I haven’t had a full time professional job in a long time. (I have been teaching exercise for the last 12 years) I have been considering an RN re -entry course. I worked as an RN pre -children.
Anyone done anything similar?
Thanks
@veruca I haven’t started an RN course but am seriously considering it. I’m taking a stats class now at a CC as it’s one of the prerequisites for the masters-entry nursing program.
Not in RN program, but I can tell that it is doable!! Finding a decently paying job after graduation is a different story… Networking or having a degree in a highly desirable filed definitely helps.
Thanks! I am just toying with the idea. Not sure if I want to go back to night shifts and holidays.
I’m finishing an 8 month chaplaincy internship and plan to start a residency program next year. Not as on your feet as nursing but a 50 hour/week plus papers and projects program.
My kid had several 50-ish classmates in her PA grad program. They were nurses and techs who wanted a career change.
10 or so years ago, a friend and I were downsized. I got a new job but she decided to stay home with her kids. Her H decided to go back to school, first to become a PI and when that didn’t pan out, he finished his associates and then went to school to become an RN. He’s in his early 60’s and hadn’t been in school since he dropped out of college in his early 20’s. He did very well and now has a good job with benefits and a pension.
Thanks!
Several of my nursing friends do NOT do nights or weekends as RNs. They work M-F, normal working hours. Some work as case managers, trying to help get clients back to work after WC injury. One works as discharge planner at a rehab Hospital. One is head of nursing at rehab Hospital.
My mom went back for a masters in special ed (she had elementary ed BA) after the youngest kid started kindergarten. I started a nonprofit health ed and advocacy organization just as I turned 50.
When I first met my wife she was in her 20’s. She was a domestic helper which basically means she watched wealthy people’s kids and cleaned houses and toilets for a living. She had a few thousand dollars of student debt even though she barely spoke english (she is from a different country). The student dent was some business program she did that she never even used. We got pregnant, she did, I helped, she moved in with me and was a mom for awhile. Her english got better. She worked in fast food but her boss treated her very badly and made her cry one night so she quit. She worked at Publix, sold Mary Kay stuff, did more domestic work part time while raising the kids.
None of her jobs made much money. Pocket change. Nothing big.
About two years ago she said she wanted $800 to take nursing courses from some side of the road strip mall place I’d never even heard of. I tried to talk her out of it but she insisted. I gave her the money and thought I’d never see it again. She went to school for 8-weeks or a few months, I can’t remember, it wasn’t long. She found a job as a nurse’s assistant (I think that is her job title) helping an elderly lady. She works in shifts with other nurses. She was supposed pass some test for some reason but never even took the test because she was employed already right out the door of the place. I didn’t honestly pay that much attention.
Then she gave me her W2 for about half a year for that first year after she completed the program. I was shocked! She was making about $45,000 a year! She went from making peanuts and gas money to making decent money and all of it off an $800 investment! She now is the one who makes the schedule for the elderly lady and, because of her contacts, matches up her friends and other people from that school to jobs she is too busy to take. She is literally running a small business by herself which isn’t bad considering she started from very menial work. I didn’t think it would work but these small nursing assistant programs are legit.
Is it cost effective? Wouldn’t it be a start from scratch kind of deal?
It is true that there are a lot of elders who need varying levels of assistance and charge anywhere from $19-45/hour with a 2-6 hour minimum, depending on the services being provided and agency. If any services are medical (like dispensing medications), rates are higher. If it’s mostly custodial and companionship, it’s lower.
No if you have been an RN with a job in a hospital or nursing home but quit working -you can take a re-entry program. It takes a few months and isn’t expensive. However you would need clinical hours at a hospital or nursing home with a preceptor and you would not get paid for those hours. Then most likely you would have to take what is going for a job -night shift or whatever. The jobs that HI mom mentioned probably wouldn’t be given to someone like me right out of a re -entry program.
Not really thinking about doing a CNA (Certified Nursing Assistant) program.(What GoNoles wife probably did) I know all that stuff already I think. It is the harder more technical things that I would need to be updated on. The pay for an RN should be substantially more for an RN than a CNA or CMA but it would be less stress maybe.
Nursing is hard work and I understand that it may be even harder now than it was when I was doing it years ago.
@GoNoles85 your wife sounds impressive.
I greatly admire anyone who has the motivation and will to go back to school and/or career change after 50.
My friend who is a case manager for a small firm started doing this after she had been out of nursing for a bunch of years raising her kids.
Another friend opted to go into public health and for a masters in public health and now works for our Dept of Health.
Money -the motivation is money 
@HImom I stand corrected
^Could you work in a doctor’s office or for a large practice? The nurses in my doctor’s practice seem to have pretty good conditions.
Oh yea, two other friends became public health nurses. One worked for the state and the other worked M-F at senior day care in a hospital. One other friend decided to go back to school to get a PhD and teach nursing at our local flagship U. She was 50. Another friend who is a nurse opted to work in an MD office, tho many MD offices hire staff with minimal training, not RNs.
BFF is retiring (age 55) with full benefits and was accepted to several PhD programs! She’ll have about a month off before she starts in the Fall. I was so surprised when she told me she was studying for the GRE.
So brave of you all, going back to school/work at this age!