Nursing School

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
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So, at present, I’m getting a degree from the University of Georgia in Sociology. However, day in and day out, I am gripped by a desire to work in the medical profession. Medical school is out for reasons of finance and time, so I’m considering going to nursing school. I’m rather excited and nervous by the proposition, and I was wondering if any of you glorious folks had gone through something similar. Have any of you tried to juggle a normal college career with a nursing school adventure? Do you think it’s doable, what with the emergence of so many options with online degree programs (even though becoming an RN requires an in-house practical)? And, just to assuage my personal misgivings, just how odd would you feel if you were in the hospital and your nurse was a male?

As an aside, this being my first post and all, I’ll introduce myself. Hi, I’m Soul, and I’ve lurked here for…gosh, I don’t know how long (I remember when “Hi, Opal!” was uproariously hilarious, if that says anything). I’m a student at UGA, as I mentioned above, studying sociology. I finally decided to join up after all these years, and I’m pretty excited. It’ll be a tough time getting rid of me :smiley:

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Anybody who can correctly use and spell the word “assuage” is A-okay in my books! Welcome to your guesthood - hope to see you as a fully-fledged Squiddy soon.

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Ask, and you shall receive. The SDMB has just been entrusted with fifteen of my finest dollars – you’re stuck with me for a year!

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I like male RNs and wish we had more. I work OB/GYN, so we don’t get many although the ones we do are the best. ER and OR get the male RNs although our NICU has a few and why not? Half of the docs are men so half of the nurses should be men! I was 36 when I started nursing school, worked 2 part-time jobs and summers and it’s the best thing I ever did.
And welcome to the Dope.

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Welcome, Soul. Nursing school was so long ago for me, I doubt my experiences would be much help. That said, I went to school full time, had a part time job (in the school’s microbiology lab, while raising a husband and 2 year old son.

Out of 47 students in my class, only 2 were male.
Over the years, I’ve worked with many wonderful men who chose nursing.

Remember, you wouldn’t be a Male Nurse, but a man who has a career as a nurse. The label is outdated and unnecessary.

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Male nurse here – and a brand new one at that, at the age of 36. I just graduated in May, and got my license a couple of weeks ago. I’m currently in orientation for the hospital where I’ll be working.

Hate to tell you, but a “normal” college career PLUS nursing school simultaneously is flat-out impossible, unless you’re Superman. The nursing school might not even let you try to do that. Nursing school is a full-time commitment, and then some. You have to be prepared to sacrifice, study longer and harder than you’ve ever studied before, and cut back your social life to a tiny fraction of what it was before. You will have sleepless nights, constant stress, and chronic fatigue.

But you know what? When I was gong through all that, not once – not even for a second – did I regret it or want to quit. Because it was what I wanted to do. It sounds like that’s where your head is at too. The fact that I made some of the best friends of my life in nursing school helped as well. You’ll motivate each other, support each other, compete with each other, and forge bonds that only a shared stressful experience can forge.

I was extremely fortunate in that I didn’t have to work while I was in school, due to a combination of support from my partner, student loans, and extra help from our families. It wasn’t easy, but we knew the payoff would be worth it. There were plenty of people who worked part time, but I wouldn’t have wanted to try to do that. If you don’t have to – don’t.

A lot of nursing schools have waiting lists, not to mention pre-requisites, so it’s possible you’ll be able to finish your current college career before starting nursing school.

I’d say my class was roughly 10% men. No patient ever found it weird or uncomfortable; in fact they were all very supportive. One even told me that the male nurses she had had were nicer and better than the females. :slight_smile:

So please do join us! Keep us posted. My email is in my profile if you want to contact me for anything.

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Welcome, Soul!

I am not a nurse, but Mr. SCL is. He got his degree in stages - first a degree in Speech & Drama, then LPN school while working as a nurse’s aide at a nursing home. After 8 years in the Army (which did not follow through on their promise that he could continue his education once he enlisted) he went back to school and got his RN.

Go for it! There are many, many options to nurses and male nurses are needed in all of them. Your Sociology background will help in a lot of them. For example, right now Mr. SCL is a nurse for a quadriplegic patient (private duty) and works weekends as a charge nurse at the local psych hospital. So you are needed.

Nursing school is not easy, and clinicals can be brutal. There is a reason for the expression “nurses eat their young” - some older nurses may be kind to patients but they are not nice to trainees. If you can tough it out there is a rewarding field waiting for you!

Good luck!

