work and going back to school, how do you do it

[andreead]

Hello

I am in the beginning beginningstages of my nursing career. I am 27 and I want to do an accelerated BSN and then a MSN towork as an NP.I currently work as a medical technologist and I have a confortable life-I make 50K.

However, I worry. It will be a financial burden to get my BSN which is understandable. I will work part time at best or even take off for1 year to finish my accelerated BSN.

But my question is once I will work as anurse and decide to becme an NP should I expect another financial burden or you can take onine MSN and just one class a semester? I know that it will take forever to graduate, but I need to work to pay the bills. How do all nurses do to go back for masters? Do they just quit and go back to school?

thanks so so much

andreea

[sbostonRN]

I went from being a medical technologist to a nurse and it was and is the biggest regrets of my life. I know you may not care to hear why so you can pm me if you care.

Working while going to school was difficult but not impossible. I worked FT as a med tech while in school for my ASN and studied at lot at work. School was evenings and weekends. Now I'm in school for my BSN and I work 32 hours it's a lot harder working as a nurse while in school because every part of my life is stressful. You just learn to manage. Everyone in my BSN program works and most have families. Schools are pretty flexible but your work has to be flexible too.

[MedicalPartisan]

I have worked full time 12-hour shifts since I graduated high school five years ago while taking on the bachelor's program full-time (overtime some semesters) and it's not that difficult. Lucky for me my 12s are on the weekends (Fri, Sat, Sun) so I have the week to focus on school. I think it'd be more stressful if I had to work and go to school on the same day, though, so try not to do that if possible. You're not used to this kind of schedule so it will likely be difficult at first, but it's truly not that bad. That said, the four-year program wasn't nursing so I'm sure the stress level will elevate a bit, but we'll be okay.

[RunBabyRN]

I think you could do it, but you may need to cut back your hours at work. Traditional BSN programs are pretty heavy, I can imagine how an accelerated program feels!

For your NP, programs vary widely. I know for the program I'm considering, there are two options, 1.5 years or 2 years. I don't know if there are programs that are all online. I know I'd rather have in-person instruction for a lot of that stuff. I'll be working when I go back for my master's, so I'll probably do the 2 year option if things are the same at that point. It'll also be an hour (or more, as I'll be in the direction of traffic most likely) each way to school.