Teaching while raising a family?

[cherubhipster]

Hello friends,

I'm at the very cusp of my MSN program. I originally was accepted to school to become a PMHNP, but lately I have bee considering a MSN in nursing ed instead, for a variety of reasons.

I have a particular concern that I could use some feedback in. How is a career as an educator (with an MSN, the phd will have to wait for now!) while raising a young family? I am recently married and going to start a family soon, and I really need a career that will give me a good work/life balance.

I have a friend who teaches at a community college (not nursing) FT, and her FT is equivalent to 15 hours/week at the school. Is teaching nursing the same way?

I really appreciate any feedback and I look forward to hearing your thoughts!

[Sapphy, BSN, RN]

I teach full time in a Practical Nursing program and I will tell you that I put in 40 plus hours a week. That being said, I have more time with my family now that I ever did as a staff nurse. Mostly I work straight days with no weekends, and nice breaks at the holidays. We are unusual in that we are in class year round. So I do not get summers off. But overall, I am glad that I changed.

[llg, PhD, RN]

One thing about teaching that most people don't realize until they do it .... You can't just "call out" when you have a sick child. Your school may not have someone to fill in your job if you call out at the last minute, and your students NEED the clinical hours to qualify for licensure. Yes, it can happen every once-in-a-while, but there is not as much back-up coverage available and you have to minimize your requests for time off, giving you less flexibility in scheduling days off during the school year when classes are in session.

[Sapphy, BSN, RN]

Yes, What the above user posted is true. However, my program has back ups in place just in case we are sick. But we use them very sparingly. Most nurses I know will call in dead before they call in sick anyway lol. Because we are a contact hour program, we use alternate assignments if for some reason we have to call off. Or I will call another instructor and trade days with them.

I do have to do some work at home though. I didn't mention that in my first post. But I am also working on my Master's at home as well.

Overall, I have a lot more time with my family than I had when I had to work swing shifts on the floor and weekends/holidays.

[Whispera, MSN, RN]

I've taught at 3 schools. In one, I worked 3 days and it was full time. Where I work now, sometimes my weeks are 50+ hours and sometimes they're 30. I have my nights, weekends, and holidays free as long as I can get things done other times. I do alot of planning work at home, but can do it any time I want to do it, including after midnight.

I feel I can't miss a clinical because no one is available to take over for me. So far I've never had to miss one (knock on plastic). It would bring awesome complications into my day as well as that of the students.

[OCRN3]

I was just talking to my mom about this. Having a toddler at home and working 12 hour shifts seemed to be a good idea because I had 4 days off to be with my kid. When I worked overtime or something I could go 4 days with out seeing my child. Now that I teach I see my kid everyday, every afternoon we have a play date and weekends and holidays all off. I think teaching is the best fir family life at this point in my opinion. Sent from my iPhone using allnurses.com