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My SiL’s Dad has ALS; being a pretty big man (not so much any more, sadly), when they started looking for home help they had the condition that it had to be a guy who was OK with nursing-type stuff. They found one, there’s only another guy in town who does that kind of jobs and they’re both working at it full-time, no lack of work. The guy they have is a widower who nursed his wife through the cancer that ultimately won; he’s been able to take some “nurse aid” courses through the local labor unions.

My previous GP’s nurse is called Juan and has a beard. My reason for changing GPs was that, being out of the country, it’s a lot easier if you can have your SiL for your GP - I can ask questions by email!

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Welcome Soul!

How would you feel about Pharmacy School? It seems like a nice, indoor, job with little heavy lifting.

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This has been incredibly informative and helpful, thanks to everyone who has responded!

Paul in Saudi, I considered pharmacy school for a while, but ultimately decided it wasn’t for me. When it came down to it, I decided that I wanted my contribution to patient health to come not just from dispensing medication, but also from being there for them as a more all-around caretaker. I know that pharmacists can assume that role as well, but in my mind, being an RN fits almost perfectly with my career aspirations.

Licentious, you raise a great point. I’m still shopping around for nursing schools, but the idea that they wouldn’t allow me to enroll while still in college hadn’t even occurred to me. I’m hoping that I can work something out – I’m moving into my senior year at UGA, and I’m going to be taking two extremely light semesters. I think I can do it, but it is definitely a scary thought. It sounds like the payoff is going to be worth it, though.

Cyn, I’m hoping to work in pediatric oncology, NICU, or radiology, at least at first. I like the thought of working with kids, with being an intensivist, or both. I’m sure though that once I actually get into it, my mind will change daily.

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Soul—another RN here. I went to nursing school at age 27 after trying most of the majors in arts and social sciences. I went for a three year community college degree. It was full time and then some. Think homework before classes start. (registration day… the teacher gives us a handout…read chapter 3 and answer these six questions plus complete a nursing care plan for first day of classes…ok that was in second year, but still) I worked evenings and weekends as a homecare aide. Third year I quit and moved in with my parents because I couldnt see shorting my school work to have a job that would allow me to afford an apartment I was never home for because I was always either working or at school. final semester I had consolidations, where I worked full time for free …plus school work.
If you are even thinking about persuing a full RN as opposed to doing an LPN (who are nurses too, just with a slightly lesser scope of practice) or a Personal support worker, nurses aide, or something…forget doing it while in school. table it for a year then give it your all. Its not a cakewalk, and I for one would not want a nurse who fit the course in between a senior year of university. If you want to take some electives… that might make your course easier … sure grab an anatomy and physiology class. I had to take develpmental psychology and aslo a few sociology courses as part of my RN and I challenged them because I already had them as undergrad courses at the university…but please do not think you can just slide your RN in between your other classes. Its a gruling course and it should be your whole focus…

Im a single mom now, working as a nurse, doing my extra courses for my BScN and I find it really tough going. I have NO CLUE how single moms did the course. Its a lot tougher than you might think.

Having said all that… Male RNs are great. In psych they are really in demand, sometimes get preferential treatment to the women, especially if they are bringing a bit of muscle to the job with them. More details on that if you want…

Juliefoolie RN '99

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Juliefoolie, you reminded me of another question I meant to ask. I’m sure it varies wildly from school to school, but you mentioned that you had some difficulty obtaining credit for classes you had taken as an undergrad. Before I was a sociology student, I was in biotechnology which gave me a decent science background (two semesters of biology, two of inorganic chemistry, one of organic chemistry, one of genetics, one of biochemistry, two of physics, and also psychology and abnormal psychology). I wonder how well those courses would translate into a nursing school atmosphere.

ETA: I suppose questions generally have question marks appended to them. I intended to ask, how do you guys think my prior exposure to and knowledge of science will alter my nursing school experience?

The general feeling that I’m getting from this thread is that, if I’m absolutely willing to kill myself, finishing my undergrad degree and starting nursing school at the same time is possible, but inadvisable. I’m also getting the impression that being an RN is totally worth it and is a very rewarding career path. I’m super excited, but also a bit more down to earth than I was when this thread began. I think I’m going to go with the consensus here and make sure I can give my RN studies the entire focus they deserve.

