Autumn.Olive

There is geared to income housing that might be worth looking into. Some offer rent for $80/month. If you can get into that, you may have more money to spend on childcare, which can help you manage your time. (I'm from Ontario, I don't know if it is applicable to your circumstance/location, but I thought it was worth mentioning.)

I don't know of anything medical related that is level entry. However, my cousin is an RN and she worked in a hospital gift shop when she was in nursing school. The job allowed her to get her foot in the door and gain some network and representation. Even if your job isn't medically relevant, it can sound really comforting to an employer for them to learn that your work experience is in the same hospital. Familiarity is comforting to them, it is a reference that might stick out more in their mind. I'm currently working in a hospital as customer service, and I interact much more with patients than I did at my previous job in a nursing home. It's also nice to get the feel of the type of environment you would be working in. If you have serving experience, it's possible to get a job in customer service in the hospital. You could work in the cafeteria, gift shops, food shops. If you want a more hands on experience with medical work, you could try to volunteer. However, since your intention is to earn money while in school, this might not be the completely helpful for you. Good luck!

That's interesting. I'm from Canada as well, but we have the prenursing program here. I'm from Ontario. I was told that it is possible to go straight into nursing without the prenursing, but you might have to have something equivalent in order to stand out among competition.

I asked my school if they offer part time, and I was told that this "doesn't exist" because "nobody would ever finish the course". So I've been under the impression that less than full time didn't exist. My friend i mentioned in my OP is my co-worker, but she rarely comes into work. She's been off of work for two weeks recently. I live in Ontario, so I'm not sure if that is relevant. It may be different elsewhere. To be honest the huge hype about the competitiveness is really scaring me away. Not because I'm not an academic, but because I'm not financially stable and I can't risk going thousands in debt and NOT getting a degree. I'm trying my hardest to be a sponge and absorb all the info/tips I can about this.

Oh my god. 2-5 years! That is insane! :/ Did you have to wait that long?

So would it be very unrealistic to work while in school?

Did you have a long waiting list for getting into the nursing program itself?

I've had a conversation with a girl who is in year 2 of nursing. I asked her if nursing is as competitive as its reputation says it is. She agreed that it was competitive, but said that it was mostly the amount of work and not how challenging the work was. I'm just confused by that. How is a heavy course load inherently competitive? I just wanted to clarify what exactly the "competitive" nature of nursing entails exactly. Do your peers try to ambush you? Do your professors neglect you if you are behind your peers? Are your classes large and you have to fight to get needed attention from your teacher? How much is a "lot" of coursework?