Please Give Me Good Advice

[hoping]

My husband is 55 yrs. old and I have been encouraging him to study nursing. He has a degree in Psychology but is not working related to it. He doesn't like his job now and thought it really sucks for an educated person like him to be in a job he got. That is why I encourage him to study nursing and he may be able to finish in a short period of time since he had some subjects he took before that I am sure would be credited. He may find a better job. But he strongly believe that he is very old to study and very old to get a job as nurse if ever he study and finish it. He believes that it would be really hard for him to get a job as a nurse because of his age. Please give me a good advice. Thank you. :)

[graysonret]

2 students in my nursing class were in their 50s, and one was 60 years old. Now, I've been a nurse for quite awhile, and just turned 56. No one says I'm too old and I've got plenty of "good years" left in me. :chuckle

[cjcsoon2bnp, MSN, RN, NP]

If your husband thinks it will take him too long why doesn't he get an Associates degree, that will be quicker to get and with his degree in Psych. I bet he has most of if not all of the prereq. to the clinicals already done. Just be sure its he who wants him to go back to school and not you wanting him to go back to school.

[KatieBell]

He is surely not too old, and if he is interested in Psychiatric Nursing, there will be a lot of opportunities for him to work in that area.

However, if he obtained his BA/BS when he was 20, he may find that he has to retake all the pre-requisites, since many programs require that the classes be taken within the last 5-10 years depending on the program.

Good Luck

[mediatix8]

Haaaa I am 25 years old. I am a nurse. My first degree was a bachelor's in Psychology, and I was 23 years old when I graduated. I could not find a job. Oh wait... I found a job making 10 dollars an hour... but you didn't need a degree or experience to get it... all you needed was a high school diploma. Was this because I was too young? Oh no... it's because the job market doesn't care about people who have a bachelor's degree in psychology. School/college, despite what many people believe, is usually not a free ticket to a good paying job. I remember how I felt after I graduated from my psych degree. I felt that I was so smart, I knew all about professional research and psych theories, but all that was good for was a few good conversations over coffee with these people I used to hang out with that didn't work and lived at home with their parents at a nice ripe ages. Your husband likely has an interest in people if he chose to get a degree in psychology and it would really be worth mentioning to him that he could graduate from nursing school and work with psychiatric patients... using a lot of what he has learned all ready. He would only have to get an associates degree to be an RN and wouldnt need any extra school or training to work in a psych unit as a registered nurse. Anyways... you and your husband have to realize one thing. Nurses are in great demand. He could be eithy years old. Listen to what I say: exept for maybe 1 or 2 places, every single place I applied at after I graduated from nursing school has called me back for an interview. You will not find that with any other degree. Look at some job advertisements... many say they welcome new graduates. Where I work now, the job ad said they prefered experience but welcome new graduates and they were practically begging me to work there. They were offering me sign on bonuses and free travel. Big change from when I couldnt get a job that required college or experience. Those days are long gone. Now look at job advertisements for other professions... how many of them say that? TRUST ME- they wont care that he's 50 something... as long as he has that RN license and a heart beat- he will find a job very easily. I know he must be feeling discouraged with the whole job searching process from not getting what he wanted the first time. He probably is turning the reason for his failure inward, thinking he is too old or there is something wrong with him. He has to realize that it isn't him- it's just that you have to have what the job market wants, and the last time I looked, there was no psychology business that hired psych grads.