Older guys like me, how did you get started?

brewerpaul · Mar 26, 2006

Man, you guys are all a bunch of young whippersnappers !

I'm coming up on 56 in June, and got the idea of becoming an RN a year or so ago. My wife is in a BSN program and the more I heard about nursing the more I liked the idea of doing it myself.

Here's the kicker: I'm a podiatrist who has been self employed in private practice for 28 1/2 years! I still LOVE patient care, but I hate what is happening to private medical practice these days. I spend more and more time doing bullsh*t paperwork tracking down referrals, dealing with insurance company bogus rejections, increased government regs etc than I do in actual hands-on patient care. Insurance pays less and less and there's more and more local competition to the point where it's tough to make ends meet. No way I'm ready to retire, but I look forward to working for someone else for a change, doing my job and taking my paycheck and going home, leaving the headaches behind.

I "challenged" into an associate's program in Jan and have been having a great time. 7 weeks of med/surg on a neuro floor, and just finishing up 3 weeks in a home for developmentally disabled kids. After next week, it's 4 of labor/delivery/post-partum. I'm loving the whole thing.

Tony35NYC · Apr 1, 2006

If you haven't yet maxed out your financial aid entitlement apply for as much free money as you can get from the feds, the state, and scholarships before you take out any student loans. Don't take for granted that the financial aid office at your school will tell you about all the opportunities out there. They wont. Go to the nursing department and ask them to give you information about scholarships and grants specific to nursing. And, even if you are not in a traditional ethnic minority group still apply for minority scholarships because I found out half way through nursing school that, as a male entering nursing, I qualified for minority scholarship money that I assumed I could never get.

Since you are serious about making a career switch, as someone suggested earlier, apply for a job at a large hospital and get them to pay for your nursing education. Most hospitals offer such a program to their employees in exchange for a work commitment afterwards. The commitment is usually only for a couple years, but the time goes by quickly, and once you have some nursing experience under your belt you can go whereever you want to from there.

gm7180 · Apr 2, 2006

I am turning 51 this month and just getting started towards becoming a RN. I also do not have the luxury of fulltime nursing school. I just did early retirement last fall and need to work to supplement the retirement income. I am lucky though as I am working in a support role at St.Johns Hospital. I have met with the Academic Advisor at SBU-St.Johns School of Nursing and she has mapped out a course plan for me taking two courses a semester. I will take four years instead of two years to get my ASN degree. I will be taking alot of my pre-reqs at the local junior college, which the Nursing school advisor picked ,since the credits will transfer. I have to do 15 hours of pre-reqs and will also have to take biology and one other course ,which do not count towards the 15, before I can apply to the Nursing program. I also have to be a Nurse Assistant for at least six months before applying to the nursing program. The other plus is that St.Johns is willing to pay up to $3,000 a semester once in nursing school, but you have to agree to work for them a year for every $3,000 they provide.

Sorry this is so long, but wanted you to know that there are options out there. You can get all your pre-reqs out of the way leaving only the nursing classes to take the final two years. It just will take a couple years longer to get the ASN degree.