Nursing and Motherhood?

[JTW1120]

Hi everyone. Sorry if this a dumb question. I currently work in healthcare in a non-clinical capacity. I have a young child and I would like to stay home until my daughter starts school. I know that if I leave this career it's very unlikely that I will be able to go back so I'm looking at things that I could do in a few years when I decide to go back to work.

Can nursing be a career that is compatible with a family? Is there part time work available? How much control do you have over your schedule?

The consistent recommendation seems to be to do a BSN instead of an ADN because of the better job opportunities but if I'm looking at a career that's more compatible with family, does that distinction matter so much?

Thanks in advance for any advice.

[RNperdiem, RN]

Nursing can sometimes be a career compatible with family, most of us have kids and manage. It helps to have your child's other parent willing to do some of the heavy lifting to make life of 2 working parents possible.

The odds are that if you get into nursing, you will likely have to work nights, weekends and holidays.

Nursing jobs that have regular day hours are highly desired and hard to get, even for experienced nurses.

Most of the jobs advertised are full-time, but occasional part-time job postings show up. Per diem is usually available if you are willing to forego benefits.

Where I work, nurses do have some control over their schedule with the scheduling program we use, but sometimes the schedule has to be "tweaked" to make staffing work.

I don't know much about the whole ASN v/s BSN, but in many places there are more nurses than jobs, so employers can be picky.

[nurseprnRN, BSN, RN]

Can nursing be a career that is compatible with a family? Is there part time work available? How much control do you have over your schedule?

The consistent recommendation seems to be to do a BSN instead of an ADN because of the better job opportunities but if I'm looking at a career that's more compatible with family, does that distinction matter so much?

Thanks in advance for any advice.

Lot of us have families. :)

It absolutely does matter. I have found over the years that having advanced education opens doors to many more jobs which are inherently more family-friendly-- no weekends/nights/holidays, for example. Of course there are people with less education who work in MD offices or skin care clinics or whatnot. But they won't be in cardiac rehab, school nursing, public health, teaching, and many other options that are open to you if you have a BSN. Besides... your kids will be grown up someday (hard to believe, but gee, mine are...how the heck did that happen so fast?) and your BSN will open more doors for you then, too (get it now and you won't have to get it then).

Get a specialty certification (CWOCN is a good one, but there are so many) and you can go into independent practice and do anything you like/can afford.

[JTW1120]

Thanks. Do you need the BSN in order to get a specialty certification? I googled CWOCN and it looks like you can either be a BSN or an RN with a BS in another area. Is that correct? I have a BS.