Overcoming Challenges to Becoming a Nurse Later in Life

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Hey all,

I just wanted to tell my story about the route I chose to become a nurse, and the challenges I had to overcome during my journey. I chose to change careers at 36 years of age, with a family and children at home, and it was not easy. I absolutely love what I do, and as difficult as it was to get here, I would go through it all again if I had to. So now I'm hoping that by telling my story, I can help and inspire others who wish to become a nurse as well, but for one reason or another think they cannot.

Now for a little bit of backstory. I have always been interested in healthcare; even as a child I remember watching reruns of "Rescue 911" and thinking about how cool the doctor's and nurses were. I dreamt of one day joining that field myself... however, life took me in a different direction.

I have always considered myself relatively smart, but like many teenagers I grew bored in high school. My grades were never "bad" per se, but they weren't scholarship level, much less medical or nursing school. In order to be able to afford to go to college, I joined the military. I ended up in a telecommunications field, which suited me just fine. After my 4 years were up, I was approached by Sprint and took a job with them. Telecomm is were I stayed for the next 14 years.

During this time I was still fascinated by all things medical; I still loved watching medical TV shows (House M.D., Trauma Life in the ER, etc), and I constantly thought about making a change. I had several friends who went through nursing school, and I would help them study for tests, and once they graduated I would listen to them talk about how much they loved what they were doing. However, at this point I felt too old to go back to school, especially for medical school or nursing school. Plus I had a mortgage, a wife, kids, etc... How would I afford going back to school? Also, nursing school takes up an incredible amount of time, how would I find time to go to work?

After spending a few more years spinning my wheels at my telecom job, feeling unsatisfied and unfulfilled, I finally decided it was time to make a choice. After speaking with my wife and with advisors at the local community college, I decided to just go for it. I started by signing up for my nursing pre-requisite courses, such as ethics, college comp, philosophy, and anatomy and physiology. I took 2-3 courses at a time, and they were all mainly online. This worked best for my work schedule. Many community college offer online or hybrid courses, with other classes offered at a variety of times including evenings and nights; this allowed me to still work full-time while going to class. My days were busy and exhausting; I'd work for 10 hours, and then go home to do 3-4 hours of classwork every night. It was tiring, I missed spending time with my family, and sometimes I felt overwhelmed. But I was beginning to work towards my dream, and I kept with it.

After a year of prereqs, I applied to nursing school and was accepted on my first try! I was ecstatic; my dream was one step closer. But now the hard part was about to begin. Nursing school is NOT online, and I would have to be devoting a minimum of 20-30 hours a week between class and clinicals. My first step was to figure out how to pay the bills.

I spoke to my job, and explained the situation. It was nerve-wracking to say the least. I was telling my current boss that I needed my schedule rearranged to allow me to go back to school for the next two years... at which time I would be quitting to start my new career. I was worried my boss would just fire me since I would be leaving anyway, or would deny my scheduling requests. But no... they wished me the best of luck and said that as long I continued to do my job as well as I had been, then I would have my job as long as I needed it, and they would assist with scheduling in any way they could. Fantastic!

And then nursing school started. It was HARD. Some days I would get up at 4 am in order to get to my job at 5am... I'd work until 8am, leave for nursing class from 8:30am until 4:30pm, and then I'd go back to work from 5pm until 10pm. Clinical days were even tougher; I'd work from 5am until 1pm, and then go to clinicals at the hospital from 1:30pm until midnight. Exhaustion is an understatement; I was a zombie.

However though it all, my family was amazing. I set up my schedule so that even though I would be incredibly busy Monday through Saturday, I would always try to have everything done so I could spend Sunday's with my family. This one day a week became incredibly important to us as a family, and it felt like a reward to me for all my hard work.

My two years in nursing school went by in a blur. My fellow students became some of my best friends, and the patients I met during clinicals would change my life. I devoted my entire life to those two years of school, and while it was exhausting, challenging, and sometimes incredibly frustrating, I made it through. I graduated near the top of my class, at the ripe age of 38. I was also accepted into my dream job in the ICU/CCU of the local hospital. I just started in July of this year, and I could not imagine myself doing anything else.

The point of this story is to show anyone that is considering becoming a nurse, that no matter the challenges, it can be done, and it is worth it. For many, it will not be easy; like it was for me, it may be the most challenging and difficult thing you have ever done. You just have to devote yourself fully to the idea of becoming a nurse, and use that motivation to push through the difficult times. It definitely takes dedication and focus. .. but becoming a nurse brings so many opportunities for career advancement; you can work in hundreds of different subspecialties, and you can go anywhere in the country and find a job. You can work in an ER or ICU, or you can work in a doctor's office. You can be a bedside nurse, or you can become a case manager or nurse leader; there are so many possibilities.

In my mid-30's I made it through nursing school while working 40+ hours a week, with a mortgage, bills, and a family. I'm here to tell you, it can be done.

If anyone has any questions or, or just wants advice on pursuing a career in nursing, please let me know. I'll reply to this post whenever I can, and I'll be happy to help in anyway I can. I'm more than happy to use my experience to help others. I just want to tell the world how great this experience has been for me, and to hopefully help motivate others to join this incredible profession.

Thank you for listening to my story.

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Specializes in CVICU, MICU, Burn ICU.

I enjoyed reading your story very much! Congrats on your new career! The things worth doing are the hardest.

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Thank you so much for sharing this story! It is inspiring. I am currently working on my prerequisites for nursing school and, if I get in to the school I want, will graduate at 44. But I am thrilled to even have the possibility to do the work I have always wanted to for 20+ years after that! Good luck to you as you continue in your nursing career.

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