Grab your favorite beverage, pull up a chair and settle in front of the roaring fire...er computer screen. Share your stories, concerns and triumphs over starting nursing program, dealing with homework, balancing study +children + spouse, stingle parenthood + work + school, carying for parents + school, math anxiety,.....study tips and tricks, squeezing in ME time....
We learn more from OOOOOOOOOOOOPS moments than sucess somtimes.
Sorry to be topper, but I'm 51 years old!!!! This is my 3rd career and I'm lovin' life. I decided to get into nursing after my mother's 2 month hospitalization in the summer of 2006. I would go to the hospital 3x a day and almost doing the nurses' work. Why not get paid for it.
[color=#c04080]for those of us over 40, this applies well. and applies to all nursing students. pass it along to your fellow classmates they'll get a kick out of it. my classmates did and so did our instructors. do you think this would be a good prayer for our pinning ceremony?? ha ha
[color=#c04080]the student nurse's prayer
[color=#c04080]lord: i know we go through this every day but please give me the knowledge as to why i actually wanted to go to nursing school. lord, give me the strength to make it through those boring three hour lectures without falling asleep. lord, please give me the patience to make it through twelve hour clinicals with instructors that can't just give you the right answer and on the same note, give the nurses the ability to remember what it was like to be a student and give us just a little more respect. lord, give me the endurance to read all the assigned readings and be able to remember it when i am taking a test with four right answers. lord, give my family and friends the ability to realize i really am on the edge of insanity. finally, lord, give me the vision to see that one day i will be a real nurse and i will never have to wear this ugly uniform again.
[color=#c04080]for those of us over 40, this applies well. and applies to all nursing students. pass it along to your fellow classmates they'll get a kick out of it. my classmates did and so did our instructors. do you think this would be a good prayer for our pinning ceremony?? ha ha
[color=#c04080]the student nurse's prayer
[color=#c04080]lord: i know we go through this every day but please give me the knowledge as to why i actually wanted to go to nursing school. lord, give me the strength to make it through those boring three hour lectures without falling asleep. lord, please give me the patience to make it through twelve hour clinicals with instructors that can't just give you the right answer and on the same note, give the nurses the ability to remember what it was like to be a student and give us just a little more respect. lord, give me the endurance to read all the assigned readings and be able to remember it when i am taking a test with four right answers. lord, give my family and friends the ability to realize i really am on the edge of insanity. finally, lord, give me the vision to see that one day i will be a real nurse and i will never have to wear this ugly uniform again.
Hi All! I just graduated in August and I just turned 56 years old in December. I will be getting my BSN this May and starting the FNP program in August! Someone asked me why I wanted to do this to myself after a 30 year career as an MSW. I wonder myself sometimes, but I love a challange and I love an adventure. I had been a single mom and would have loved to go to medical school, but I didn't think it was possible and physically I had some major weight problems. I woke up one day and realized I could go to med school but I felt 50 was too old to start and that the weight problem would prevent me from being able to do the residency. So.....I decided I would become a nurse practitioner. I intended to do a direct entry program at Vanderbilt, but I was not accepted. Everyone told me that I should become a nurse first anyhow...so I did! I went to a great program at Southern Adventist University which was summers only. I completed many of my requirements for BSN before finishing my Associates program this past summer. Now I am just taking 7 hours and I will be through with the BSN in May. I am excited about the FNP program in the fall, but I am really involved in learning to be a good nurse, so that will be a big bite for me. I will be taking 6-8 hours per semester for the first two years and then what ever I have to take to finish up in the final year. By then I should be able to go PRN at work. Right now I want to learn to be the best nurse I can be. I just finished my orientation and will be on my own this Thursday for the first time. That is scary.....
Anyhow, just wanted to post since I am wayyyy over 35. If you don't think it can be done, let me tell you it can.
So many great stories, I'm 39 and divorced. I've been trying to get back into Nursing school for some time now. I have been accepted to my preferred school and I couldn't be happier.
But, my problem is that I have bad credit from the marriage and I can't get a private loan to help cover my expenses so I don't have to work a full-time job during school.
