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Hi, I'm currently attending a California junior college and playing basketball. The only reason I'm at the junior college is because I love basketball and I didn't get picked up by a big school. However this school has a great nursing program and a lot of people have talked me into looking for more information. I went and talked to a councilor and she gave me horrible news. I can't play basketball and be in the nursing program at the same time. This means that I would only get to play one year of basketball and the rest of my years would be devoted to nursing.

I love working with people and I have wonderful person to person skills especially with disabled or elderly people and I wanted to be a vet for a long time. I don't want to go to school for 6 years and I know that's what it takes to become a veterinarian. I would like to go to school for no longer then 4 years and still have the job security, decent paycheck, and moderately flexible schedule. I know that a career in the medical field is for me but these are my main questions.

1. If I wanted to vacation for 2 or 3 months out of the year would that be remotely possible?

2. Would I be stuck working crazy long hours into ridiculous times of the night?

3. Is it possible to be a hands on parent and still be a nurse with a busy schedule?

If you have any information that could help me please don't hesitate to post!

I have to make a decision by the beginning of November and I don't want to make a wrong decision because I was ill informed so please help me! Any information at all will help!

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Specializes in Psych.

Your post reminded me of how I felt when I was your age about college cheerleading. I remember the nursing majors on my squad having to discontinue the activity after football season of sophomore year because they would be starting clinicals in the spring. Sadly, most college athletics schedules seem to be at odds with those early bird clinical requirements.

I know at that age I never would have considered nursing if it would have meant not cheering. If I had to do it all over again knowing everything I know now, I would do my undergrad exactly as I did (earning degrees in biology and psychology) and then immediately apply to an accelerated second degree program to get my BSN after one more year (instead of waiting to do it as a second career). I realize you don't want to go to school that long, but when you're young, that extra year is really not SO bad. BTW...most veterinary degrees mean 8 years of school, although it wouldn't surprise me if there were some that accepted non-degree students who excelled in pre-veterinary studies who completed just 2 years.

The only nursing job I can think of where you might get 2 months off is school nursing. Eventually, when you have enough experience to qualify for travel nursing you might also be able to set yourself up to take that kind of time off.

Good luck in your studies and athletic pursuits.

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unfortunately this sounds like it falls under the "nurses eat their young/own" banner. It is not really upper management so much as it is just a fact of nursing. I work in a an ICU. I have plenty of experience and I deal with the same issues regarding the preceptor stuff. I wish I had a positive perspective for you but I think this is par for the course. All I can say is try and learn as much as you can from them minus the attitude and constant bellyaching. If you need to, ask for a new preceptor. Your nurse manager should accomodate your request. Good Luck. This is a tough profession in many ways. Just remember the person you are taking care of is what matters.

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I love working with people and I have wonderful person to person skills especially with disabled or elderly people and I wanted to be a vet for a long time. I don't want to go to school for 6 years and I know that's what it takes to become a veterinarian. I would like to go to school for no longer then 4 years and still have the job security, decent paycheck, and moderately flexible schedule. I know that a career in the medical field is for me but these are my main questions.

1. If I wanted to vacation for 2 or 3 months out of the year would that be remotely possible?

2. Would I be stuck working crazy long hours into ridiculous times of the night?

3. Is it possible to be a hands on parent and still be a nurse with a busy schedule?

2-3 months of vacation per year? I've never heard of that in hospital nursing. You may be able to take unpaid leave but not on a regular basis.

As to your second question: almost all new grad nurses have to work the night shift, which is usually 7:30 pm to 8:00 a.m. You may get lucky and get a day shift job but, I wouldn't count on it.

Yes, probably 80% of my colleagues are married with kids and we all have to juggle our work schedule and family duties.

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Specializes in Addiction / Pain Management.

Are you getting looks for a 4 year schollys?

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Specializes in Critical Care/Coronary Care Unit,.

Well it really would be impossible to play on the basketball team and study nursing full time. Nursing programs are no joke. As far as months off at a time, you would be able to do that as a nurse only after you have at least 1-2 years of experience. You could do that as a travel nurse or as a per-diem nurse for a staffing agency or as a home health nurse...but that only comes after you get 1-2 yrs of experience in an acute care setting.

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Awesome thanks for all the help!

If I was a traveling nurse would that mean working for different hospitals for different times of the year or is it more like working at different hospitals for your entire career?

I plan on possibly living in two different places, northern California during the winters and Alaska during the summer. So beng able to work for different hospitals and still being able to come back year after year would be ideal.

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Specializes in Med Surg, Ortho.
unfortunately this sounds like it falls under the "nurses eat their young/own" banner. It is not really upper management so much as it is just a fact of nursing. I work in a an ICU. I have plenty of experience and I deal with the same issues regarding the preceptor stuff. I wish I had a positive perspective for you but I think this is par for the course. All I can say is try and learn as much as you can from them minus the attitude and constant bellyaching. If you need to, ask for a new preceptor. Your nurse manager should accomodate your request. Good Luck. This is a tough profession in many ways. Just remember the person you are taking care of is what matters.

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Awesome thanks for all the help!

If I was a traveling nurse would that mean working for different hospitals for different times of the year or is it more like working at different hospitals for your entire career?

I plan on possibly living in two different places, northern California during the winters and Alaska during the summer. So beng able to work for different hospitals and still being able to come back year after year would be ideal.

It is not advisable to jump right into traveling fresh out of nursing school. There is also no guarantee at all that you would end up in the places you want to be "year after year." You have to take what you can get a lot of the time. The market for nurses is very bad right now. You talked about job security in your first post. There isn't any of that in nursing anymore.

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Specializes in OB-Gyn/Primary Care/Ambulatory Leadership.

It sounds to me like you have a lot of requirements, or at least a pretty specific "wish list" - I don't know if nursing would be the career for you, especially in this economy.

Actually, I can't really think of ANY career (except maybe owning your own business, being independently wealthy) that would fit your wish list:

Working half the year in CA, the other half in Alaska

Not working nights

Getting 2-3 months off each year

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