I am considering going back to school for nursing. Currently I am a SAHM of 5 kids and homeschooling 3 of them. I previously was a Licenced Vet Tech and miss being in medicine/patient care.
My dilemma is that I do not want to go full time as my husband and I still want the kids to continue with homeschooling.
As a new grad looking at a hospital is it reasonable to hope for a night/weekend part time position or are these harder to come by as they have higher pay with the shift differential?
Some hospitals have straight night options, but as a new grad you would most likely have to orient to all shifts. They also usually want a minimum of 24 hours / week as it would take time before you would be comfortable in your role as an RN to work less.
When I worked in the hospital, all new grads were hired into 40 hr day/night rotation positions. Period. No flexibility whatsoever. Weekend program positions were highly sought after and not easy to come by. There were only 2-3 positions/shift. A new grad would never have been hired into one.
Have you looked into what is required of you for pre-reqs? Did you find a nursing school available to you that will allow you to attend part time? Have you really thought about the time commitment that homeschooling and attending nursing school will be? I see that you are researching what is available once you are a RN - but what is required for you to get there and is it possible while homeschooling?
OP, you can do prerequisites PT at your own pace, but most RN programs are FT only (don't know if this is true for LPN programs), and have weekday courses and clinicals.
Once you get through that, I can almost guarantee you will find a night position (really, most people want days so nights are more likely to be hiring), and chances are good you can work mostly weekends. Even if the position isn't specifically advertised as a weekend-only position, I think it's highly likely you could arrange to work every Fri, Sat, Sun, either directly through self-scheduling or by swapping. I would GLADLY work your weekdays for you to take my weekends.
PP are right in cautioning you that nursing is draining work. After 3 12-hour shifts, you are going to be exhausted. You also have to add in time to give report and possibly do more charting, depending on how crazy the shift was. Those 12 hours turn very easily into 13 or 14. If you work nights, you will need to schedule uninterrupted sleep time during the day when your family will not wake you.
So, I guess the answer to your question is that you can probably find a position that has the hours you ask for in the OP. But it's an unknown whether you will actually be able to juggle your job, your sleep/health, and homeschooling your children, after making it through the full-time studying and inflexible hours of nursing school.
Here we have the weekends plus option, where you work 60 hours a paycheck but are paid for 72. You are required to work every* Saturday & Sunday plus one extra shift during one week of every two week period. This is for both day and night shift. Many of our new grads are started in this program via a year-long Residency program. The only down side is that if you are a night-shifter I do think that you train on days for 6-8 weeks.
*This means 47 out of 52 Saturday and Sundays accounting for PTO.
Considering you are just in the thinking about nursing school stage it's a little premature to be worried about a work schedule as a nurse don't you think? If you are concerned about fitting work into a home schooling your children schedule, what about nursing school? Between classes and clinical's that most likely won't be at all flexible with their hours that will be the first hurdle to your scheduling issues.
Thank you veryone for your replies. There are actually 3 part time RN programs in my area that I will be applying too. I can do my pre-reqs online/hybrid at a close by college. I have taken most of them already but have to redo the sciences because it has been over 7 years.
I am aware that I am looking way into the future with this question but it would be a waste of my time to go through all the schooling just to find out I would have to work only weekdays.
As far as schooling goes for the kids we are pretty flexible for our schedule. I am also open to using an online program if we needed to for my first year of working if we needed it. There are many options as long as I am not working 5 days a week.
Also at some point my husband will cut back to working part time and would be able to be a part of school on my work days.
I do see that working a true 20hr PT position would be unlikely at first but I am encouraged to see that nights/weekends are likely.
Specializes in Critical Care; Cardiac; Professional Development.
You should know that nursing school is NOT part time, even if they say they are. You can tally up all the classroom hours and clinical hours, but they do not count in the time it takes to prep for clinicals, the hours you need to complete homework, the group assignments, the required community service many to most programs have at some point, etc. It is highly unlikely you will be able to continue homeschooling while going to nursing school yourself.
Not to be negative about things, but we need to forget about the OP going to school herself. I know of schools that have a part time option, but it is still a huge commitment with a lack of flexibility on some issues.
Exactly what I was thinking. School is a fulltime commitment regardless of full or part time status, and her kiddos needs may suffer. Nursing school is a 100% deal
Thank you veryone for your replies. There are actually 3 part time RN programs in my area that I will be applying too. I can do my pre-reqs online/hybrid at a close by college. I have taken most of them already but have to redo the sciences because it has been over 7 years.
I am aware that I am looking way into the future with this question but it would be a waste of my time to go through all the schooling just to find out I would have to work only weekdays.
As far as schooling goes for the kids we are pretty flexible for our schedule. I am also open to using an online program if we needed to for my first year of working if we needed it. There are many options as long as I am not working 5 days a week.
Also at some point my husband will cut back to working part time and would be able to be a part of school on my work days.
I do see that working a true 20hr PT position would be unlikely at first but I am encouraged to see that nights/weekends are likely.
Thanks again.
I'm glad you are getting some of the answers you hoped for, and it looks like you are doing your homework regarding the logistics. It's great your husband can scale back his work outside the home as you venture into the paid workforce. It sounds like it's really a team effort with the two of you equally dedicated to homeschooling your children.
As for nursing school, PPs are right in saying that "part time" can be very misleading. Do you mind saying how many semesters will the nursing program be? If it's 4 semesters, it's full time, no matter how they market it. I'm quite certain I spent more hours studying/reading than I did sitting in class.
And just as an FYI, I'm kind of LOLing here at the idea anyone would be forced to work only weekdays. For bedside hospital positions, that schedule doesn't exist...though many of us (and our families) wish it did! If we call out or take PTO on a weekend, we are required to make up the hours on another weekend.
And just as an FYI, I'm kind of LOLing here at the idea anyone would be forced to work only weekdays. For bedside hospital positions, that schedule doesn't exist...though many of us (and our families) wish it did!
It used to. 50/52 weekends/yr. Not a lifestyle for everyone obviously, but was generally beneficial for those who did it.
It used to. 50/52 weekends/yr. Not a lifestyle for everyone obviously, but was generally beneficial for those who did it.
Oh, I realize there are people who work only weekends. OP was worried she'd "have to work only weekdays." And I can only imagine how people would flock to a hospital that offered weekday-only positions - I know I'd sign up for all my weekends off.
City-Girl
102 Posts
Some hospitals have straight night options, but as a new grad you would most likely have to orient to all shifts. They also usually want a minimum of 24 hours / week as it would take time before you would be comfortable in your role as an RN to work less.