Reality of being an RN + full-time student?

[ahnini]

Right now, I'm in nursing school to obtain my ADN. After I become a nurse, I really want to go back to school in order to get my Bachelor's degree (I'm aiming for something related to human biology).

What I'm just curious about is anyone's experiences doing/having done something similar. Did you find it to be stressful? Did you find it to be manageable? How was your work-school-life balance? Is there anything you'd do differently if you could do it all over again?

Please let me know! Thanks 🙂

[B52, BSN, MSN, RN]

I worked full time while studying for BSN and MSN. You just have to set priorities.

[Robmoo, ADN, BSN, RN]

I did the Texas Tech ADN to BSN program while working full time and married with kids.  It was a lot of work, but very manageable.  If your program is similar, you will be writing a lot of papers.  I recommend PERRLA for organizing and tracking your references.  It interfaces with Word and puts the references into either APA or MLA format.  Keeping a history of your reference is useful because finding references can be the most time-consuming part of paper writing, and you will find that article that you reference in the previous class paper will very likely be helpful for other papers.  Good luck!  

[Brewingbiker, BSN, RN]

I decided to become an RN late in life (I graduated as an ASN in my later 30s). I was working full time while going to school full time. Later, my hospital required a BS to keep my job (they were working to achieve Magnet status). Again, back to school full time while working full time). The BSN was achieved via an online program which was not as stressful as the initial RN program (fewer clinical hours -most of the program (nearly all) was online, some of it live, most of it not).

Stressful? Of course. You have to really balance your time -make time for homework, clinicals where applicable, and as for a 'life' balance, well, not really much time for that. But always keep in mind you have a goal to achieve, and your life will be better for it. You work hard now for a better tomorrow.

That is not to say you have NO life -during my bachelor program, I used to bring my laptop with me if we were going somewhere, and read studies, research information, and write papers (when no internet was available, Id head into town and use the wifi at a local McDonalds or other place just to upload (or download) my assignments.) But for the most part, you are in school full time, and you are working full time -your remaining time is homework and sleep. This is the price for professional training.

What would I do differently? I would not have waited until I was older. I'd have done it much earlier.