If you think you are "too old" to go back to school....

RNperdiem, RN · Sep 28, 2012

As more people started going to college, more college debt became a problem.

I'm not sure what percentage of people my age(40) are still paying off loans, but it is a factor to consider before going back to school.

nurse2033, MSN, RN · Sep 28, 2012

The great thing is if you're 102, I wouldn't worry too much about paying back loans.

RNsRWe, ASN, RN · Sep 28, 2012

The great thing is if you're 102, I wouldn't worry too much about paying back loans.

Or, if you are like this LOL, you'll get a scholarship at 102!

RainMom · Oct 5, 2012

Just last night, my husband & I were talking to a neighbor & learned that his mother went to school at 73 to become a CNA! She worked as a CNA until she was 80! How fantastic is that!!

JumpinJax3 · Oct 5, 2012

That is wonderful. It's better than sitting around. :)

taossantafe · Jan 16, 2013

DizzyLizzyNurse: This is a comment on your interest in archaeology and my involvement as a nurse/archaeologist: If you want to know what nurses have contributed to anthro/arch. then go to the Society of American Archaeology website, click about the society, click publications, then go to 2012, Volume 12, May Number 3, check the pdf on Lorna Tilley, a former nurse and public health worker from Australia.

I went into nursing because of a bad economy in the 80's. Even with a B.A. my chances in anthro were slim. It took burn out to put me back into junior college and courses in anthro. I didn't get the support from my colleagues, but I am better off as a person now. Nurses contribute to anthro in many ways. We have the know how on pathophys, nutrition, lifestyle, etc. We know what questions to ask. We are not afraid of going to the top people who write the research and question their work. We know about assessing, eval, and most important documentation, that's the key, etc. It's our life's work, and we do it better than anyone.

Field schools are expensive, so many junior colleges offer field classes in their area, means digging, shoveling, dirty work, snakes, ....we can handle that. It's frustrating with young classmates, who don't care, but the professors use you as a leader and will mentor you...they want older students who want to learn.

You can be an avocational archaeologist if not a professional one, your choice. Lynne Christensen, Joan Schneider, Lorna Tilley, Harriet Boyd Hawes, all public health and nurses.

Look up their work. I know more now about people and cultures: how they lived, how to differentiate stone tools, how to craft a projectile point from obsidian (flintknapping), faunal bones, plants, geology,

primates, evolution, genetics, etc.

It doesn't pay well, $18.00/hour, but get your foot in the door with an professional archaeology company and work. Keep your nursing job as well. The money is in a masters degree and teaching. Nursing comes in handy, archaeologists are not the safest people around.

I plan to go for my masters in anthro. in a couple of years. If you work at a university hospital, look into masters classes in anthro. you might get the discount.

I'd like to study the SW and hopefully osteology. The study of human remains is getting difficult, here in the U.S. we have the Native American Graves Protection Act, protects the remains of Native Americans, rightly so. However, remains of civil war battlefields, unknown cemetaries, are still being studied.

Talk to the professors and they they can give you more info. Good Luck, keep me posted. Anthro./Archae. has made me a better person, a better nurse, and has given me the opportunity to pursue research in osteology and ancient people.

MommyandRN · Jan 16, 2013

I would go back to school at age 102 too. If I had the money, and the time, and didn't have Alzheimer's and dementia, why not? It's probably keeping her brain sharp and giving her something to do.

The problem with going back now is, I have to then work in that job for another 30 years. With those loans and a full career ahead of me, it better be something worth my time and money.