Working while in school

I think part of it depends on your job. I haven't started nursing school yet, but freshman year I worked and went to school. I worked about 18-20 hours/week in a hospital as a dietetic aide, while doing 17 credits my first semester. That wasn't too hard, but it was exhausting. My second semester I had microbiology and my professor said that I needed to spend 4 hours every day in intense study (he wasn't kidding). I worked about 10 hours/week on the side, which wasn't so bad. Although, school gets harder and harder!

I would suggest that you should talk with your manager and see if you can work a few hours on the weekends. See how that goes and work from there. It it affects your academics, you should quit your job. Don't let your job jeopardize your nursing school. Nursing school is an investment that, if done well, will pay off in the end. That is your goal.

I think all nurses/students should be CNA's first. IMO, you get experience with patients and patient care as well as the opportunity to learn provided you work alongside Nurses willing to teach you. It also lets you know how important CNAs can be, and how hard they work.

I also think it gives you a good idea if nursing is something you are capable of and what it is really like, because nursing school is very different than the real world.

It also gives you the ability to work shifts that can be tailored to your school schedule, and bosses are much more likely to understand scheduling needs.

All of that being said, It is going to be much harder to do well in school if you are working. It is all about planning, and prioritizing. If you work 3 nights a week, more likely than not you are going to have to give up any social life what so ever. If you work over nights you may be able to study at work depending on the type of facility. Even in retail, some jobs have downtime where you have the chance to read.

Thats just my .02 cents. :-) Good luck.