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WOW! SarahMaria, thank you for sharing. How were you able to handle the physical requirements? I’d love to know what you did after graduation too if you’re up for sharing. Was it difficult to gain experience and accommodate your physical needs? Appreciate the encouragement! Mary

I was thinking more like community healthcare clinic type scenario. Do you think there are opportunities along those lines that may be open to new grads?

Thank you for your response noyesno and KatieMI. It is the case that I am concerned about where I will gather the experience as a new grad. I am looking at community/public health roles but most often they require at least a year of experience. I wonder about what roles are available to the new grad.

Thanks so much for your response CommunityRNBSN. Appreciate the information. I have spoken with the school at least preliminary so I"ve least started the ball rolling non that conversation.

HI amoLucia. Thanks for your response. My previous Bachelor's is in International Studies and I currently work in a social justice non-profit. I've always been interested in helping others and while there are many ways to do that, I've wanted to get into direct service. Ultimately I'd love to be involved in serving under served populations - sexual assault victims, HIV + populations.

Thanks so much for your suggestions. I will reach out to the school to see what their thoughts are and what, if anything, can be accommodated. I'm more interested in social services and public health rather than hospital floor work though I know I probably won't be able to "pick" for clinicals in school.

Thanks to all who provided responses. My interests are more in the fields of public health and social services. My intention is not to work on a hospital floor generally, obviously I will have less control in the school program as to where my clinicals are. I'm going to talk to the school to get their take on the situation and see what, if any accommodations they have. Thank you again to all, Mary

Hi DowntheRiver. Thanks for your response. I have been tested for that, thank you for the suggestion though!

Thanks everyone for your comments and advice. I appreciate everyone's feedback and thought perhaps I should give a little bit more detail. Some of the herniations are minor. I do have chronic lower back pain though, whether due to the herniation or not is not really established. I've tried physical therapy, trigger point injections and epidurals to no avail. I've had back problems since I was a teenager with no real explanation as to why. I've never really gotten a very satisfactory explanation for everything, though obviously now the herniated disks and beginnings of arthritis make sense. My rheumatologist didn't count me out when I asked her about being able to do a program if I got a good exercise program in place but I'm not sure how much stock to put in that (I'm not thrilled with her as a doc in the first place). I've wanted to go into nursing for years and finally have the opportunity to do so. However, looking at clinical schedules and thinking about the amount of physical labor involved is giving me a lot of pause.

Hi everyone, I'm 36 years old and planning to start an accelerated BSN program in the Fall. I am a little nervous as to how I will deal with the physical aspects of the job. I currently have 5 herniated discs as well as arthritis in my spine and knees. Obviously this will not improve with age so I'm concerned about starting a new career at this age and what it will mean for me physically. Does anyone have any recommendations or advice on how the physical aspects of school and the job can be handled? Thank you, Mary