Working options while in school?

[breakinglightx]

First off, I am new to the allnurses community. I am sixteen years old. I might be a young face in this community, or maybe I'm not so out of the ordinary, but I have a few questions that I hope to have answered here, and with the plan I have for the next few years of my life, I hope to be an active member of the community. I've read through the forums and it seems to me that there are a lot of chances to both get great advice and learn a lot of things from more experienced nurses. :) Long story short, I dropped out of high school. I just turned sixteen and I took my GED test recently. I scored higher than expected on it (3010 total score with an average of 602.) I'm not going to write a novel in here, but my life has been... trying, to say the very least. After I officially quit school a year and some months ago, I started pondering what I was going to do with my life. I thought of my personality traits, likes and dislikes, what I am willing to deal with in a workplace and what I cannot handle. This may sound crazy, but my wish to have a job helping people, and my ability to easily defuse in highly stressful situations and deal with disgusting, morbid, and truly shocking things led me to the idea of becoming a registered nurse. I will probably be starting classes at the local community college in about eight weeks time, and even though the nursing program is somewhat selective after the pre-requisites, I've been told by several people that if you put a little extra effort into it and get everything taken care of as early as possible, it's not too hard to get into the nursing program there. So, with all of that having been added, I wanted to ask if there were medically-related fields that a nursing student could get into to work to ease the financial burden of getting through school (not so much tuition in my case, but other things, such as the rent.) I know that I cannot get into any kind of healthcare job until I turn 18, and that is what I'm looking at. For now, things are somewhat stable, but my parents are in poor health and things are getting worse every day. I am used to handling situations and winging it like Charlie Brown (for every good thing that happens, several terrible things do.) I am more of a thrill seeker and like to live day to day, but I've realized that I need to calm down a little bit and start getting my life together. The sooner that I do, the easier it will be. At the risk of sounding rude and ignorant, I haven't come here to be told that I'm not looking into the right field and that I've chosen the option for shocking reasons. I have had enough of that. I know that I want to help people with whatever career choice I make, I know that I can hold my ground in both awkward and shocking situations and I'm not afraid to bust my ass to get the job done. I am used to that, also. I am used to typing block posts, as I have a tendency to get aggravated if my paragraphs aren't all the same length. I may have also posted this in the wrong place, and if I have excessive grammatical or spelling errors (I am watching my screaming 17-month-old niece on 16 hours of sleep since Monday and I've been babysitting a different number of kids for about an average of 14 hours a day all week, so I'm not at my best right now, nor am I in the mood to do spelling and grammatical check.) Also, if I have posted this in the wrong place, I apologize in advance and will show no protest to it being moved to the right place.

If you managed to muddle your way through my excessively long post, kudos and gratitude to you, and if you have anything to add that might help me out or give me a little "been there, done that" advice, I'd highly appreciate it.

[soulofme]

Darn...where did I put my magnifying glass?

[breakinglightx]

I'm kind of bad about using small print, but it's easier for me to read. I'll go edit my original post, if I can do so - and it appears that I can't.

[FA to CRNA2b]

Most of us are over 16 and need larger font:)

Check out career opportunities at hospitals and Long Term Care. You may be able to get some type of aid position.

[WayneStateKatie]

Many places you don't need to be 18 to work in the hospital. I know several girls who worked as nurses aides in the hospital while they were still in high school (they were 16). It was great exposure to what nursing really is, and it would help pay the rent while you're in school too.

Some hospitals will train you, others will require that you be a CNA (meaning you took a class. These can run about 800 bucks through a local red cross), and long term care facilities are almost always hiring aide help. If you manage to get a position in a hospital a lot of them offer tuition reimbursement too which will cover some, if not all, of your tuition while going through the nursing program (some hospitals will cover books too!).

It sounds like you've got a good head on your shoulders and a plan in place. Good luck and I hope everything works out!

[breakinglightx]

Wow, that's really good to hear. :) I wanted to go through a private college (my family income is kaput, and I qualify for just about every type of aid there is - the only reason I am online is because of a wireless connection that I'm getting from somewhere, but am not sure where,) because they have more flexible scheduling and accelerated courses, but they require that all incoming students be 18 to study any kind of health-care program, so I'm going through the community and technical college system either. It's a plus, though, because the tuition is a lot less and it's only three or four miles from here in the event that I have to walk. Some people think it's weird that I'm a guy and I want to be a nurse, but my usual retort (when I don't feel like correcting years of societal ignorance) is to say "well, somebody has to lift the patients that can't lift themselves. Think about that." My sister came up with the idea of me becoming a CNA first. There are several programs around here that will accept payment plans, and there are plenty of places I could go to get help paying the fee.

And, thank you, it's really good to hear that. Most people I know are betting on me to drop out before I finish my first semester.

[nickos]

First of all, I want to say that you sound like a very mature, level-headed person. When I was 16, I had no idea what I wanted to do. It sounds like you have been through a lot and are pretty realistic about what to expect as far as preparing for nursing school.

I currently live in Oregon, but lived in Wisconsin through high school and had a few friends who were CNAs who worked in nursing homes. They really enjoyed it and made much better money than I did at that age in the local grocery store. I am still not a nurse; still trying to get into a nursing program, but believe that CNA experience is invaluable. If you can get your CNA license (and check out opportunities in your state) and start work at a nursing home or hospital, I think that would give you a huge leg up.

Also, my advice for you in regards to the nursing program is this:

I took all of my prereqs over about two years. I was working full time and taking 2-3 classes a term. In high school, I generally had a 3.8-4.0 GPA but in the prereqs I ended up getting about a 3.2. At the schools in my area/state, it is pretty much impossible to get into the nursing program without at least a 3.8. The reason for this is not that a 3.8 is actually REQUIRED, but rather that the ratio of applications to open slots in the program is so insane - the local community college gets about 400 applicants for 75 slots every year; so the idea is to be competitive with the others who are just as if not more qualified.

My advice there is to take the prereqs slow at first to make sure you can make As in them. As I've been told more than once (and I wish I would have realized this), as far as nursing school goes, you need As to get in but Cs to STAY in.

Best of luck! I hope to hear updates from you and wish you the best.

~nicole