How to Become a Nurse While Working Full Time
One of the most challenging accomplishments in life is going back to school to become a nurse. It can seem insurmountable if you plan to go to school while continuing to work full-time. However, for many students, the only way they can afford to go back to school is to keep working.
The good news is that with the options for day or night classes, many students can find success in continuing to work while attending school. It often comes down to going into schooling with the right mindset. Learn more about how to tackle being a student and a full-time employee.
What Are Some of the Challenges Nursing Students Face While in School?
Nursing students have to deal with a number of challenges in the classroom. They have to be able to memorize a large amount of information that needs to be recalled in life and death circumstances. A nursing student has to learn about complex topics, such as medications and anatomy.
They also have to be able to perform a variety of nursing tasks, such as taking a person's blood pressure or drawing blood. It can be difficult to tackle everything that nursing school can throw at you, and do everything else in your life.
How Can I Balance Nursing School & Work?
There are some ways that you can successfully navigate going to nursing school while continuing to work full time. Flexible scheduling, time management, and study skills can be successfully used to help with balancing a full course load while continuing to work.
Convenient Scheduling
Between your workplace and school, you'll have to work on incorporating a schedule that will accommodate both. For some students, that may mean having to take only night classes because they have to work a regular day shift while other students may have to alternate when they go to school and when they work because of how their workplace schedules them.
It's important to tell your place of work that you are going to school so they can help you work around important hours, such as those needed for classes or clinical hours. Also, let your professors know that you are working full-time in addition to school. This will help them understand your situation.
Time Management
The way you handle your time management is another way to make it possible to attend classes while working. A student that's unable to keep track of when a paper is due or what hours they work during a week is going to struggle during their time back at school.
Time management is key. One of the best actions that you can take when it comes to time management is keeping a calendar and to-do list. You'll want to keep track of personal, professional, and school related tasks to make it easier to juggle it all.
Study Skills
The final piece to the puzzle is your study skills. One of the problems that people fall into when it comes to going back to school and having to study again is ignoring what works for them. It's important that you find the best way to study based on your learning style.
You may find that traditional studying efforts aren't effective for you, and that you need to employ out of the box thinking when it comes to a great study session. For instance, you may be able to just read your textbook or notes over and over again to commit it to your memory, but this traditional effort may not work. You may find it more beneficial to write out what you've learned on note cards or join a study group.
Are you considering going back to school to become a nurse and want to continue working full-time? Contact us at ECPI University today to learn more about our flexible scheduling for our Associate of Applied Science Degree of Nursing. Our admissions staff can help you with any questions or concerns that you have about the program. Don't hesitate, connect with a friendly admissions advisor today.
It could be the Best Decision You Ever Make!
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