Hi, I just joined the forum and I am taking A and P 1 and psychology over the summer, and very exited about it. I will have all the pre req's finished by next summer and hope to start the 2 year nursing program in fall of 2007.
I am also involved in local politics and am considering running for city council, kind of a stange combination. the elction would be august of 2007, right before school starts. Council is supposed to be a part time job but some of the councilmen say it is more like full time. the time is unpredictable and probably mentally stressfull at times. Certainly not a job where you could study while at work.
For those who are in school, is this reasonable or am I asking for failure to try to do these 2 things at the same time? It's so hard to get an answer as this is an unusual combination. (I am older and a good student generally)
From what I hear and read, some people have done it with several kids but that is different as well, and who knows maybe it is harder.
(I could work it out so that I could attend school and not have to work at all- which i know whould give me the best chance at success, I heard that a lot of people drop out becasue of being too busy.)
Just don't want to be a bad student and a bad council person.
I have no children and I am single.
Thanks for your help!
ps: another question: do nurses get good health insurance?
Working and going to nursing school..Honestly alot of people in my class did however as you get into the upper levels of nursing, plus doing clinical rotations, it gets tough. It depends on the program you're in..I'm in a 2 1/2 year RN AS program. I could have benefited from exposure on the hospital floor in preparation for the material. If your job is already in some aspect of healthcare you might want to try to juggle both.
Working and going to nursing school..Honestly alot of people in my class did however as you get into the upper levels of nursing, plus doing clinical rotations, it gets tough. It depends on the program you're in..I'm in a 2 1/2 year RN AS program. I could have benefited from exposure on the hospital floor in preparation for the material. If your job is already in some aspect of healthcare you might want to try to juggle both.
I agree that working in the medical field is a huge advantage. Plus lots of hospitals will cover your tuition for you.
Yeah but this is my pet peeve. My school requires a C+ to pass. Just wrapped up OB and Peds and only got a C. Now I have to repeat. I live in NJ but NY allows me to sit for my LPN (then apply for recognition in Jersey) however; my program will require that I switch divisions from the RN track to the LPN to RN track thereby adding yet another semester to my studies..Argh. Well for now guess I have to suck it up and repeat the course. One more to go after this! I would have liked to have gotten my LPN license just so I could work and gain more floor time.
That would have really bothered me. My school we just need a C. If I were you I'd just hold off on the test and retake the one class rather than take the exam and take another extra class as well.
Oh dear, I hate writing papers! I thought I was done with that after psychology. Yikes!
I am in my senior year of getting my BSN degree. Trust me, the papers never end and the studying doesn't either. I think a lot of people believe that clinicals are just clinicals. This is not true. Clinicals are usually accompanied by lectures that require hours of study time. I have, however, managed to work the entire time I have been in nursing school. Each semester I have cut back a little. I am down to only working 16 hours per week right now. Working any more than this would be impossible because of the fact that I am in clinical 30 hours a week and in lecture 8 hours.
In the BSN degree though, isn't it more of a workload each semester than the Associate degree workload?
I was told that at TSU (TN State Univ) the 1st year of nursing classes would have 6 hours of clinicals and some classes and then the 2nd year of the nursing classes would have 12 hours of clinicals and maybe 3 hours or 4 hours of classes. (I will have already taken all the pre- reqs and co-reqs aside from the nursing classes when I start)
What you have is obviously much more than that.
Tonight I talked with two BSN nurses who said that they got their masters while working fultime. I guess I might be able to make it work if I am completely organized with my time. Really depends on how fast a leaner I am with this material. I could really use a crystal ball! This is so hard to decide.
Specializes in Dialysis (All Modalities) , Ex-CVICU RN.
Well you can definately work as many hours as you can while doing nursing school.
We had 9 hour clinicals once a week and 4 hours once a week of instruction. I was able to squeak by my first year with 24 hours a week of work. Just had to keep up with the studying.
I know of several people who worked full-time and had small children while in nursing school. However, our class started out with twenty people, and now we are down to 14. I think that anyone who can work full-time, even without the children, is an amazing person. I've not worked any while in nursing school, and honestly don't think that I would have made it through the program if I had. Yes, there are definitely papers to write and hours of studying each day. Did you ask about health insurance in an earlier post? Our school does offer health insurance, but there's one drawback to it. They only offer it to people who are under 25. Unfortunately, I didn't fall into that category, and have been without health insurance the entire time that I've been in the program. I just consider this a leap of faith, and feel that this is what I'm meant to do. We start clinicals this summer. Our instructors have already warned us that the pace is going to pick up from now until the end of the program. I hope that some of this will help you with your decision. I know that it's hard being pulled in so many different directions. I don't regret any of the decisions that I've made. I love my nursing program, and look forward to the day that I will actually be called nurse.
I know people who have worked and gone to NS. I sure hope it's possible becasue I'm gonna have to work part-time if I want to keep eating.
It seems though your other job would be TOO demanding and inflexible to pair with NS. IMO, you would be a better candidate WITH that nursing degree and license.
joeyrose
5 Posts
Working and going to nursing school..Honestly alot of people in my class did however as you get into the upper levels of nursing, plus doing clinical rotations, it gets tough. It depends on the program you're in..I'm in a 2 1/2 year RN AS program. I could have benefited from exposure on the hospital floor in preparation for the material. If your job is already in some aspect of healthcare you might want to try to juggle both.