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Discussion

Working as a full time ER TECH while in nursing school.

Hey I'm evaluating options on whether I should work er full time 3p-3a while in nursing school. Or take a position on an Ortho floor? Positive advice and encouragement would be greatly appreciated! I need to support me and my little girl while getting my RN.

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    It just depends if you can fit those hours in with your nursing school schedule. I know many students who 'survived' nursing school while working. Most of them worked only part time though but I know a few who worked full time throughout school and made it. It really depends on the person, your study habits, how much you are willing to sacrifice (family time, social life, etc) and what other obligations you have.

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    Thanks for your feed back. I've realized that if I do work full time and do nursing school I have lots of sacrifices to make but to me I think they will be well worth it.

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    • Experts

    I don't know about your program's schedule, but in our program, working those hours full time would leave little time to study and sleep. Plus, we have no say in what shift we get in clinicals. My 1st semester, my clinical shift was 2 - 8 pm. This semester, it's 7 AM - 2 PM. Either way, those hours wouldn't work. They give us 24 hours to turn in our clinical paper work and care plans. This takes at least 3 to 5 hours to complete. There's no way to get it done while you're working. If you get stuck with PM clinicals, you'd miss your work shift. You can't skip class or clinicals for work.

    So, see if you can find out what the program schedule is like before you jump in to a job.

    We have a handful of students who work full time, but they really struggle, not to mention how exhausted they are!

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    No way would that work for our program. Our clinicals would bump up against that, most days classes would run into that time frame, then precepting would completely interfere. I couldn't imagine trying to work full time while in the program. Are the days flexible? How will you sleep?

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    As a student nurse currently in school, I would recommend to work as LITTLE as possible. The time constraints are difficult for those students that work full time. I personally don't work at all, and I am kept busy constantly. Now I know some of my fellow students are successful working full time and doing school, but they are exhausted and some of the smartest students. For my program, you would be OK during Fundamentals, but would have trouble after that. So, my point is, it is definitely do-able, but be prepared to not have a life, be missing spending time with your child, and barely spending time with your significant other. Like I said not fun, but it can be done.

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    Depending on how your program does clinical hours, it may work, or may not. We've always had 12 hour clinicals, usually at least two days a week. Add that on to two days of lectures that are usually four hours long, and working is VERY difficult to get in with study and down time, especially if you have kids or a spouse.

    Not impossible, but don't be surprised if it's hard to make that happen, because there are only so many hours in the day, and unfortunately, you have to sleep at some point.

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