working and managing nursing school

[vccorscc]

here is my situation...i work 48 hours a week and will be starting nursing school . i work 2 jobs, 24 at each job...one of the jobs is basicly sit at a desk do nothing...i have made this time into school work time when im at that job.it has really worked to my benefit to be able to do all my hw when im there .. i can study and do whatever... . but lately i have been reading through some threads and have seen things like "you can try to work and go to school but you will pay for it later"...its really starting to make me doubt myself ....is there anyone on here who actauly does work and is doing just fine in nursing school?

[criticalRN10]

I would definately suggest trying to get it down to one job at least.. I know that for at least my first semester, I could have managed a job probably if I absolutely needed to, the second semester not so much, and next semester for me is going to be horrible since we have two full days of classes and three 12 hour clinicals every week...I don't know where exactly you would fit in the time to even go to your job unless it was work from home, much less finding time to study for the tests every week. And the last semester you will be busy getting all of your clinical hours and finishing everything up. This could definately depend on what sort of program you are going into and what kind of curriculum it has, the school that I am at is known for being pretty difficult and being wanted to hire after graduation due to the reputation of new grads from my school being able to adapt to the hospital and work setting alot faster than other schools, and this is probably due to the course load and clinicals that we do. All in all, I think working during school is possible, but you need to cut down your hours when necessary ( and KNOW when it's necessary) and fine-tune your organization skills like crazy to fit them both in.

[iiliana]

I agree with ksRgonnabN19, it depends on the program you are in and the curriculum and definitely know your priorities. I use to work about 25-30hrs/week during the first 2 years of the nursing program. It was difficult to manage both work and school, I made it through. During the first 2 years for me, it was mainly options...only about 1-2 days of clinical. However, after patho/pharm and the start of 3rd year, I had to stop working so much. I weaned down to weekends, then slowly working once a week then quitting my job because I couldn't find time to work. 3rd year was tough because there was more clinical hours to accomplish (3 days of clinical/week) so I had very little time to manage that and homework from lectures. But, this doesn't mean this is what will happen to you...just know your priorities. For example, you don't have any assignments one week..you can mostly likely work if you feel comfortable with that idea. Good luck!! :)

[Hopeful3]

I am working and quite a bit but I am realistic that I will have to cut down! I am planning on doing on 1 o 2 nights a week this next year and then only working casually or on call after that!