Older Students - 40 +

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Specializes in Mother-Baby Pediatrics.

We are all nursing students, but some of us have come to this as a second or third career. Looking for age-peers. This forum is not a place to complain about, judge or idealize people of any age going to nursing school. Just to share experiences if you are a minority age (older) group in your class.

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This will be my third career so far I find nursing school the most challenging. I like my clinicals but I am always in edge with all this hard work in the end I always look forward to my pinning ceremony (God willing) aug 4. Did I mentioned I will be 41 in the fall;0)

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Specializes in ICU/ Surgery/ Nursing Education.

I think that you will find that many people here and in nursing school are "older". I prefer to be called well seasoned.... Out of my graduating class I was the oldest at 44 but 5/10 of us were in our 40's.

Anyway, I don't think it hindered anything, I felt it was a definite plus. We had so much life experience to drive us. This may just be my opinion though. The only thing that I had a problem with was staying up past 10:00 to study.

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Specializes in Hospice.
I think that you will find that many people here and in nursing school are "older". I prefer to be called well seasoned.... Out of my graduating class I was the oldest at 44 but 5/10 of us were in our 40's.

Anyway, I don't think it hindered anything, I felt it was a definite plus. We had so much life experience to drive us. This may just be my opinion though. The only thing that I had a problem with was staying up past 10:00 to study.

:roflmao: EXACTLY! Glad I'm not the only one. (I'll be 51 when I get pinned May 8).

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Specializes in Hospice, Palliative Care.

Good day:

Jesus willing, I'll be 53 when I graduate with my A.D. in nursing science after switching from being in the I.T. field for approximately 30 years.

Thank you.

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Hi! I am an "older" student. I'm 38, married, with four children. This is my third career (first two were education and librarian). I just started my RN program this semester and am very excited. The fun part...my husband is also doing the RN program alongside me! He is 41 and works as a Surgical Tech in Labor and Delivery. It is definitely going to be a challenge with work and kids, but well worth it in the end :) Nice to meet you all!

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Specializes in Mother-Baby Pediatrics.

I started this forum when I was in nursing school, and now I am almost done with my first year working the floor on a MedSurg unit (I am 49). I had struggles in nursing school with being older and having more world experience than my instructors (I had managed programs and traveled all over the world prior to nursing school and was used to directing things rather than being directed). I am sorry to say I had a really hard time in nursing school, but now that I am out, its easier to be different but be unified in a common purpose as nurses. If anyone else feels that way as a nursing student, hang in there, it all goes away once you graduate..:) Thanks for your comments

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Specializes in Emergency / Disaster.

Actually - tomorrow July 1 - the application process opens for me. I have been through a heck of a lot of crap in my life and none of it has killed me yet. I am constantly reminded of how many times I've thought of being a nurse (I even helped a friend through school - studying with her the entire 2 years of her program but had too many unfounded fears at the time to do it myself - mainly a tiny baby). If anything in my life would have been different, I wouldn't be the person I am today. I often catch myself thinking that I just can't compete with all these youngsters, when truthfully I am just as capable. I have done some really cool things in my life but I don't really have any medical volunteer experience to speak of (which the application pushes hard). I wonder if my real life experiences will be enough to get me into the school along with all these peeps who are proud of their 2000 hours of volunteer experience. I wrote a billing system for one of the first video phones, I've written a kan ban system for building airplane engine casings, I've performed hundreds of hours of research so that others could make multi-billion dollar decisions on my findings. I've worked in teams with people from all over the country in a bunch of different industries and somehow I almost always convince myself that a 20 year old with 2 years of pre-reqs and volunteer experience is more qualified. My daughter is 20 - and she is constantly amazed at what I manage to get accomplished on a daily basis (me too sometimes). I may be twice their age, but I have twice the determination. I know what I want and I'm willing to make sacrifices to get it. I also have people experience and personally I think that is where the volunteering experience is most important - getting you in front of people.

I too will be about 49 after my first year as an RN - assuming that all this works out for me. Thank you for the encouragement. I know it will be worth it. My only fear is that I can get into the school - that choice is out of my hands. Once I get accepted - I'm responsible for everything that happens from that point forward. I know I can study through school and get to where I want to be... I just need to get accepted in order to make it happen. These next few months are gonna suck... patience is not one of my virtues.

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I'm 47 and have two semesters left to compmete my RN. A classmate of mine is,48.

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I'm 41, and am doing a dual enrollment program that allows me to get my ADN from a local community college while taking my bridge to BSN classes at a university.

I have a background in various fields of public health and am looking forward to working in community mental health as a psych nurse, with the ultimate goal of becoming a PMHNP.

Being an older nursing student is often a lonely road - you're not as likely to be invited to study groups formed by younger students. On the other hand, the drama and bullschmidt of youth does not have as much effect on you either.

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I am 49 and have 1 year left. There are several non-traditional students in my cohort. I am not even the oldest! (Yay me lol) I have a BS in another field but decided to do the ASN program and just do a quick bridge online. I still needed to be a mom and felt the ABSN was not the best fit for me. Plenty of years to put my nursing degree to work!

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44 and about to go back to school for MSN and then nurse practitioner cert.

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