Work all night -School during the day, can it be done?

RNperdiem, RN · Jul 30, 2008

My sister worked 12hr night shifts on weekends plus a couple of 8 hour night shifts during the week when she went to radiology tech school. Her program with classroom and clinical time was similar to my schedule in nursing school.

She had a scholarship for school, paid the bills with the job and survived the schedule for a couple of years. My sister worked at an residential facility for troubled teens. The residents were good sleepers on most nights, so there was lots of study time.

The only drawbacks she faced were that the daytime aides had a problem coming in late many mornings. Nursing and radiology programs are strict about tardiness so getting to school from work was stressful. There was also no days off at all.

BlueRidgeHomeRN · Jul 30, 2008

the only student in my bsn program who tried this failed in his senior year.. :sniff:

mpccrn, BSN, RN · Jul 30, 2008

altering your sleep pattern between days and nights is very do-able....it will likely be your life as a new grad. there is of course the zombie day....the day you get off nights and have to decide if you will take a nap when you get home or try and stay awake so that you can sleep that night. you'll have to experiment a bit with what works best for you.

TLCinCICU · Jul 30, 2008

I worked 40 hours/week on night shift for the duration of my ADN program. However, I only had to take nursing classes during that time. My previous degree (for the lab job I worked) had many of the same prerequisites and I had a school workload that was comparatively easy to many of my classmates. On the downside, I was awake for about 30 hours one day each week. You do what you have to do to achieve an important goal.

angelique777 · Jul 30, 2008

Cant tell you how that works out with the stress of studing for test and keeping up with class work but I work three days in the daytime and three days nighttime In general I do just fine but on occassion when other family responsibilities fall into place it becomes tough because people tend to not understand. My hardest day is the sunday morning after I worked three nights because I want to go right to sleep on Sunday morning but if I do I will be awake Sunday night which would make it hard to be awake Monday morning when I switch back to days. It can get tricky and the hardest is people and family just dont understand your sleep needs and cant understand it when you say you cant do anything in the day the night you work nights because they ask you what time you start and you say 7pm and they say ok so you can make it cause the activity is at 11am and then you say you have to sleep and there brain only registers that your saying no and they insist you can since you start at 7pm. God help me cause people and family dont understand. I once told my brother I could not help out with my mom cause I had already been awake over 38hrs and needed to sleep and he said I didnt get much sleep either last night and that I am not the only one who works. The fact that I said I was up straight for 38hrs just blew pass him and he didnt even figure that if I helped out that day It would put me over 48hrs straight hours that I would be awake yet in his mind the fact that he slept 6hrs vs 8hrs and I was up 38hrs straight in his mind was equal and I shouldnot be complaining and should help out ........God help us !!!!!!!! I would have to collaspse on my face before any one could possible fathom this type of schedule I wish you the best When we have a great need in our lives we often can accomplish great things despite the pain and hard work I wish you the best

Angela

calledtodo · Jul 30, 2008

Depends on you as a person. Never compare yourself to what someone else is able to do.

bethin · Jul 30, 2008

I've worked with several nurses who did this and had families. They all excelled. They said it was stressful but knew that eventually it would end.

And the great thing about doing weekends only and getting paid full time for it is that during breaks you can pick up extra hours.

Good luck!

Aaron-RN · Jul 30, 2008

Hi myty23 - During the 4 years of my BSN program, I worked 7P-7A as a Patient Care Tech in the Emergency Department/Trauma Center in my town. I would work every friday night and every other saturday night. I made sure that the mondays that I had a test was the weekend that I only worked friday night so that i had the majority of the weekend to study. While I know nights are not for everyone, it worked well for me! Good Luck! -- Aaron-RN :wink2:

calledtodo · Jul 30, 2008

With the nursing program, you have to realize that if you are going to be working full time and going to school full time. There is no time for much else but studying. You can work full time nights and go to school full time but you have to use you time wisely. I will say that. I know people that tried in the community college that I will attend and failed. I also know people that did make it and worked full time. I know people that would only work PRN because they knew themself enough to know that, they wouldn't be able to manage. The question you have to ask yourself is, Can I work full time and go to school fulltime etc. It can be done and has been but you have to know yourself enough to know what you can do. Good luck and I hope it works out.

Tweety, BSN, RN · Jul 30, 2008

It's not as ideal as day shifts. But I've seen students do all kinds of things....basically when there's a will, there's a way. You have to be really motivated, disciplined and want to be a nurse real bad, and you can do anything.

I've seen several students work 12-hour weekend nights and go to school. The one's that have trouble are the ones that try to do it during the week. You have to make sure you get a clinical group that doesn't meet on Mondays because you can't work a 12-hour night shift and do a clnical the next day....you'd be dangerous for one, and there's no time to prep.

Good luck.

locolorenzo22, BSN, RN · Jul 30, 2008

If you plan every minute and do everything you can early, and NEVER procrastinate and don't care about A's....I worked 36 hours a week while going to school 3 days a week...it was tough, but doable...It all depends on how you do it...AND always make school/family your number 1 priority....