Working and nursing school

[Canadianmummy]

Hello,

I am glad to have found this sure and I've been researching and reading a lot. I want to be a metal health nurse, I suffered from post Partum depression and spent time in a facility and it was life changing. I have to get my pre-requirements first. I currently work full time right now but will be going to part time, I thankfully make enough to help pay rent and my fiancé pays for everything else.

my question, is when I go to nursing school I know I will have to work a lot less. Do you think working two 8 hour shifts on the weekend would be okay and not hurt my studies?

Thank you!

[pmabraham, BSN, RN]

Good day:

It really depends on the program, and how well you can handle time management (i.e. discipline, focus, juggling, etc.). In the full-time RN program I am in, the professors encourage everyone to avoid working. However, a number (I would guess half or more) of my classmates work. One works as a full time paramedic, and he's doing well in the program. A number of the others work part time ranging from under 30 hours per week to a handful of hours per week.

Thank you.

[Rose_Queen, BSN, MSN, RN]

A lot of it is going to depend on what you can do and the type of help you can expect from family. I worked slightly more than full time during my initial nursing program- 16 hour shifts on Saturday and Sunday and 4 hour shifts a few times a week. I was a student who commuted to a school 15 minutes from home and had a lot of support from family who took over all cleaning and cooking and other household tasks.

When I completed my MSN, I was living alone and working an average of 50-60 hours per week at a job that had 40 hours scheduled shift plus a lot of on call that involved working overtime. I ended up paying a cleaning service to take over household cleaning duties and a meal service where once a month I picked up meals to fill my freezer that I just had to heat and eat (but much healthier than the frozen dinners found in the freezer aisle at the grocery store). It was doable but required sacrifice, primarily monetary.

What amount of work you can handle depends a lot on your personal circumstances, time management, and the sacrifice you're willing to make.

[anh06005, MSN, APRN, NP]

As PP said what you can handle is totally individual.

I have always been one of those people that studies a bit and gets it while I had classmates who studied basically every free minute they had and just passed. Not to say I didn't try hard it's just I know my brain.

So with my free time I was able to work 20-ish hours a week for some extra money.

Some people are blessed with being able to get away with it while some really have to invest more time in their studies.

Nursing school truly takes over your life while you're in it so expect the absolute worst. I have an old coworker who is in her first semester of RN school who posted saying she thought it would get a little easier after the first few weeks and getting on a schedule...wrong.