Should I take a full time job while doing prereqs?

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Hi fellow students, I'd like your opinion on this. I'm changing careers to nursing. I was laid off in June and decided to just go to school full time. However I now have a job offer for a new full time job. It is totally unrelated to nursing. I am currently living with my mom so I don't need to worry about rent. However a lot of the absn programs I am looking at are very expensive. I think I could save about 20-25000/year working at this job which would allow me to go into less debt. I would work for about 1-2 years before starting a nursing program.

The cons are that it takes away time from volunteering at a hospital. I was also planning to get my CNA license in the fall and then hopefully work as a CNA to get experience in healthcare. I would no longer be able to do this. I can still take some prerequisites while working, it is hard for me but I am a good student so I'm confident I can still get good grades. This may extend the time I need to take for prereqs by a semester.

Please let me know if you guys have any advice or opinions about whether or not to take this job!

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Specializes in Cardiac Telemetry, ICU.

Hi Sara

If you're going to school full-time like I am, I would definitely not risk my grades suffering simply to avoid taking out loans later on. Great student or not, it's definitely going to take away from time that could be spent studying. Nursing school, as I'm sure you know, is extremely competitive. Passing the opportunity to become a CNA as well would seal the deal for me and make it an absolute no. What if you're so swamped with work one day that your grade in A&P1 slips from an A to a B- or worse? What if that makes it more difficult to get into nursing school, would it really be worth it?

It's not impossible but it's a potentially huge challenge you'd be putting on yourself when it isn't entirely necessary. Good luck!

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For pre -reqs I worked 2 jobs and had no problems with working one full time and a casual ever other weekend type job. I was able to take an overload of credits for one semester. know others who worked part time and struggled. IMHO that is a question only you can answer.

As far as the money part are there any cheaper options than the ABSN?

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