Working as a nursing student

Brekka, ADN, RN · May 17, 2014

I'm assuming you're referring to working in a health care role as a nursing student, and not Starbucks on the weekends. I did not personaly work while in school, but remembering back to my first year of practice, I can spot some negatives and positives that may effect you in school. Also, you may get more responses from other SNs in the SN section.

First and foremost, the benefits. The biggest benefit that I can see would be the patient interaction, and actually becoming comfortable with patients, bodies, and bodily functions. Unless you've worked as a CNA before, or some other similar role, being able to comfortably approach and interact with your patients is something that gets easier with experience. I've noticed my students tend to be shy and reluctant to go in the room and assess their assigned patient, much less talking with them about their bowel movements or other embarrassing topics. Being able to work with people with a sort of calm confidence takes some time and experience.

Learning new ways to do procedures, organization and prioritization, and getting an up front look are some benefits (these can also be a negative as I'll explain later). Also, actually seeing and caring for people with issues you've read about in books or lectures helps to cement what you've learned already, and may bring up some more questions that you'll want to research later that can only help you later on.

Now along with the positives, there are some downfalls. As I mentioned earlier, learning new methods to procedures may also be a negative. Nursing school crams a lot of information into your head in a short amount of time, and trying to remember everything is exhausting. Now throw in a new way of completing a procedure or two, and it's easy to get mixed up and miss something. It's sort of like learning how to run without learning how to stand first. Usually the methods taught to you are basic, and usually they're the easiest and safest ways possible, and new methods could prove more detrimental at this point in your career.

Another negative that most student nurses aren't prepared for is seeing how nurses function throughout their day. You may see them in passing throughout your clinical days with your instructors, but actually working with them for an entire shift is very different. First, some nurses have developed bad habits, short cuts, or cheats, that can be negative to adopt, especially in school, and some may not be safe. It's scary, but it does happen. Nurses are human, and our responsibilities and job duties increase every day. We are fallible.

A big downfall is the exposure to dark humor. This is a normal everyday part of nursing, and it can hurt or offend you if you're not familiar with it. When I was a student and I experienced it, I told myself I'd never be like that, that it was horrible, and the nurses who I encountered it with must have been bitter and mean people. There was no way I was going to be like that. Alas, it didn't take long for me to learn that it was one of the best ways for nurses to cope with the amazing amounts of stress we experience every day. Heck,the only way my family made it through my grandmas passing a few months ago was through dark humor, to which we this day still joke about.

While there are many more negatives and positives, I had tried to go to bed 4 hours ago and am failing in my ability to make sense of what I'm writing. In the end, if you do decide to work while in school, talk with your instructors and question them on any concerns you have. If you were in fact referring to working at Starbucks on the weekend I can't help you, though the free coffee may make it worthwhile.

akulahawkRN, ADN, RN, EMT-P · May 17, 2014

If you're referring to working while going to nursing school in general, well, I'm one of those students that not only worked, but worked full time while going to school full time. Here's the one thing that made it all possible: work schedule generally meshed well with school. I have some awesome co-workers that also were willing to be a little flexible with their schedules at times so that I could go to school. If your work schedule and school schedule don't mesh well, then you have some very tough choices to make.

The other thing that made it possible was that I was able to do most of my studying while at work. It wasn't a healthcare related field, but that's not an issue for me. I was in EMS for 7 years before transitioning to my current job, and I transitioned into being a nursing student while working at my current job. I probably would have been better prepared to take on a nursing role had I been a CNA for a while. Still, I was able to get a lot of studying in at work (included those dreaded care plans) and that definitely lessened some of the stress.

For most people, I would NOT recommend working more than 20 hours per week if you don't have a work situation like mine, and if you don't have to work at all, don't. Being a student is tough enough as it is. Figure that (at first) for every unit, you'll spend about 4x that per week studying. So, with a 12 unit course, you'll spend between 36 and 48 hours per week studying on top of being in class. As you learn how you learn nursing material most efficiently for you, that will drop.

Socially, for a while, the majority of the time you'll be with your classmates. If you have a good group, they'll become like your second family. These people are going to be the only people that know exactly what you're going through because they're going through the same stuff with you. Your "seniors" can help guide you through because they've been there. As you become senior students to others, you'll help them too. You won't notice this, but your current batch of friends will: your topics of conversation will drift toward nursing stuff and most folks won't appreciate it or truly understand it. They'll just grin and nod.

Sometimes at home you'll feel like a guest in your own house because you're not there often or you're not there often (because you're buried in your books). Your family will see you changing, and you'll see them changing, but you won't notice their changes as much because your mind will be elsewhere.

Then while you're at work, if you're lucky, you'll be able to do some studying. If not, your mind will likely have nursing thoughts running through it because you'll be thinking about when/how you can get back to doing your studying because you have an exam in a few days. While I've always done good work, for the past 8 months or so, my work hasn't been quite up to my usual level. That can happen. Now that I'm nearly done, my work quality is returning to normal. Be aware that drop off in your work can happen and hopefully it's not so bad that you lose your job over it.

One big positive thing about working while going to school is that you will naturally develop some very good time management skills out of necessity. You will just naturally learn how to do things more efficiently because you have less time to get it all done. You'll become good at scheduling things so that stuff meshes well. This is a skill that can translate into the clinical environment because you'll be doing much the same thing.

Bottom line is that if you have to work, work as few hours as possible so that you won't be under much stress while you're in school. Talk to your friends, family, and co-workers and tell them what's going on in a more big-picture sort of way because they'll get lost in the details. Let them know what you need and hopefully they'll be flexible enough to help you out. If you have kids that understand what's going on, talk to them too. Let them know that you'll be very busy for a while and you'll check in with them from time to time. Get their "buy-in" and you'll be amazed at what they can tolerate.

It's tough but often it's doable. Just be flexible and look to create a work/school schedule that meets your needs.

Good luck!

RNperdiem, RN · May 17, 2014

My CNA job paid for all of my nursing school education, car insurance, health insurance, and personal expenses. I lived at home with my parents and went to community college.

Weekends paid well and I could schedule my shifts around my class and clinical time.

I still had leftover time and energy for a social life.

Personally, for me, there were no cons, only pros.

T-Bird78 · May 18, 2014

I worked until the last semester of nursing school and only stopped then because I knew it'd be much harder and my clinicals would interfere with my working schedule. I worked M-F 4-10 at my son's daycare (they closed at midnight) and I was worn out. I hated only seeing my son when I'd wake him up for school in the mornings and when I kissed him after he was asleep at night. My first healthcare job was my first nursing job after I'd gotten my license. It was so tiring!!!!

RunBabyRN · May 18, 2014

I tried to work during the program, but my boss wasn't very understanding about my schedule, and I had to quit about a month into the program. I would have liked to have had the income, but we managed.

xiomara17 · Aug 9, 2014

I have had many instructors advise me that working while in such an intense program isnt wise. Unlike other degrees were you can juggle writing papers and midterms. Information in nursing school needs to be remembered forever. On the other hand some students work part time and go to school part time.