needing words of encouragement

[shall0829]

hi everyone!

So I'm not actually a nurse, I joined this board because I am currently a CST student and planned to go on to nursing after I graduated in august. I'm feeling more and more disappointed because when I see the kind of schedule most nursing programs have, I feel like it will be next to impossible for me to do. I have been in school full time for 3 years all ready, I just couldn't decide what to do.. I already hold an associates in liberal arts and will have an associate of applied sciences in surgical technology in august. my sweet husband has a wonderful job and has been so supportive of me aimlessly going to college until I figured out what I want to do.. and I thought that was CST but truth is... I hate it. Its not anything like I imagined it would be. I was totally duped by how my school presented it to me.. and now that ive been in clinicals for 25 weeks... I know what I want. I want to be nursing. I want that patient interaction. I want to be circulating. its such a good balance of patient interaction and important patient care that I crave.

the problem is, that my husband deserves to have me helping him financially after 3 years of him carrying us by himself (those are my words, not his). so I HAVE to finish this and I HAVE to take the job ive been offered... which means if I want to do nursing, I will have to be able to juggle it between some sort of work schedule, and the three kids I have at home (two are school age, and one is a year old). I'm just so upset and its all I can think about. CST will never be enough for me.

so for those of you who went to and completed nursing school against all odds... how did you do it? where did you go? is it totally doable, or are you a superhuman? just someone point me in some sort of direction that will help me

[Nurse SMS, MSN, RN]

It is doable but working full time AND caring for three littles means something will have to give. Either grades will suffer or kiddos will suffer or marriage will suffer or job will suffer. It is a lot of things in the air to juggle and you are only human.

I would work until all of your children are in school at a minimum. You may like being a surgical tech more once you are out of the academic environment. There is time to go to nursing school later on. I graduated from nursing school at age 41. I was similar to you in that I had an associate's in liberal arts prior to nursing school. My kids were teens and able to care for themselves if it came to it, which was a huge weight off of things. I am now 47 and have my MSN, so between age 39 and 45 I earned my ASN, BSN and MSN.

Your biggest angst is in telling yourself you need to go to nursing school right now. You are right in that you had your turn. You need to let hubby pursue his dreams as well. Nursing school will still be there after he gets his degree and who knows. Maybe he will earn enough that you won't have to work while going to school, or at least not full time.