Single Parent, Changing major?

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I am currently working towards a degree in nursing. I start the actual program next month.

However, I have been having major doubts as to whether I can handle being a nurse, much less, whether I actually want to be a nurse.

As the title implies, I am a single mother. I am living with my parents until I am able to afford living on my own and support my child.

The thing is, I have always had a passion for writing. I probably would have been on track already towards a writing career had I not been persuaded to do nursing way back when. I also LOVE history and social studies.

First I want to ask, because I am a parent, is it a bad idea to try and change my educational goals right now? Even if I may not like what I am getting into?

In regards to writing and/or history, do you know of any career paths I could take that would be “compatible/doable” with parenthood? Are there any that don’t require several years of schooling before I could get a job that would provide enough for me and my child?

Your thoughts/suggestions are very much appreciated 🙂

God bless,
Jennifer
 
Have you thought about being a teacher? This obviously requires more schooling, but you could be a literature/English or history teacher.
 
Hey there. I am a recent college graduate but let my start off by saying it took me 5 years and 3 months to get my Bachelor’s degree- yikes. I changed my major multiple times and transferred schools once. I don’t think there is anything wrong with majoring in history or sociology- however, I can’t help but think it may not be a wise choice under your circumstances. As a single parent, it may be best to choose a field of study that will allow you to find gainful employment immediately after graduation (especially with the current economic climate). I know it isn’t too fun to think that you may not be able to “follow your dreams” just yet, but it may help to be as realistic as possible in this situation. Having said that, if you think you will be miserable as a nurse, I’m sure their are other majors that you would like more that can lead to meaningful and steady employment.
 
There are positions at schools that you don’t need a degree for, such as substitute teaching. And once you have that on your resume, you can move on to a regular tutor or secretary, and no doubt they could help you get on a fast track to becoming a teacher. If you want to be with your kids more often, but have to work, teaching is the perfect fit! (So you could even start this job now, and take classes online, or once/twice a week at night)

My mother is on a similar track… she was a substitute teacher for maybe ten years, and now just got hired as a tutor for remedial kids, and she just loves her job! I don’t think she has any intention of becoming a teacher, but if she really wanted to it would be no problem.
 
Could I ask how you changed your career aspirations to planning to be a nurse? What were the arguments that persuaded you? Just trying to help you examine your thinking process…
 
With the disappearance of print sources it is VERY difficult to have a career in writing pay.

And depending on what part of the country you’re in it may be difficult to get a job in a school without a masters, much less a bachelors or associates. Substitute teachers (in many states) are required to have just as much if not more education than “regular” teachers.

So, you’d be looking at atleast 3-6 YEARS of full time education for those career paths. And the jobs may be slim pickings.

As far as nursing…its what 3 semesters? You could have your degree in just over a year and have gainful employment.

Because of your circumstance (unemployed, single mom living with parents) your first obligation is to provide for your child. Lots of extra years of school…even to persue your dreams…dosn’t add up. The potential debt is astronomical, too.

I like to write (have been published in magazines & such) although I haven’t been able to ever throw myself into it and do that full time…let me tell you it dosn’t add up even if I did…

I went to a uni with many education majors. In the northeast atleast education can be a tough area to get into. The only places willing to settle for less may be places of extreme physical danger. All my friends either have or are working on their master’s…a few teaching and going to school…which is OK for a single person but would be nearly impossible for a single parent (unless you’re ok with no sleep and never seeing your kid)
 
part of this depends on how far along on your course you have progressed. If you are near graduation and licensing, finish that project–just finishing a degree is a major accomplishment. Get to work in your field and get your finances in order, then work toward further education or a career change when the opportunity arises.

Another reason to quit nursing now would be if you have discovered you have no avocation for this, can’t stand the duties of nursing etc., or are doing very badly in the course work. This is one job you can’t do effectively if you hate it.

Just wanting to be a writer is not a reason to change career or educational tracks. Those who are writers write, no matter what else they do with their time. Write daily. begin with journalling, and simply write. Your other spare time (like single moms who are going to school have any) should be spent reading good literature. Even if this totals only an hour a day, do it. Read and write. yes there are many careers that include writing as a major job function, but you have to like those careers as well. DD now has a business card that says “writer” as her job title, she is so proud, but her job involves a lot of research, hard statistical and analytical science, advanced computer literacy etc. and would not be congenial for many would-be writers, but she loves it. She did a lot of technical writing in her former job and hated it, because of the industry, working conditions etc.
 
puzzleannie mentioned it, although she didn’t make it sound especially appealing. But I’ll mention it again–technical writing.

A few years back there was a huge need for technical writers.

