Second Careers in Nursing

While the availability of jobs in many industries is shrinking, nursing career choices continue to grow. Right now, there are over 100,000 vacant nursing jobs, according to the U.S. Department of Labor. By the year 2020, the nursing shortage is expected to reach a whopping 800,000. Couple that with an aging Baby Boomer population, and it is obvious that the number of job opportunities for trained nurses is and will continue to be quite large.

It's Never too Late to Be a Nurse

Oftentimes, those considering nursing as a second career worry that they may be too old to go into the field. In fact, according to the 2000 National Sample Survey of Registered Nurses, more than 81 percent of nurses are over the age of 35, with the average age of nurses at 45. The survey also found that the average age of nursing students is 30.5 – and that number is rising each year.
 
Additionally, school administrators say that second career nursing students:
  • are viewed by potential employers as having valuable maturity and decision-making skills that their younger classmates may not possess
  • come to class with more zeal
  • tend to be more focused on their work than younger students.
In most cases, teachers and nursing program supervisors report that older students tend to be the top students in their classes.
 
Because enrollment in nursing schools has been decreasing in recent years, health care providers and nursing schools continue to seek out non-traditional students like those looking to start a second career.

Your Body Can Handle Nursing

The physical demands of nursing depend on the type of environment you choose to work in, as well as the sort of health care in which you specialize. Nurses who work in schools or at a doctor's outpatient office will encounter less physically demanding work than those who work in a hospital or nursing home. Some of the major demands of nursing include:
  • being on-call
  • handling emergency situations
  • lifting immobile patients
  • losing a patient
  • standing/working on your feet for hours
  • working with the chronically ill and their families
  • working with the critically ill and their families
  • working in a short-staffed environment.
The physical toll of being a nurse will also depend on the type of nurse you want to become. Those who go into psychiatric, genetics or pain management nursing will endure much less physical demand than those who go into trauma, surgical or flight/transport nursing.

Figuring out Finances

Switching to a second career can also cause anxiety about making enough money during and after the change. When it comes to nursing, the financial transition is generally smooth and beneficial. Those pursing nursing who already have a college degree can enroll in an accelerated program, making the transition to a new career even faster.
 
Nursing students can also go to school part-time, making it possible to work and continue making money while pursuing a new career. However, if you want to go to school fulltime and are looking for ways to finance your further education, consider taking out student loans.
 
Upon graduation, many nursing students already have a number of job offers from which to choose. According to the U.S. Department of Labor, the annual median earning of a registered nurse in 2006 was $57,280. This average is currently more than the median salaries earn by police officers, dieticians, nutritionists and teachers.
Share |