Job Advice for a Pre-Nursing Student

[littlepunjabi2008]

Hello, as a 31 yr old female, I recently decided to make a career transtion from business to nursing. I got my BBA (bachelor's in business managament) and now starting taking pre-requisites at a local community college. Recently, I got laid off from my full time job (non-medical related) and am having a hard time landing a job to give me hands on experience to build up my nursing resume as I continue to take classes part time. Can someone give me some sound advice as to where I can begin in my job hunt to to make sure this is the right transition for myself. What sort of jobs should I be targeting/applying for? I sincerly appreciate any feedback that could help give me more clarity. Thank you.

[studentbear, CNA]

I would look into working as a caregiver or perhaps a receptionist at a hospital, assisted living facility, or in-home care agency. Caregiving you will be working alongside and/or under the direction of nurses and directly with residents/patients/clients, whereas as a receptionist you probably will not work with the nurses at all, but will get practice with multi-tasking.

For caregiving, you can either do in-home care or work in a type of facility (assisted/retirement, long-term care, or hospital.) In a facility, you are going to be on your feet for most or all of your shift, multi-tasking, and working with a variety of residents. The work is VERY fast-paced and the shifts are 8 hours, usually 6am-2pm, 2pm-10pm, and 10pm-6am. For agency work, you will focus on working with one client at a time, usually in their home, so not much multi-tasking is necessary. They let you set your availability and then they find shifts to work around it, but the shifts are rarely 8 hours long, so you may find yourself working a lot of split shifts. But, those types of hours are very accommodating to school.

Good luck on your job hunt!

[mursesomeday]

I agree with the above commentor for sure. I'm in the same boat. I was "displaced" earlier last year and am currently taking two prereqs before starting the program. I'm currently going through the interviewing process to be a nursing assistant at a local hospital. The way I figure it, that will give me exposure and patient care experience which should help during school and hopefully help me to get a job in the long run. The shifts are going to be killer starting out, but it is what it is.

[studentbear, CNA]

The shifts are going to be killer starting out, but it is what it is.

Expect to sleep more and your feet to kill for the first week or two, but after that, you'll be doing great :) New Balances saved my feet!