To Work or Not to Work that is the Question.

I work 25-30 hours/week and attend classes full-time with full-time work between semesters. I work to keep my bennies. If you don't have to work, I would say don't; unless it is something health care related to give you some experience. In the end, only you can make this decision. Good luck!

Nursing assistant/patient care tech/CNA experience will give you a HUGE advantage in clinicals, and will help you get hired after school. I would definitely work, even if it's only for a day or two each week.

I'm a nursing assistant in geriatric LTC, it's assisted living and for the most part pretty quiet, so there's time to study. I work 24 hours a week, and pick up OT/doubles as I see fit. I'm fully independent, and I keep my head afloat in school and work. It's not so bad!

Good luck to you.

I wouldn't work, I get where you are coming from, but I see the students that have to work and it is very tiring to them. Not only that, I am assuming you live in NY state because of the TAP mention, and I had a friend at 19 that was getting full TAP and PELL b/c she lived on her own with no help from her mom, but she had to prove it. Even if you work, unless you live on your own and show that you can support yourself, they may not consider you independent if you receive any aid at all from your parents, or reside with them. It would be horrible to get this fair and then not make it because you had to work, and then you are stuck in a low paying job. You may want to talk to the financial aid office and tell them what is going on.

If you're under 24 yr-old, it tends to be really hard to prove that you're independent unless you're married, or have a child (and no, I don't suggest either of these paths to get more financial aid )

thank you all for your response i really appreciate the positive feedback and if i could find any Patient care associate or nursing assistant available positions i will definitely give it a try mainly for the experience. other than that i am just going to focus on school this alone is a FULL TIME JOB & i guess i will worry about the HUGE DEBT later.

Work + School > School to anyone hiring. It's really that simple ... well unless you fail out because you can't handle both ... but that's completely the point ... recruiters are impressed by your ability to handle the situation. Have fun! Make sure it's hospital related, CNA being the obvious choice.

You cannot claim yourself as independent since you are 19 and are still supported by your parents. I just turned 24 this past September, I've been living my fiance for the past year, and I was finally able to claim myself as independent this past semester.

As far as working & school goes, I go to nursing school full-time, and I work part-time (24 hrs a week) as a CNA on third shift. It's really not that bad, you just have to be organized. I'm tired, but I know it's temporary and I still have bills to pay, so I need to work. I do not have children yet though, so I can imagine it would be a LOT harder to have a job during nursing school when you're also taking care of children.

And I agree with the above poster who said CNA experience gives you a huge advantage in clinicals. Not only with just basic care, but communicating with residents and their family members comes easier. You also have an advantage of getting hired as a nurse at the facility you're working in when you graduate.

I realize that it seems like there is no other choice, but I am so very troubled at the number of young people who are taking on student loans that will impact their whole working life. There is just no way to justify this based on nursing salaries. It is an enormous burden that cannot be erased through ANY means. What if nursing schoold does not work out? What if there are no jobs available? There is also an increasing amount of buzz about the effect of debt upon personal relationships.... people are very reluctant to pursue a lasting relationship with someone who has this type of 20+ year obligation. Basically, you're mortgaging your future.

Commercial (investor owned) schools are charging enormous amounts of tuition because there are so many people desperately seeking nursing at any cost. Nightmare stories are becoming so frequent that the Feds are finally examining this issue since the vast majority of student loan $ are going to commercial schools these days. Proposed legislation will limit tuition to a specific ratio based on expected salary for graduates... this will put the kibosh on most of these investor-owned nursing schools.