ella_rn

I was also employed in the IT industry before moving to nursing. I worked as a Unix system administrator for over 15 years for a laboratory company. I was 36 when I graduated with an ADN (and had a previous BS in Computer Science). I didn't do a BS accelerated program because of my work scheduled; I worked full-time in my previous position as a sysadmin while going to school full-time. I'll do a bridge in the next couple years and eventually my MSN/DPN (depending on how quickly my state implements the change over). Where I live there seems to be a statistically large number of male nurses, many of them transplants from the IT industry. I personally work with two male nurses who were in the tech industry - one a programmer and the other one a network admin. Ella

I worked full-time (about 45-50 hours a week) all through my BSN degree which was also full-time (I think I had around 12 credits per semester if I remember correctly. My program held classes after "normal" working hours for career changers, five nights a week and alternate Saturdays. That being said, I was positively exhausted when it was all over - I took several months after passing my boards before I began looking for a nursing job (as I was still employed at my job). I really wouldn't recommend trying to hold down more than part-time during full-time school. Ella