What did you give up to be in nursing school?

[negatron]

For me it's time and energy for a job, so I gotta live frugally for a few years. As a result, gave up independence and time as an adult in his mid 20s to make all this work. Small price to pay but hopefully worth it. Time is going by really fast anyway. :-)

What did you sacrifice to get where you are now as a student nurse?

Or didn't have to give up anything at all, which is cool too (lucky!)

Sometimes it's these things that i think about during tough times in the semester that gives me motivation, knowing that a lot has been sacrificed to get to where I am now!

[CacaoHeart]

Delaying having kids. Reduced social life. My wife and I have been together 7 years, I'm 30 and she's 28. We're trying to wait on having kids until I'm done with nursing school, hopefully May next year.

[ShelbyaStar]

In the process of selling my horse. Riding is a big part of my life, used to be my job, but it's time. Nursing school doesn't leave time to ride and it doesn't make sense to spend hundreds per month on something I don't have time for.

Delaying having kids. Got married in June and husband and I would really like to start now but will at least wait to time it in such a way so that at the earliest I would be pregnant during school and have the baby immediately after in the summer when we're both home. I do get jealous when yet another friend proclaims they're pregnant or just had a baby.

Other than that, just a clean house and money and free time!

[RunnerRN2015, ASN, RN]

I didn't have to give up anything. I'm in my late 40s, kids are grown, and hubby earns a fabulous salary. I retired from my former career (20 years) and went back to school a couple of years ago. Graduated in December. My biggest issue is going to be working full time! I haven't done that in over 20 years. I'm used to summers/holidays/weekends off.

[trinitymaster]

Nothing; I couldn't give up a job; I had a mortgage to pay and grown up bills; so I found a program that was for working individuals where I didn't have to give up anything; it helped me save money in the process.

EXACTLY!

I worked full-time through my ADN, BSN, and now my MSN. Grown-ups, at least us single ones with children, do not have the luxury of leaving our jobs.

[ClaraRedheart, BSN, RN]

I gave up family... not intentionally, but a relationship was damaged beyond repair due to my response to the stresses of nursing school. Not happy with that. I also sold my alien bees to pay for the Nclex. My Paul C. Buff Alien Bees were my studio photography lights... I had a NICE set, that I PROMISED myself that I'd buy again as soon as I could afford it after nursing. Only on the job for 1 year now, but I still haven't bought new ones yet. I just photograph in natural light as I don't really have the room to set up a studio anyways.

[anon456, BSN, RN]

I missed my youngest child's Kindergarten graduation because it fell on the same day as clinicals.

That was pretty much symbolic of a lot of missed time away from my kids/family because of nursing school. It was worth it, but still hard.

Now I'm doing my BSN and although it's on-line, I still spend a lot of my energy/time studying instead of being with the family.

[xoemmylouox, ASN, RN]

I had to work full time for my LPN program, and if accepted this fall to the RN program I applied to, I will still have to work full time. I am the breadwinner in our home as my husband is a stay at home Dad. So far my biggest sacrifice with school lately has been time with my family.. I HATE that I am away so much, but I hope it'll be worth it in the end. We shall see..

Nursing seems like a sinkhole that I can't escape so I am scrambling (furthering my education) to stay ahead of the end..

[martymoose, BSN, RN]

my sanity

[nursingjourney]

My house and a lot of our possessions. My husband and I sold our home and moved into a much smaller apartment with our two kids, so that we can survive on only on his salary.

Did you ever feel like you gave anything up regarding your children? Im about to start nursing school and I have two small children and my number one fear is that I will be sacrificing too much time that could and should have been spent with my children. Its really eating away at my ambition for nursing school.

[PG2018]

I gave up liberty and opportunity to return to college for a major in nursing. I already had a B.S. degree, credits towards a masters, and I was established in the work place. I made a good living, and I actually liked my job. The reason I decided to pursue nursing, was in many respects a mistake, and I only did it to ascribe to one very specific facet of nursedom (PMHNP). About six months into the nursing program my previous superior resigned and took other employment, and I would've been next in line to replace him. In hindsight, I'd much rather be doing that right now. I've learned things a long the way and had a few good moments (underscore "few"), and I'll soon finally finish the MSN/PMHNP program. I'm looking forward to that although at this point I've become so interested in behavior, etc. that I'm really more inclined to continue studying that, and not just psychopathology, than I am to practice. Cripes!

[TheCommuter, BSN, RN]

I gave up my lucrative job at a factory to enroll in an LVN program that required students to be there Monday through Friday from 8am to 4pm.

I gave up some of my free time and money to attend an LPN-to-ASN completion program several years later. I still worked 32 hours every weekend and commuted across state lines to attend school.

I'm giving up some of my free time (and about $6,000 in cash) to complete an online RN-to-BSN degree completion program. I'll be done within the next few weeks.

[smf0903]

A clean house I was so fortunate that I only missed one of my daughter's programs. I would have missed a Halloween, but our instructor was sick that day (lucky for us, bad for her LOL). I think if you have kids it's important to actually schedule time with them. It's a balancing act, and sometimes it doesn't work the way we want it to. But it's temporary. Some things (like housecleaning) suffered...if I had time I'd rather spend it with my family than with a dust rag I wasn't always like that (I had to have a clean house before!) but you adapt to the situation you're in at the time. I had friends I found out had slept in their car on campus because they were afraid to not make it back to class or clinicals the next day. You never know what another is giving up or changing to make their dream a reality :)