Quit job or go to school at night?

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I'm not sure on what to do. I currently teach school, and make a fair decent living, however I have never been totally happy or satisfied with my career choice. For the past five years I have really been interested in nursing. The problem is this, there are no schools that offer night classes in my area if you aren't already a nurse. The only program that is offered is a LPN one. I have two choices keep working and go to school at night to earn my LPN, and then get my RN/BSN and finally my MSN. Or I could go back full time for a year in an accelerated MSN program, hopefully get a scholarship/financial aid and earn by RN, work and get my MSN.

The pros of the LPN is that I can continue working and will not acquire anymore debt. I already owe 40,000 for undergraduate and earning my M.Ed degree. The cons is that it will take the next 4 to 5 years to see my dream become reality, probably longer because I plan on getting married and having kids one day (I'm 30). The pros to the accelerated program is that I can have my RN in a year, work full time and earn my MSN within two. Cons I would have to quit my job, which mean NO income, and I would have to acquire more debt.

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Before you earn another degree, I would make certain that this is what you really want to do. Why are you interested in nursing? Have you shadowed nurses and have you volunteered in a healthcare setting? Are you aware of the realities of nursing? You should go into nursing with your eyes wide open. If you have done all of these things and still believe that you really want to be a nurse and can't imagine doing anything else, then I would encourage you to continue.

If you decide that you really want to do this, I would quit the job and do an accelerated program. Why delay it any longer if you really have your heart set on it?

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Specializes in Family Nurse Practitioner.

I'm known to be pretty anti-loans so take this fwiw but there is no way I would incur more debt if I were you. If there isn't a way to make it happen while continuing to work I would put my plans off until I paid off the current loans. I worked all through school so I know that its possible and if it wasn't I woudn't have gone. Good luck with whatever you decide.

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Specializes in ICU.

Do you already have a BA/BS degree? If so, have you looked at the Direct Entry programs? There are ones online, as well, that cost only as much as in-state tuition.

If you would like to discuss it further, I'm open to pms. :)

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If you really want to be a nurse I say just quit work and go for a year and be done with it. I understand the debt issue, but that can be paid back. If you're 30 and are looking to start a family soon, it's going to be so hard with working FT and going to school at night for 4-5 years to do that. I'd say try to find a PT job that you can work at when you have the time at night, tutoring or whatever works for your area of expertise. I understand money issues, but why put your whole life on semi- hold for 5 years when it could be done in 1? Just my thoughts.

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Apart from the loans I think another thing to consider is how you study and if working full time would be too much of a distraction. I have just been accepted into university to study nursing and know that for me working full time or part time would make it difficult for me to get my best results while studying.

That said, as a teacher could you do some private tutoring?

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Since you have a master in education, I wonder if you could work evenings as a tudor or for an online college as an instructor while you go to school days. That way you benefit from the getting done with your nursing degree faster and still earn an income with your current degree. There are online tudoring websites that also look for teachers to tudor students. Or get CNA certifed and work parttime nights for income plus patient care experience.

While learning more about nursing programs, I have seen degrees availalble to those who have a 4 yr degree already. They are second degree programs and are faster to finish than traditional programs.

I am in a similar situation. I have have less than a yr to get my bachelor's in health care management but I'm very interested in being a nurse instead. It almost looks better and faster for me to finish my first bachelor's then enter a second degree program for nursing. I first thought to do LPN then RN then BSN, not finishing the management degree and diving right into nursing to start getting education and experience in it, but it would take me about 5 yrs compared to 3 yrs. I am considering getting my CNA certification, but I am having trouble finding a program that has evening or weekend classes which I can't do atm homeschooling my daugther still.

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Specializes in CVICU, CCU, SICU, MICU.

I'm in much of the same boat as you. I work FT and I'm applying for 3 ADN programs for the fall, and only one of them is a night program. Have you looked into community colleges or ADN programs?? You could still work PT doing tutoring or something since it wouldn't be near as intense as an master's entry, and you can get a BSN and sometimes even MSN online, PLUS the hospital usually will pay for it. It'd be a little faster than starting with an LPN.

Good luck, and keep us posted!!

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