I even tried using my Gram as a co-signer and they still turned me down. Because of money, it looks more and more like I wasn't meant to be a Nurse.
Okay I can join here, I am a 1st year NS and I am 40. I will turn 41 in June and I will turn 42 right after I graduate next May. I have 3 kids; 2 girls and a boy 11,15,and 14. My son is part of the reason I wanted to be an RN. He was born with TGV of the heart and went to Vanderbilt for open heart surgery at 3 days old. I spent so much time at the hospital helping, I felt like a nurse already. I got my CNA when all my kids were in school and the hospital I worked for helped pay for my Prereq's. I haven't worked since starting NS and it's tight, but DH and I are managing. When I finally get this degree it will be the most money I have ever made at a job, I probably won't know what to do with myself! We will be paying off some debt at first, some of my school has gone on credit cards, but I plan to take my family to Disney World one more time before my oldest goes to college!:heartbeat
I can certainly relate to this thread! I worked for 28 years in the automotive industry doing environmental, safety and health management and our facility was closed due to the ever growing trend to move to Mexico. I took this as an opportunity to make a mid-life career change. I was never on unempolyment a day in my life, so I decided to go back to school when I was 47 and get my associates deree in nursing.
Talk about feeling out of place! Everyone who was at school are all young enough to be my kids. But you know what, I love going to school and I look forward to continuing my education to get my bachelor's degree. I will (hopefully) be graduating in May at 50 years old! I believe that I found a career that I will love, although it will be difficult, it will be so worth it.
I can't wait to get my life back together, since nursing school has been so darn challenging and time consuming. At least I can say that I did it!
I'm in my 40s and am in nursing school after a career in the business world. I wanted to do more to help people than I felt my career did in business. I think older students have some advantages over the younger students in that we have seen a lot of the meds/diseases in ourselves or our parents, maybe can figure out tricky questions better based on life experience and experience in taking tests, somethings may be settled in our lives while the younger students are just taking on the challenges of finding permanent relationships, living on their own, etc.
I have to say I am so impressed by the maturity of the younger students in the class (in fact, I think they are more mature than a lot of us older folks and I know they are more mature than I was at their age - maybe due to growing up in harder economic times) and also impressed by their hard-working behavior, intelligence and helpfulness.
hello....i fit right in here too....i am 45 and taking the LPN program.....and just starting thinking of going on for the RN.......maybe chip away at it....
i love learning and going to clinicals as well as school....i am the oldest in the class...:Dbut there are quite afew who are not far behind....hehe.....
i have been a stay at home mom for the past 20yrs.....and i thought it was time for ME....our yoiungest is 10 and oldest is almost 20.....
it was hard getting back into it all but so far worth it all!!!!
Going to nursing school has actually been easier for me than it has for my classmates with small children. Both of my kids are grown and no longer living at home. One is away at college, the other moved out of state last year to pursue a career.
The hardest part for me has been maintaining an adequate energy level. My body just isn't the same any more. Though I'm in great physical shape, I do tend to feel it more when I burn the candle at both ends.
I've also had to let go of most of the things I enjoy outside of class simply because I have no time for them. I haven't had a garden (not even a potted plant) for two years now, and that's really hard on this Nature-loving girl. I also haven't had time to quilt, or work on my house (I'm a home decorating fiend). I did pick up knitting, though, because it's so portable. I can knit a couple of rows in the evenings when I need to do something besides study or write papers.
Learning math wasn't too bad for me. I did need a review in order to take the ACT so that I could apply to nursing school. My kids tutored me in algebra and geometry and I actually did really well on the test. Medical dosage math seems like cake compared to that.
I do miss my family. Several of my family members live nearby, but I'm lucky if I see them once a week. My husband sees them more than I do and does his best to fill me in on the goings on in their lives. I do feel like I'm missing seeing my niece and nephew grow up, though.
I'm looking forward to the day when my free time is actually my time rather than study time.
:heartbeat
Cfitz
85 Posts
CONGRATS on your BSN!
I'm hoping to go from ADN (this May) to BSN in a year's time or so. I should be 45 or 46 when I finish. We are but babies. 