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I’m not a nurse, but I was an RT in hospitals for a while, and from what I saw of hospital life, this is absolutely a factor - nursing can be physically heavy work. Have you considered the shiftwork nature of nursing? That was one of the factors that finally drove me out of laboratory technologist work - I can’t function while working nights. There are nursing (and lab) jobs that don’t involve shiftwork, of course, but the majority of them do and always will.

As a general comment, I think it’s great that men and women are moving into occupations traditionally dominated by the opposite gender. The best places I’ve ever worked have always been a mix of genders; I think single gender workplaces can get unbalanced, with all the members of the same sex magnifying the undesirable traits of that gender.

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I don’t mind heavy lifting or sustained physical labor; in fact, my favorite hobby is weightlifting (I hesitate to call it bodybuilding, since I don’t have the intention of ever showing in a contest).

I have pretty limited experience with unconventional hours, but I don’t think I’d have a serious problem with them. That may change when kids come into the picture (I’m currently engaged, planning to be married in a year, with kids in five or six), but that bridge can’t be crossed until it’s been built and come to.

featherlou, I couldn’t agree with you more. One of my favorite fields of study within sociology is that of gender, and occupational inequality within that. The blurring of gender lines between professions is a great thing, and something I’ll be happy to be a part of.

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Your soc major with your science background is invaluable–you may well have already gotten most of the pre-reqs out of the way. I went through a BSN program 20+ years ago. The only way to know for sure is to talk to the nursing school you’re interested in.
IMS, we student nurses did MORE work (as in homework, projects etc) than the med school students then (no idea how it is now). You need to be able to think critically and analyze data.

As for the male part of this–so what? I enjoy working with male nurses, most of whom are confident in their maleness and basically very nice guys. I’ve only known one (male) nurse who was harassed (by a female co-worker no less. She was reprimanded). You will run into older female pts who do not want you to do peri-care or Foley insertions on them. And rarely now (thank god) do you find a male pt who is afraid of a male nurse due to homophobia (most male nurses I know are hetero).

I would not recommend LPN-if you want to be an RN, you will end repeating most of your work that you did for LPN.

I am leaving the profession (to follow my own dream of being a librarian), but nursing has bee good to me in many ways. One great aspect of nursing is that it is so flexible.

I would not recommend finishing your one degree AND being in nsg school at the same time. Look at the curriculum-you may be able to finish your soc degree with the classes needed for nsg.

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Another thing, is remember Nursing is a 'profession" and professional schools call the shots. They pick your program times etc for you, for the most part. Very little of the free flowing oh, I think I will take Cognitive Psych at 1100 rather than Behavioral at 8. Nope. I arrived, after being used to picking and chosing in my undergrad years, to be handed a thick booklet. It was my time table. And my course times and room numbers changed weekly until the begining of November. It was rather crazy. I did have some space in my schedule, not needing to take certain electives and the standard English class everyone else did, but all the same… Nursing School is your full time job, everything else comes after. A few years before that they didnt even allow students to have a job. In the late sixties women weren’t even allowed to be married in nursing school. so… yeah… take it seriously.

But yes it is so worth it. Even when I hate it, I still love it.

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Welcome to the Straight Dope, Soul ! Some of us have searched high and low for our soul and there you were all along. Splendid.

Mom quit teaching after about 25 years to go to nursing school. She’d wanted to do it since she was 16. Go for it. When someone is driven by that kind of high-energy desire to have a career in anything, but especially something involving service to others, they should do whatever it takes to make it happen.

You will be excellent at it because you want it for all of the right reasons. :slight_smile:

Cartooniverse

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Have you considered becoming a PA? The salary is generally as good as or better than the more specialized nurses and the training is only 2 years.

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Another RN chiming in here to encourage you to follow your dreams.
Don’t worry about the “male nurse” part at all. We love having good nurses no matter the gender.
Patients don’t mind either.

I also agree with what others have said about trying to do both college and nursing school. I went to nursing school (which IS college also) and worked full time as well and that was hell. I was a semi zombie for a couple of years until graduation so try not to overwhelm yourself.

Having said that, good luck in all your future endeavors and welcome to the Dope. I’m still a newb here myself.

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I haven’t looked into being a PA, mostly because I like the thought of becoming an RN so much that I sort of stopped looking around. Also, having had a conversation with my fiancee last night about this whole thing, she thinks that it’s a great idea for me to work flexible part-time hours while getting my RN after I graduate from UGA. She’s also perfectly willing to put in a few extra hours at work (she’s an environmental consultant) so that we can live comfortably. God I love that woman, her support really makes this decision feel much, much more right.