When you initially went into nursing, you must have had SOME liking for science. Surely you knew that nursing involved a heavy load of science classes and yet you selected this major. So you must have liked science, right?

So perhaps the scientific and analytical aspects of technical writing would appeal to you.

Make sure you check out the career market for technical writing. As I said, several years back, companies were begging for technical writers; I remember having some representatives come to our hospital and set up a table to try to recruit health care professionals into this career. But perhaps this market has dried up now.

I’m guessing that a lot of technical writers probably work from home, which would be great for you. HOWEVER I may be wrong about this. It’s possible that companies, for security reasons (so that the new product won’t get into the hands of another competitor company), may require tech. writers to report into an office and submit to a lot of security measures.

I agree with the people who say that this is not a good time to “follow career dreams.” If you want to write, go ahead and write as much as possible. Get a blog and write on it everyday. Write whatever you enjoy–novels, short stories, screenplays, essays, non-fiction, letters to the editor, etc. In other words, practice, practice, practice.

Work on getting an agent–there are books at the library explaining how to do this. If you are a good writer, an agent may sign with you and work to get your writing published and paid for. It’s not easy to get an agent, BTW. I’ve never had any luck–lots of rejections. But you might have something in your writing that will appeal to the agents you contact, and get signed. Go for it.

Get involved with various writing websites–there are even Catholic writers websites, including a Writers’ Group on CAF.

Join the Writer’s Guild. It’s not expensive. Ask your parents to pay for the membership as a birthday or Christmas present.

Join your local writers group. There’s probably one in your area.

Go to the library, check out every book there about writing, and then read and apply these books. You will learn tons.

Buy, read, and memorize The Elements of Style by Strunk and White!

Enter writing contests. There are lots of them, especially screenplay writing contests. Join an organization called WithoutaBox to get emails about all the latest screenplay writing contests.

You can try sending your work off yourself for publication, but it’s tough to get publishers to look at unsolicited work. But you never know. I know a lady who wrote romance novels for years and received rejection after rejection. She finally decided to insert some lively sex scenes into her novels, and the first manuscript she sent to Harlequin was accepted and they offered her a contract to write two more novels.

There are books at the library that tell you what all the publishing companies are looking for and whether they’ll accept unsolicited work, or only work from an agent.

Find a mentor. Perhaps at your college you can find a professor who will agree to read and critique your writing for little or no charge. It’s not right to ask a person to do this work without offering some payment. Just be honest about your situation, and allow the professor to decide for himself or herself if they are willing to mentor you for very little financial renumeration.

You don’t need a college degree to do any of this. All this practice and learning will make you a better writer. When (if) the economy improves, you might try taking some classes at college in writing/journalism to see how you measure up.

As for nursing–I work in a hospital and I understand your feelings. It’s certainly the perfect career at the moment, with almost all hospitals begging for nurses and offering huge financial and other inducements to recruit nurses. The U.S. has a critical shortage of R.N.s at the moment.

But not everyone is cut out for nursing. It can be gross, disgusting work, and it’s psychologically difficult. One of the reasons there is a shortage is that nurses drop out a high rate.

Maybe another health care career might be a better choice for you. I work as a medical technologist in the hospital lab. Look into this major. There is very little or no direct patient contact. It’s a four-year program, just like nursing, and you definitely don’t need a Master’s Degree to get a good job in the lab. You’ll work second or third shift for a few years, but eventually you’ll get a position on day shift.
 
what are the reasons that made you choose to enter the nursing program in the first place? are those reasons still valid, or has your situation changed? Do you have any real information and job prospects on which to base a change of major? have you made use of the counselling services at your school? if you do make such a change which is going to cost you a lot of wasted time and money, make sure you do so on the basis of real solid information, not just dreams and uninformed guesses about the employment situation in your new field.

Technical writing is not necessarily unappetizing for those with a gift and liking for it. I did it for many, many years and am grateful for how it helped perfect my writing, critical, analytical and editing skills. But there is much more to a job than the duties involved, there is location, employer, co-workers, working conditions etc. to consider.
 
There are MANY ways to practice nursing… in a doctor’s office or clinic with day hours as well as hospital setting… even administration. Look at ALL the options before you say not middle stream. I thought teaching also. I am also a writer and can tell you from experience there is NO pay substantial enough to raise a family and NO insurance for the kids. They don’t have songs and jokes about the starving writer for nothing! Writing is a hobby that leads to somewhere unless you want to be a journalist. My neighbor is a TV anchor… lots of hours, odd hours. But, you could look into journalism.
Good luck.
 
