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I know people have gone into nursing by switching careers and doing the pre-reqs while working full time.
There's still tons of nursing schools compared to medical schools or dental schools, or even engineering schools.
With a 3.95 GPA, you're literally a shoo-in to get in 'somewhere'.
I got As in biology, chemistry, and anatomy in high school, but science was a bunch of memorization for me, whereas math came more naturally to me. I hope I can maintain my GPA as I try the prerequisites... It's been 11 years since high school, and my science in college was geography
The shortage isn't what they say it is. Take a look at the nursing forums where plenty of people have difficulty getting a job. My sister graduated with her BSN and ended up taking a crappy job at a nursing home after months of applying and getting no where.
My field (health care) cries a shortage as well but there are not that many openings. But I guess they figure if they say it enough, people will start to believe it.
What city/state are they in?
I'm in Atlanta, GA, and have a friend that graduated/worked in Savannah, moved to Atlanta and worked at Grady, making around 60k (did a bunch of night shifts, etc.)
He moved to California to take a travel nursing opportunity, and says if he wants to work 40 hours a week for the full year, he could be on track for 200k (but values his personal time more).
I graduated in May 2011, which was not a hot time to get any job after the recession. A month after graduation, found a temp job that paid $17/hour ($35k). 1 year later, jumped to another job, which paid $45k. 1.5 years later, jumped to a law firm (their financial dept that needed IT resources), and jumped again to $60k, and after a few raises here and there to $75k, and 1 more job switch, up to $85k.
I think I have good success in presenting myself via my resume, good with interviews, etc. I've had the college experience, so I will use that to network, shadow nurses, take on internships, to prevent settling for a nursing home job after graduation.
fishbrains +1. In addition, you don't have to be accepted into a nursing program to take bio, chem, A&P, etc., all of which you will need when you are admitted into the nursing program.
There is not a nursing shortage where I am at. Last year I heard nurses with graduate degrees talking about the crappy job market.
so does stress.... and there is a lot less of it from "politics" at night
people think you'll fall over dead for being up at night? look how many high school/college kids stay up all night for party/homework, you'd think everyone would be died by 25 with how much empathize you put on "night shift" being unhealthy
FYI, people who like night shift have learned to adjust their schedule for it... the "night" shift has no more impact on their circadian rhythm than a "day" shift worker
Swing shift is not a “night†shift. It is shifting between the day shift and the night shift or “swinging†between and Day and a night shift. It is very unhealthy.
Swing shift is not a “night†shift. It is shifting between the day shift and the night shift or “swinging†between and Day and a night shift. It is very unhealthy.
in that case it doesn't matter... unless its different where you are, no nurses are "strict" about shifts here, because there is almost always a greater shortage of night workers than day shift workers and they need the nights staffed as much as they need nurses on days, only fewer of them though
but no "day" nurse is only go be 100% days, all nurses "swing" if they can't get someone on nights voluntarily
in healthcare, everyone is "swing" by your definition based on how the staffing works out
fishbrains +1. In addition, you don't have to be accepted into a nursing program to take bio, chem, A&P, etc., all of which you will need when you are admitted into the nursing program.
There is not a nursing shortage where I am at. Last year I heard nurses with graduate degrees talking about the crappy job market.
Don't go into nursing because of the money.
I'm 26 now, but can't see myself in a cubicle for 40 more years... I'm the liaison between finance and IT right now. Even though I've successfully job hopped, I think I'm nearing my limit. I've tried to go to the next level via programming but can never get into it.
The biggest draw of nursing to me, is decent money, and able to work 3 or 4 times a week, plus the fact that nursing is a job found everywhere. I make $85k now, but felt comfortable once I reached $60k. I spend $1000 in housing payments, $500 on food (lunch/breakfast at work, eating out, some cooking), and after that, I still save a couple thousand every month.
I'm browsing this thread of recent nurse salaries, and it seems like ~$30/hour+ for high cost areas (NY, CA), $25 for thriving metros, $20 for stagnant metros. Those aren't amazing, but still much higher than minimum wage, and it's just the starting salary.
Have you thought about Physician's Assistant? According to the BLS, employment of physician assistants is projected to grow 37 percent from 2016 to 2026, much faster than the average for all occupations. As demand for healthcare services grows, physician assistants will be needed to provide care to patients.
US News is currently projecting a 0.7% unemployment rate among PA's. Median salary is $100k.
You are looking at about 26 months of education beyond college (if you have the perquisites), which includes clinical training.
There is a big bottleneck in qualified nursing instructors. I live in a small metro area. Signing bonuses up to $2,000 are being offered to any RN with a year's experience in a hospital setting. My girlfriend was in the hospital a couple of weeks ago and there was such a shortage of nurses one evening that patients were moved from one floor to the next because there weren't enough nurses to staff all floors.
I've looked at nurse practitioner a lot recently. I like that nursing, you can start as RN, and then grow into nurse practitioner (which makes similar $ to PA, but with more autonomy), or become nurse anesthesiologist (150k), or traveling nurse (good money, paid housing/travel).
Whereas with PA, I don't know too much about how PAs go about finding job after graduation without prior experience. I wonder if the 0.7% is calculated among current or former PAs. But if you were never able to find a PA job, do you get counted?
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