like working with highschoolers. Because I have children I always ask myself would I want a teacher like me (not happy with their job) teaching my child and my answer is no.
At least when you are working with adults and someone is to hit you they go to jail or you can sue, not with children you have to take it, if you get hurt that is on you (your insurance, your time off). I feel like working as a nurse you are working with people who WANT your help and you are not fighting with people (kids) to take your help.
But if teaching is where you want to be go for it. Your expericence might be better then mine and my expericence might be better then yours. But I really did like your post. Thanks
I left off that the student that hit my yesterday kicked another teacher in the face her glasses were knocked into her eyes and she now has perminate eye socket damage. This happen at the begining of the school year and nothing was done to the student not evern a phone call to the parent.
I think you should switch to nursing if that is what you want to do but shadow a few kinds of nursing for at least ten hours each with an eye to seeing what it is really like.
Then, if it fits well, go for it but get your ducks in a row first. Learn how to live on just your husband's income and use all of yours (and maybe some of his) to knock off the debt and save up a stash to pay for nursing. Dave Ramsey's website tells how to do the debt part and some of the living on less part. You have to sift it out of the website, if you want it in one place, his books do that and library's often carry them.
I don't lightly say live on very little, but it is worth the results: so much security, flexibility, freedom, and financial gain by doing it long enough to get rid of the debt. For the most part, living that way is a matter of "different" rather than "worse" as far as what kinds of fun you have and so on.
You complained about getting hit by a child. We get hit by adults. I am 5 months pregnant and had a 71 year old patient attempt to kick me in the stomach last week. (I thankfully have been on my toes and she missed). But she was actually very strong. Additionally she scratches, attempts to bite, etc. Is she going to go to jail or have any sort of reprimand? No, she actually is a post-car-accident with a brain hemorrhage. She is not at fault for her actions as she is currently in an altered level of consciousness. Getting attacked is going to happen on the job, rarely, but it does happen, and there will typically be no legal recourse there either.
Student debt: you already have a lot, and it is very difficult to work during nursing school, some can do it, some can't. Nursing school would be another price tag. I am sure you have heard there currently isn't many, if any, jobs available in most parts of the country. There is no way to predict the future of nursing at this time, especially with any possible changes that could be implemented as a result of the new health care bill. It would be a shame to then accumulate more debt in the hopes of a new career, and then not find employment.
Nights/weekends: I meet so many pre-nurses who think they are going to pull off a mon, tues, weds 3 12's a week day shift schedule. No offense, but that is unrealistic. Most jobs expect you to work every other weekend, and most new nurse opportunities (if there are any) is usually on night shift. My first year as an RN , I have worked every friday night practically, every other sat/sun night as well. I have hardly had a full weekend off in a year.
Other time issues: By law, you cannot leave your patients in a hospital until there is a nurse to relieve you. So that's to say, if the nurse coming in is running late, or her car won't start, etc. You are stuck there until she arrives or they find someone to replace her. I have had many 12 1/2 hour shifts turn into 13 1/2 or 14 hours when I had to be back the next night.
Additional study time: You will not be grading papers when you get home from work, but as a new nurse, there is still a learning curve. I spent a lot of additional time going over new resources and information. There was a lot I was not exposed to as a student, and I had to make up for that on my own time. Many of the other new grads I trained with had the same problem. And things will always change in nursing, new medications will come to existence, new procedures, new equipment. There will always be additional learning required, and not of all it will be paid hours.
Appreciation: sometimes we get it, sometimes we don't. Though we are usually the ones blamed for things that go wrong, families see us the most. I think more often than not they tend to have this idea that all our time and resources are for them. I would say families are one of my least favorite aspects of the job.
Stress: I think the most stressful thing that can happen is when you come on your twelve hour shift and see that the code cart is next to your patient's room. That means they probably coded, or are very near coding, and that will be your mess to deal with on top of anything else that could happen during your 12 hour shift.
There are a lot of things I like about the job as well, I do not regret nursing. But I do not think it is meant for everyone. Just trying to give you a little bit of perspective.
As the others have said, I would work on getting your current debt down before I made a big commitment for a career change. I would also attempt to shadow and interview some nurses prior to the commitment. Investigation prior to investment is never a bad decision.
I too would agree that you need to get your debt close to $0 before starting school again. What financial institution would even lend to you with student loans like that. You might be paying an extraordinarily high interest rate. Try getting your CNA certification over the summer and get an idea of what nursing is really like.
You sound like me. I just starting taking pre reqs(which i wont be done til summer/fall 2011). I have a 21 month old and a baby on the way in 3 months. I will be 30 in 3 months. My husband and I have student loans as well as other financial obligations. I am also nervous about the thought of leaving my secure government job(that doesn't pay enough/I work with people that have been there 15-20 years and they don't make but a couple thousand more than I do-therefore my secure government job never will pay enough) My husband is sure he wants one more child. But the main factor for me being sure I want to pursue is that my husband is 110% supportive of the decision. I have simply made a plan to pay out of pocket for my ADN and after I receive my license so and RN-BSN online once I begin working. I don't know why we think 30 is too old to start over in our careers. I guess because I have been so complacent with where I have been. I barely made it out of undergrad with a marketing degree that is doing NOTHING for me and my goals. Good Luck to you. You are making a wise decision. I have even made a timeline. I won't even have my RN until 2013, but anything worth having is worth waiting and working for. Again Good Luck to you. Reading these types of posts give me hope and encouragement knowing that I am not the only one with this situation that I am in.
**And to add-I am not pursuing Nursing because of money. I like being in public service. I care about helping people and I have learned that about what kind of person I really am. I would no doubt be an asset to the hard working, diligent nurses in the world today.
I have high student loans debt because I went to a private school to get certified and my Masters in education. I also started working on a leadership in education degree and racked up even more debt because I stop when I found out me and my husband was expecting our first child which turned out to be twins!
My husband is very supportive in my career change decision but we both have concerns about when I will have to stop working to complete nursing school. He makes ok money but we have never had to live off one income before. 
And do y'all (I'm from the south) think the nursing field will have picked up by 2013 or 2014 (the year I plan on finishing hopfully)?
mmoton
10 Posts
Thanks Melanie 19877 for the positive words and teaching is a never ending job.
damrcngrl95 I'm glad to know that there other teachers who feel my pain about the crazyness of teaching. I would love the links to apply for the jobs.
Thanks