Nursing school and a life?

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I am just about to finish my prereqs to apply to start spring '13. My problem is that people keep telling me I won't be able to work or have a life at all. My husband and I can't afford for me to quit working while in school and we have a 1 year old son and had planned on getting pregnant again soon (hopeful due date summer '13)I already in the medical field. I teach medical assisting core skills. I'm not afraid of patient contact and I am a pretty smart person. Am I crazy to think I will be able to balance all of this?

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Specializes in Emergency Nursing.

Yeah you are crazy.

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Then what has to give?

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It's honestly a personal thing what amount of stress you can handle while you are in school. But realistically for the majority of people working, nursing school full time, and newborn/2 year old just is not going to work. There is probably that 1% that could do it without going completely insane but the odds are very low.

Before I started I was a stay at home mom, worked part time (2-3 days a week as a sub teacher and a CNA) and took one class. Now, in nursing school I rely heavily on my family to watch my kids (luckily I have a great extended family) and I don't work at all. I went into nursing school at a community college thinking this won't be so bad (I had an unrelated B.A. and the workload wasn't horrible for that). I am so stressed out. Nursing school has changed my life, and not really in a great way. The only reason I can do it is that I know there is a light at the end of the tunnel. Some people have kids and work in my program (their kids are teenagers). Otherwise it's pretty much do one or the other, have small children or work... and not a cake walk either way. If you do both you risk failing courses and prolonging nursing school. I also should mention that I have an incredibly supportive husband who helps watch the kids after he's been at work for 10 hours so I can study.

I don't want to discourage you from nursing school because it is manageable, I do want to discourage you from putting too much on your plate and burning out or failing out of school. It's really not all doom and gloom! But it's very hard.

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You'll need to decide what is more important at what time. Something may or may not have to give.

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Specializes in Med-Surg, NICU.

I would hold off on trying to have baby in nursing school. And I would consider waiting until your child is in school before pursuing a nursing degree. I am single with no children and I don't have much of a life outside of nursing school.

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Well I don't work. I have three kids. My husband works afternoon shift and doesn't see the kids until the weekends. I had a very hard time managing cleaning, cooking, laundry, or any other activity that did not deal with school. Three weeks left before graduation and we are all alive and well, so I guess we did something right. :)

As far as having a new baby and balancing nursing school; it can be done, but what would you be willing to sacrifice to make that happen? Nursing school is expensive and very, very time consuming. Schedules have been known to change at the last minute. Missing time from school due to a sick kid is pretty much a no-no.

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Specializes in Oncology/hematology.

Can it be done? Yes. Can just anybody do it? NO!!!!! I know that there is no way I could do it. I have one child, no job and a very supportive husband. But, then again, I am only happy when receiving an A in a class.

In order to go to nursing school full time, I not only don't work, but my husband and son help out at home. I am mostly worried about the whole new baby part. What if things don't work out as planned? What if you do get pregnant, but later than you thought. Now, you're having a baby during nursing school? Will you have enough time to completely devote yourself to full time school, full time work and being a mom to 2 little ones? I just don't think it's possible. I could be wrong, but you can't actually make the day extend to more than 24 hours. ;)

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Specializes in ED/ICU/TELEMETRY/LTC.
Then what has to give?

1. Housework

2. All but the simplest of meals

3. Sleep

4. Social life.

5. New baby

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Specializes in Obstetrics.

You really do have to give nursing school your full undivided attention. I would get irritated when people would tell me 'you're going to have no life' before I started school. I always thought 'it is what you make of it'. It's the time management portion that is hard.... it's great that you have some medical background and that will help but the crazy clinical time, the fact that you will be so tired, you'll fall asleep in a chair after clinical or a 4 hour lecture about burns. You will have to depend on a lot of other people to help you with childcare and you have to be sure your husband is 100% for this and knows a little about what to expect. Dinner won't be on the table when he gets home... maybe a bag of McDonald's and some coffee left over from when you were studying earlier.

BUT, it is temporary. I just graduated in December and passed my boards last week. It's doable but you have to discover when the time is right for you. Two of my friends had babies while in nursing school; one over Thankgiving so she took Thanksgiving weekend to recover and was in class Monday. It's tough. Just think about it before you dive in with a new baby.

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Specializes in Acute Care, Rehab, Palliative.

You have to be prepared to put school FIRST.Missing a clinical day or a big exam because of a child/baby emergency will not fly.Make sure your husband is aware of this too.Balancing work,school, childcare,sleep and homework will be difficult when you have to put school first in order to pass.

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There are people in my nursing program that have kids, work, plus their school and some extra activities. However, these are also usually the people who are living off of 4 hours of sleep a day or have to come to class after being up for 24 hours straight and I really don't see how they fit in family time with everything else. I have 2 kids (they are 7 and 9 though so much older than yours) and I worked part-time during the first 3 semesters of nursing school. I was able to do all of that and still get through school but I only worked 1 day a week (maybe 2 if I was pushing it) and my kids are older and don't need me constantly.

What you need to remember about nursing school is that its not always hard. If your smart than and know a lot already than it means less studying which is great! Where it gets difficult to do it all is the time consuming parts of nursing school. Some nursing programs you are actually in class or clinical 40 hours a week, plus you have studying, plus you have to sleep, your life, work etc... My nursing school is not that many hours but their are some weeks that I am busy every single day and other weeks where I may only be busy 3 days a week. Even with a lighter schedule I don't always get to fit in family time as well as everything else. We actually had to make adjustments in our household so I could go down to 1 day a week when nursing school started and now I am down to not working. Also, with nursing school you don't always get things like spring break (I mean yah they are on the calendar but teachers LOVE spring break for clinical days and since nursing school I have not been able to have spring break at all) and summer break is not always built in with some nursing programs.

Overall you are going to have to look at your life and the nursing program you want and figure out if you think you can do it. Also, look at ways that adjustments could be made in your household for future reference. That way if you get to your last semester of nursing school and realize you have to stop working you all can still survive!

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