This is my first post, but I am curious....When I finish nursing school (if I even get in) I will be 62 years old. Is there anyone out there in the same situation? I am currently struggling through Physiology, and am not sure I can get the required B, but I don't have a lot of time to waste taking it again. Do you find learning is harder because you are older?
This is my final dream, to become a nurse. Done everything else I have ever wanted to achieve, but this just might be not possible.
Hello ladies! I usually lurk around looking for threads such as this but just found this one. Yay! I turned 58 in March and will be graduating with my BSN this December. What a ride. I have seen posts from folks over 50 but I love the over 60s since I'm fast approaching and planning to do FNP, hopefully at Frontier, next year. School has been much more irritating than I imagined so we'll see how my motivation holds up .
Kudos to all of us who are willing to finally follow this dream. It looks like the nursing market is picking up so I'm putting the mojo on all of us that we'll find jobs right away just because we're so cool. Hope to see posts from others who have posted months ago to keep us abreast of the progress. Pinning is Dec. 6th. Happy nursing!
I am sorry to say this but I referred one of my coworker and she didn't get the job cause of her age, in her late 50s. It does happen and will always be an issue.
This is my first post, but I am curious....When I finish nursing school (if I even get in) I will be 62 years old. Is there anyone out there in the same situation? I am currently struggling through Physiology, and am not sure I can get the required B, but I don't have a lot of time to waste taking it again. Do you find learning is harder because you are older?
This is my final dream, to become a nurse. Done everything else I have ever wanted to achieve, but this just might be not possible.
Thanks
I just turned 60 in April 2013. I just got my LPN license in August of 2013 after passing the NCLEX-PN on the first attempt. I have been a nurse's aide in a busy metro trauma level one hospital for almost four year. I am now in the process of enrolling in a LPN to BSN program at a local university. You are never too old to do any of this. Watch your health carefully and take care of any health issues. Stay engaged and active mentally and practice critical analytic thinking. Look for learning opportunities wherever you can find them. Incorporate those into your body of nursing knowledge. I will probably do home care nursing and/or assisted care nursing as an LPN while I am in school to get my BSN. I am not quitting my aide job because I have worked there over seven years and have excellent benefits (health insurance, PTO, credit union, etc) and don't want to give those up for my family's sake as well as mine. The acute care hospital experience and contacts are important too, even as an aide. Will I be busy with lots on my plate? Of course I will, but like the saying goes "Been there, done that". Just know that yes, this is all "do-able". Just depends on how badly you want it, and what trade-offs you are willing to make in your life to make it happen. Best of luck to the OP and to all of you out there who are taking a stab at this later in your life. BTW - I didn't take a medical or nursing class until I was in my mid-50's, even though I had a BS that I'd earned in my twenties. Take as many classes as you can online (I have) and don't sweat being the only "oldster" in a class of early twenty somethings if you have to go that route. Yes it's a hardship but it's only temporary until you get your nursing license.
I too am an older student at 57 and will be 62 when I graduate from Nursing School (BSN program). I went to LPN school first and have been an LPN for 15 years. I wanted to go back for RN for many years but since I have to work full time, I wasn't able to because the programs were full time, day time. This year, thanks to allnurses.com, I found out about Brenau University in GA which has a PT BSN program and I started back. I have several pre-reqs to take, the Kaplan nursing entrance exam. I have applied already to the nursing program and they keep your application on file and when you plan to take the pre-reqs and you update it if you have to make a change in your plan. When you have completed your pre-reqs and Kaplan, then they look at your overall GPA and A&P, Chemistry, Eng 102 and Micro GPA along with Kaplan score and consider you for the program which starts in January of every year. They decide in December after Fall grades have been submitted. So if you do more classes than you planned to, you can update your application and be considered sooner. So far I have taken Human Growth and Develpment and am scheduled for Abnormal Psychology and Art Appreciation in Fall. Even though I am an LPN, it is not a bridge program so it will take me 3 years to do the complete the program once I start. I don't know if being an LPN first in an BSN program would help you get in. I guess it depends on the school. My school doesn't take any of that into consideration, it is all based on numbers (GPA/Kaplan Score). It could help as far as having the clinical experience but there are a lot of people who go to nursing school right out of high school with no medical background whatsover and graduate. Nursing classes do not transfer. If you do go for LPN then doing an LPN to RN bridge program would be the quickest way to get your RN and you are not repeating that first year of nursing classes and if you want to go on to BSN then you can do an online RN to BSN program.
As far as age, I am so glad you started this thread because there are times, I ask myself am I too old to do this but I say why not. As far as bedside nursing, there are positoins in doctor's offices and health insurance companies where it is less stressful than hospital nursing. I currently work for commericial insurance company doing prior auth reviews and I want my RN so I will be able to move to other positions that require an RN.
