futurenurse06

Hi all, As a single mother with not much support for childcare, I am looking to see if any new grads have had any luck getting school nursing positions? This would be ideal as far as hours and not having to rely on a sitter to cover holidays, weekends, overnights, etc that I would have to face in a hospital setting. I am willing to move out of state if an opportunity as a school nurse presented itself. Has anyone come across this?

I am not an RN graduate yet, but will be soon enough. I am thinking ahead because I forsee a huge challenge as far as finding my first official RN job. I am a single mother, my child will be 7 years old when I plan to take the NCLEX and then start job searching. My child's father is not in the picture, and my family is far and unable to help. I am really on my own. Anyone else in a similar situation worried about employment as a new grad RN? In a perfect world, I would have loved to do a residency program in a hospital. I am located in Southern California and thats what most of my classmates are going into. However, in my situation I feel these are the 2 options really available to me: 1) Find a clinic job that is M-F 8hr day shifts that is also open to hiring new grads. (Downside, the pay is so low, around $20-25/hr. for new grads. For California thats about the lowest I've seen for pay) 2) Work in a hospital anyways, will likely be asked to do nights and rotating weekends, which would mean I would be relying heavily on a sitter/nanny to watch my child. Finding a sitter who would be willing to put up with my variable schedule would mean probably paying a sitter $15-20/hr at minimum, however if im working in a hospital here in CA I could expect to earn $35-40/hr. Still that means after paying the sitter, I am netting potentially only $15-20/hr... There are so many RNs out there that are single mothers, have you ever had this dilemma? How did you handle it and still earn enough to support yourself and your kid(s)? I'm at a loss.

Hi all, I am starting my RN program soon. I am SOOOO anxious. I am a single mother & I had a very very difficult time with my pre-reqs and I did them literally one at a time so that I could make sure I got an A in everything. I didn't find the material to be that challenging, more just my life and the people in it made my situation 10x harder than it needed to be. So I am just so worried that if it was so challenging to tackle 1 class plus motherhood simultaneously, how am I gonna tackle nursing school. Everything I read just makes it seem like a beast of a workload, zero sleep, 1 hour of quality time with your kid if you're lucky, and just difficult exams and loads of paperwork and meltdowns all the time. I'm just scared. I probably have just spent too much time on here reading other's stories and am just overthinking it. Can anyone share with me a realistic day in the life of a nursing student and how you managed to get your stuff done while also being a parent (if applicable)? Thank you!

Hi all- I am soon to be starting nursing school. My situation is that I am a single mom to a 3 year old who needs full time child care during the duration of my 2 year program which costs a whopping $1500/mo. in my area. I also need loans to cover my living expenses which are $1400/mo in rent. My tuition is actually quite inexpensive (thanks to community college ADN program & financial aid) + All the "smaller stuff" groceries and a few bills I have Im going to pay out of pocket with what little money I have. So my question really is- is it a bad idea to take out students to cover 2 years of rents and 2 years of childcare? Total childcare costs would cost= $1,500 x24months= $36,000 Total rent costs $1400 x 24 months= $33,600 Grand total comes out to $69,600.. before interest... it seems so excessive but I'm not sure what other choices I have... I have been on the lookout and will continue to apply for grants & scholarships but as it stands I'm going to have to borrow a lot regardless. If anyone has any finance insight for someone in my situation or similar, please share ? thank you.

Thank you for all the information. I'll be sure to utilize it all!

Thank you! I saved the link, it looks really helpful. Exactly what I was looking for!

Hi all! Over the next 15 months I will be taking Anatomy, Physiology, and Microbiology so that I can apply to several nursing programs. The competition is tough so I am stressing because I know that getting an A in all 3 of those classes is basically necessary to have a shot at nursing school. That being said I would like to start "pre-studying" now to make it easier later. I bought Anatomy flashcards to help with Anatomy. Can't figure out how to study up on Physiology or Microbiology tho, other than buying a textbook and just reading it which doesn't usually work so well for me. Any recommendations? Or specific topics in Physiology & Microbiology I can brush up on to make the studying and topics less daunting when I'm actually taking the class? Thanks in advance for your comments!

Thank you! That's reassuring! I was thinking of doing something similar, finding activities for my son to do to keep him distracted so I can study during the day. Thanks for the tips and good luck with school!

BagelBomber- Thank you! Your response gave me a lot more confidence. I think I was under the impression that Nursing School is going to be like a never ending workload on top of class and clinical and I had moments of serious doubt that it would be possible given my situation. Then again, SO many single moms pursue nursing school so It must be possible. And ah yes, the mom guilt. I agree with you tho, I chose nursing to better my child's future, and nursing school will only take 4 semesters at my school. In the bigger picture of his childhood, that's not that long.

Hi All! I am not yet a Nursing Student but will be starting nursing school soon. If any other single mamas can address my concerns it would be much appreciated! My son will be about 3 years old when I start. I have daycare secured for while I am at school. But after that I am EXTREMELY worried about how I am going to study when I have a toddler with me all evening and all weekend. My family does not help, and his father is not in the picture. I would hate to fail out of nursing school all because I simply could not find the time to study. So really here are my questions: 1. If I absolutely have to, I would hire a nanny to be at my home in the evenings to entertain my son while I study. But it would be expensive. Or I can wait until my son is asleep every night and stay up late to study? But that would mean getting maybe about 3-4 hours of studying in a night and I'm not sure that that's enough.. 2. That being said, I don't expect myself to be a straight-A nursing student, I simply want to graduate. So how much time should I really be spending a day studying? Is maybe just staying up at night enough time? 3. Or lastly, any nursing student moms out there have any methods of studying while spending time with your child(ren)? Thank you for anyone who can lend some tips! I will and am determined to become an RN no matter what it takes!