From I.T. to a hospital job. Needing advice!

Nurses Career Support

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Hi guys! I'm new here, so go easy on me. Hopefully I posted this in the right forum. I'm Troy, turn 25 this month. I currently work full-time as an I.T. technician, and currently going to school part-time at a community college to get my RN (associate's). I currently have an associate's in IT, since no credits transferred, I am taking pre-reqs all over again (developmental math and even english! :mad:). I'm in my second semester now! I still live at home with my mom and trying to pay-off my vehicle so I can quit my current full-time job, and hopefully find something part-time so I can go to school full-time (confuse ya yet? :clown:). My main question here is what type of job can I get within a hospital that will give me some good hands on experience. CNA? EMT? I would even like to do transport (taking patients around the hospital). If any of those jobs, what is the best way to "get my foot in the door", considering I do not have any experience. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Heck, you can even give me some advice on life if my plan doesn't sound good...:lol2: Thanks for taking the time to assist me!

Troy

Specializes in Critical Care, Education.

Congratulations on your accomplishments thus far. I am really surprised that you are having to re-take core courses such as English but if you make a better grade this time, it will be all good... raising your GPA will really help with admission to a nursing school.

Larger hospitals usually have 'transporter' jobs that require little or no training beforehand. The job is self-explanatory.. moving patients from one department to another. It would provide you with an opportunity to familiarize yourself with hospital routines, departments, etc. CNA & EMT both require training and certifications... this would be an unnecessary side trip for you in your road to RN. FYI - EMTs are first responders - very few are employed in hospitals and when they are it is usually as a tech because they are not licensed to function in an inpatient environment.

I hope that you are prepared for the fact new RNs do not make as much money as IT techs and nursing is much more 'salary compressed' than IT. Have you thought about going into healthcare informatics instead? Still within the healthare environment, but with better working conditions and a much better career trajectory.

I had a nurse tell me about informatics, but it never curved my interest. I would like to get away from the IT field as much as possible, even though knowing I won't be able to escape the "computer" field since computer pretty much rule the world.

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