I suggest not taking more classes than you can handle and take all your pre-reqs and then apply to the nursing program. Your GPA is important in getting into the program, and taking too many classes at one time jeopardizes your obtaining the highest GPA you can to get in. Once you get in to the program, your classes will follow the program and if you only have nursing classes to focus on, you will won't be as stressed (didn't say not stressed, because nursing school is stressful) but you have to do whatever you can to lessen this stress and only taking our nursing courses while in the program can help.
Sometimes I get excited about moving forward and start thinking about doing more classes, but I have to slap myself and say, no what are you thinking.. you work 40 hrs/week and only have afterwork and weekends to do class work and the classes I am taking are 7 week classes which are faster paced. Hope some of this helps you in your endeavor to pursue your goal of becoming a nurse.
This is my first post, but I am curious....When I finish nursing school (if I even get in) I will be 62 years old. Is there anyone out there in the same situation? I am currently struggling through Physiology, and am not sure I can get the required B, but I don't have a lot of time to waste taking it again. Do you find learning is harder because you are older?
This is my final dream, to become a nurse. Done everything else I have ever wanted to achieve, but this just might be not possible.
Thanks
Physiology class and other nursing courses are darned difficult!
Like other groups affected by prejudice, elders tend to identify with the traits society ascribes to us (doddering, forgetful, infirm, ready to be put out to pasture, etc... UGH!!!!) The first challenge is to forget all that, to simply not believe it. We must educate ourselves first about the reality of living in our later years in the 21st century. We are not the same as our grandparents or even our parents. We have benefitted from tremendous advances in medicine, nutrition, and education. Perusing the current research on the effects of aging will reveal a hopeful picture. Keeping your brain active and challenged (yes, you CAN do physiology) will only help prolong your productive years. We need to support each other too, to counteract the all-too-prevalent attitudes of ageism in the young and not-so-young around us.
I'm with you in the age-group category. Graduated in May 2011 at age 64. Though that used to be retirement age, I think you will find that more and more people are taking on new challenges for this last phase of life. We look at our parents living well into their 80's and 90's. Who can afford to retire comfortably, or even wants to spend the next 20 to 30 years puttering in the garden or doing mundane volunteer work? As the saying goes, 'been there, done that'. I took early retirement from another career and had a good 10 years of doing lots of different things before going back to school to become a nurse.
I would love to have a forum with you older new grads and nursing students, especially the 60+'s. I've been trying to find such a group since joining allnurses! I will now work my way through this thread and try to connect with all of you old new nurses. :)
Haa...The kids in my class sat in the back last week and we overheard them asking each other if they could figure out how old me and my lab partner are. lol. Not that old but today my partner was cracking up complaining about her aches and pains and being 100!
I'm 20, but one woman in my BSN cohort looks about 60. She just retired from a long career and I guess she just wants to learn to be a nurse - it's not for financial need, from what I can tell. She is really fun to have in class and asks smart questions.
Loved your post.. appreciate that you are an older student in BSN program too. When will you graduate?
If all goes well best case scenario and all that jazz, I should be done in about 16 months. I have already taken nursing school prerequisite classes like anatomy & physiology (2 semesters), chemistry, psych 101, english 101 & 102, microbiology, algebra, etc. and have gotten mostly A's with some B's (no C's) for a GPA of 3.71. So I should get credit for that and not have to take a lot of basic level stuff. We'll see what they give me credit for and what in their estimation I have to take. The biggest issue for me is not the academic - I've proven to myself and others that I can handle the academics even while holding down a full time job. The big question is how I will pay for it all. I won't take out loans even for something like this, partly because of my age and partly because now just isn't a good time for anyone to take on more debt because of the bad economy. The school I have enrolled in has an LPN to BSN program so it will just be LPNs in whatever cohort I am placed in. And they have a sort of pay-as-you-go option for paying for your classes, which I hope to use. I am counting on the added money I make as an LPN to go to financing my further education. So me and my family's lifestyle and level of living probably won't change much right now even though I do have a nursing license. But I am always looking ahead with everything I do right now geared toward how it will help me get to where I want to be down the road a few years. Best of luck to you in your education and career efforts. BTW - allnurses.com is a great resource - I have been a member since 2008 when I first started taking nursing related college classes.....
I'm 20, but one woman in my BSN cohort looks about 60. She just retired from a long career and I guess she just wants to learn to be a nurse - it's not for financial need, from what I can tell. She is really fun to have in class and asks smart questions.
A lifetime of experience will do that for you - make you realize that there's a lot you don't know, and ask good questions. Most of us in that age bracket aren't doing it solely for economic reasons - we have spent our entire lives working for money and to pay bills - we're now looking for something that makes a difference to humanity. God bless you
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God bless you
ERICA57
44 Posts
Myra, you can email me directly at [email protected],. I'm happy to share my experience such as it is!