How do you work during nursing school?

LPMRN · Apr 14, 2009

SoCaliGirl,

You should get a schedule each semester showing the classes and clinical days. I attended school in TN and the classes and clinicals were Mon - Fri, 8am-3pm. It is not easy to work and go to school, but it can be done. I worked 30 - 35 hrs a week while I was in school.

Good Luck

missjennmb · Apr 14, 2009

I worked and it went perfectly until I ran out of resources to deal with the unexpected.

1. Do you get a pretty set schedule each semester of school that allows you to then choose when to work? We do school by 9 week increments meaning that our schedule changes every few months, so my work had to be flexible in that. I would sit down w/ the other secretary and figure out the best days for me to work given my school schedule and that would be written into the schedule which is done about 2 weeks ahead of time for the department.

2. Do you find that classes and clinicals take place mostly monday-friday? My classes have always been Mon-Thurs and this summer they will be Mon-Wed. However, make sure you keep time to study because my study time is a LOT more time intensive than my actual school time. We never do anything on the weekends. You can check with your specific school to verify this but most dont do weekend school unless they advertise as such.

3. If your classes/clinicals are all over the place, how do you figure out when you can work or what kind of job you can have? I specifically found a job that was student friendly by putting it right in my cover letter/resume. I got less responses, but atleast when I did get a job it was one that I knew would be flexible.

I'll tell you where things went wrong for me. I never anticipated things going wrong. However, I bought a car that was a lemon and it fell apart a DOZEN times, sometimes leaving me stranded on a dark country road at 6am on the way to work, and it was towed so much that the tow truck operator knew not only my name, but the names and ages of my 3 kids and where I went to school and how much time I had left. Then my children got sick. One had an undiagnosed food allergy that had her very very sick and vomiting on a daily basis, and the other was sick so much she had to have surgery to get tubes in her ears. I also had a horrific stomach virus. This all happened in the first 3 months of this year. If I had had someone other than just my husband to help with child stuff (almost failed clinical for going with my daughter for her surgery), had less contact with germs (my first absence leading to that almost failing was from having the stomach virus), and had more reliable transportation (at this point now in April I have no car and don't see when or if I will have another one), I would have been ok. Oh, also I drove an hour each way to work 4 days a week, which is 8 hrs of lost sleep/study time and that really hurt me a lot.

So long story short?

talk to your school about their hours but dont be suprised if they cant promise anything more than a quarter ahead of time
make sure your transportation is reliable and work as close to home as humanly possible to cut down on lost time driving
find a job that accepts that you are a student and can work around your schedule b/c whatever that schedule is, school is definitely not going to be considerate of your work requirements

NurseLoveJoy88, ASN, RN · Apr 14, 2009

i've seen a lot of threads about working as little as possible, people working part-time, and people working full-time during nursing school...and i'm just really wondering about the actual specifics of being able to work during ns.
1. do you get a pretty set schedule each semester of school that allows you to then choose when to work?
so far my schedule have been pretty set, however i'm taking a summer course that will require me to be at clinicals during the day ( i 'm in a weekend/night class due to working during the day), thus i will be leaving my day job because of this, and i'll be working nights.
2. do you find that classes and clinicals take place mostly monday-friday?
not really, so far i've only had clinicals on the weekends, it all depends on your program.
3. if your classes/clinicals are all over the place, how do you figure out when you can work or what kind of job you can have?
i try to find out as much as in advance of how my schedule is going to look. if in doubt i'll just have to ere on the side of me not being able to work certain hours. for example: my summer class will most likely have clinicals during the weekday, however weekend may be possible. so instead of waiting until the day before class to figure out my work schedule i've decided to put in my resignation now, so that i won't have to deal with scheduling conflicts.
i am a waitress and could pick one or two set days a week to work, but i'm worried that my school schedule would be all over the place and make it impossible. if most schools operate m-f, that would be even better because working saturdays and sundays only would give me the whole rest of the week to study.
most of the time schedules are not all over the place. each class may be different though. you should have plenty of time to figure out your work schedule.
thanks!

good luck with nursing school !

stephiec · Apr 14, 2009

I am going to be working PRN (pretty much whenever I can) for the hosptial I work for now. Sure, I won't have insurance or benefits like that, but at least I'll have a job.