Working 60 hrs a week while in Nursing school????

Ghosty · Jan 13, 2013

What country are you in? If it's anything like here in the UK, you will absolutely not be able to work a 60 hour week whilst going to school/university. The course here includes a placement at a hospital, of which will be about 37 hours a week, as well as having to do essays, revision, study days etc.

A 60 hour week is bad enough on it's own, never mind alongside studying! x

loriangel14, RN · Jan 13, 2013

That doesn't sound like a good idea.How would you do your clinicals and when would you sleep?

soxgirl2008 · Jan 13, 2013

In my program I don't think it'd be do-able at all considering 2nd-4th semester you have clinical 2-3 days a week for 8 hours a day...I'm not sure how you could even fit in all your classes/clinical and work 60 hours unless you never slept.

I know people who worked 40 hours a week and did nursing school full time and got through it, but it was very very grueling for them.

Saysfaa · Jan 13, 2013

Ability to study at work helps but there is more to it than study hours.

Most nursing schools are very inflexible as far as timing goes - especially clinical hours. They usually don't have a choice due to the limitations of available times/places to do the clinicals. It is common to have odd schedules like very early in the morning or late into the evening and to have a different schedule every week, or at least something more complicated than one schedule the first half of the semester and another the second half or to have different schedules alternate weeks.

Another complications would be the lack of lead time in doing the required homework. A common scenario is: even if you know you will be writing a care plan for each clinical, you won't get the pt information needed to even start until a few hours before the clinical. Even if you usually get 3 or 4 hours of study time at your job, you probably can't count on it for sure.

You could probably do the prereq classes while working that job, assuming you are normally on top of things.

Edit to add: assuming you could fit the hours into a week. Out of curiosity: 168 hours in a week - 60 work = 108 - 56 sleep = 52 - 3 showers/brushing teeth = 49 - 12 class (for prereqs, nursing school is usually more) = 37. That leave 5 hours per day for sitting on the toilet, grocery shopping, laundry, exercise, travel time anywhere you go ... assuming you eat at work or in class and don't need to study or do homework at all other than at work.

Hm, you would need to be REALLY on top of things and probably still need to live with someone willing to do all the shopping/cooking/laundry/getting gas or extra pencil leads/etc.

x_factor · Jan 13, 2013

I don't see working 60 hours a week feasible while trying to tackle nursing school.

COMPLEXBeautyy · Jan 13, 2013

I don't have many responsibilities. Just wanted to save money but I guess I can cut down and work less hours. Nursing school is priority.

SopranoKris, MSN, RN, NP · Jan 13, 2013

You guess you can cut down? Did your advisors not tell you what the time requirement is for school? Our program doesn't recommend working at all. If you must, they say to keep it to 20 hours or less (if you're in the full time program).

x_factor · Jan 13, 2013

From what I've seen from your past postings, you're still doing pre-req classes, which explains why you find it manageable to work 60 hours a week and still study. Once you start actual nursing school, then attempt to work 60 hours a week. You'll figure out the answer real quick.

COMPLEXBeautyy · Jan 14, 2013

From what I've seen from your past postings you're still doing pre-req classes, which explains why you find it manageable to work 60 hours a week and still study. Once you start actual nursing school, then attempt to work 60 hours a week. You'll figure out the answer real quick.[/quote']
LMAO! Thanks!

nursesunflower85 · Jan 14, 2013

When I first started the program I thought I could do 30 hours easily, I've always been able to work full time a go to school full-time as well.

once in nursing school I quickly realized the challenge of doing both. First semester I worked 2 days a week, total of 16 hours, the I cut back in second semester to one day 8 hours, towards the last half of my second semester I was calling out of work every other week. So in my third semester I worked 2 days a month, I will be starting my last semester in a few weeks and I plan to not work at all if possible, but ofcourse, I pay rent and have bills, so I will have to work at least twice a month, and thank God for financial aid and scholarships. So you can guess I'm a pretty broke nursing student, true, but that will change by Fall! Good luck in your decision!

COMPLEXBeautyy · Jan 14, 2013

When I first started the program I thought I could do 30 hours easily, I've always been able to work full time a go to school full-time as well.
once in nursing school I quickly realized the challenge of doing both. First semester I worked 2 days a week, total of 16 hours, the I cut back in second semester to one day 8 hours, towards the last half of my second semester I was calling out of work every other week. So in my third semester I worked 2 days a month, I will be starting my last semester in a few weeks and I plan to not work at all if possible, but ofcourse, I pay rent and have bills, so I will have to work at least twice a month, and thank God for financial aid and scholarships. So you can guess I'm a pretty broke nursing student, true, but that will change by Fall! Good luck in your decision!

How do you pay your bills if you only work twice a month? I have some bills as well and I don't have much support. Being unemployed will definitely not be tolerated in my home. I want to give nursing school my all.