When are you too old to start Nursing school?

Nursing Students Pre-Nursing

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I have been in Advertising and design my whole life (I am 46) and I am now planning to go back to school to become a nurse. Are there any others out there in my shoes? Will anyone hire a nearly 50 new grad.?

You're never too old! If you have the passion, desire and will you can do whatever you set your mind to! I have a relative who recently became an RN at 51. She's been working as a school nurse, she loves it. She also worked in a hospital for awhile and while it was ok, she prefers the little slower pace working as a school nurse as an older nurse. She plans to start working on her masters in about a year, so she can go into administration in a couple of years.

I'm almost 41 and I'll be 43 almost 44, by the time I finish nursing school. There are alot of older women making the career change to nursing, so you are not alone! So go for it!

I'll turn 46 at the end of December and will start nursing school in January. I'll be an RN about 2 weeks before I turn 48!

I am 41 and won't be ready to apply to the Rn program til Fall 14'. I am very excited to start the next phase of my life;). Age is just another number!!!!!

Specializes in Med-Surg, NICU.
Note entirely true. I can't speak for other areas but where I live in Canada there is a big demand for nurses!!!! NOW is the time more than ever!! Regardless of how young or old you are. I'm 31 and just going back to school for nursing. Never too old to follow your heart! ;)

I'm speaking of America, not Canada.

Specializes in Emergency Department.

My take on this subject is simple: Dead is too old to start Nursing School. Whether or not current NS students will get a job fairly quickly after graduation is an entirely different matter...

Specializes in Acute Ortho/Neuro, Hospice, Skilled/LTC.

If you get out of school at 50 you might be able to get ahead of the age bias curve and find a job without much trouble. I believe my experience would have been different had I finished school at a younger age.

I started nursing school when I was 58; earned my LPN, RN, BSN over the next 4 years. I also had excellent grades, a previous BS in Biology and extensive experience working with computers. It took me almost a year to get my first RN job and almost another year working in that position before I could get a transfer to a hospital position. After almost a year of working nights (which was physically brutal for me), I resigned because I couldn't get anything more than a promise of moving to days. I apply for different hospital jobs once in a while and usually get invited to interview. Despite a pleasant, positive interview, I never get a job offer. I firmly believe this is only due to my age.

It's easy to say "follow a dream" but the reality is---hiring managers don't want someone older. I had no problem with the nursing curriculum, I'm physically fit enough to keep up on a busy med-surg for 12 hours, I don't call off.....I'm the sort of employee any manager would want but the age trumps everything and the rejection that comes with it carries considerable emotional pain.

Before you start this journey, consider how you will feel and what you will do if you have an experience similar to mine. I've spent a ton of $$$ and years of my life intently focused on nursing only to be doing now exactly what I was doing before I started nursing school 7 years ago. Good luck!

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