My limited work experience has given me the impression that a lot of technical writers work from home. I will just echo what some others have said- that may be something worth looking at.
 
You guys bring up a lot of good points and questions…let me try to address them.

Kindness:
Could I ask how you changed your career aspirations to planning to be a nurse? What were the arguments that persuaded you? Just trying to help you examine your thinking process…
Click to expand...
Well about half of my family works in healthcare. My dad is a nursing administrator, my mom is a nursing instructor now working on her PhD, and then two sisters who are nurses (RN & LPN). This fact alone wasn’t why I was considering nursing but I suppose it is mostly because of my mother that I changed my plans.

I use to want to be a journalist and that is what I was planning on doing when I went to college. My mom is always advocating nursing because it provides job security, good pay, and flexible hours. She talked me out of journalism and even going to a university mainly because of money. She mentioned that i’d be having a hard time getting by as a journalist and that if I went to a university I’d be spending years and years paying off loan debt. I had already taken a human anatomy and physiology course my senior year in high school and absolutely*** loved*** it so I thought, what the heck?

I get a tuition waiver at the community colleges since my mom works for one of them. That isn’t a bad thing at all of course, it’s just that with community colleges you have less options than if you went to a university. But I suppose the idea of not having to pay student loans was appealing as well.

Purplesunshine:
It is true for Arizona, that even subsitute teachers have to have at least a Bachelor’s to substitute teach.
I understand what you are saying, that it wouldn’t be feasible to try and earn a living on something like writing when I need to first provide for my son. I can certainly sacrifice not having the job of first choice if it means my baby is taken care of. However, lately i’m really starting to feel like nursing is more of like a last resort for me, if it is a desirable choice at all.

Cat:
Yes I really do LOVE science. I really enjoyed all the prerequisite classes I had to take prior to getting into the nursing program. However, I just recently took a Nurse Assisting course this past semester and got a little feel for what it may be like to work in such an environment. I certainly wasn’t comfortable and no it wasn’t just because I was pregnant :o.

Part of it was the thought of germs and how germ-cautious you have to be. Especially in the facility I went to for clinicals, there were a LOT of residents with nosocomial infections. Due to my pregnancy, I couldn’t even go into half the rooms because the residents were either on contact or droplet precautions. Honestly I wouldn’t want to go in those rooms had I not been pregnant.
The other thing that bothers me pertains to what you mention in your post: that nursing certainly isn’t for everyone. As a nurse, your patient’s well-being is in your hands. One little mistake could harm the person easily. So with that being said, I suppose it is the enormous amount of responsibility you have to take on and all the pressure that comes with it. I can’t say for sure that I am able to handle that.

Perhaps a different health care career would be a better choice for me 🙂 I need to look more into that.

Puzzleannie, I think I answered your questions in this post, if not let me know.

To all, I suppose my biggest concern right now is in regards to nursing. I thank you for offering insight about making a career out of writing, it was very helpful. I am certainly willing to make sacrifices so that my son can be taken care of, however I don’t want to sacrifice my sanity for a good job. That can’t be too good for my son either right? :o

God bless
 
Jen, a lot of other career options will allow you to write and make some money. For instance, my degree is in Safety Sciences which pretty much encompasses occupational health and safety and environmental safety. My safety courses were fairly writing intensive and I also took quite a few science credits. Although I have not yet been able to find a full time job since graduation, once I do I can expect to do quite a bit of writing through building safety policies, programs, and procedures. I’m sure this isn’t necessarily the type of writing you were considering, but I find that there is definitely a healthy balance of art and science in the reports, policies, programs, and procedures I have written. I think you may be able to find this in other occupations- although probably not nursing.

Although, if what I said has given you interest in occupational health and safety, you may not have much luck finding a university. There are only 10 ABET accredited programs in the US.:eek:
 
What about journalism school? I know a lot of people who went into nursing not liking it… and others who love it. If it feels wrong deep down, it likely is… You should be passionate and pragmatic, all at once, with what you want to get your education in. All the best!
 
Technical writing or even copy-writing is always a possibility, but often is more freelance and less full-time. If you work full time and work from home what many people fail to realize is that it’s still a job…where you have to put in 40 dedicated hours a week. And especially as you hit age 2-5 you’d be faced with either working, sleeping and caring for your son or putting him in day-care to work while you’re at home.

I did some writing while I was a nanny taking care of a toddler and much of the household. It wasn’t easy. Unless you’re a super-genious writing takes focus and concentration.

Second.

I’m not surprised the nursing school didn’t let you know about other great options for nursing. They didn’t tell my friend either. Fortunatly, at the same time my mom was becoming a CNA (certified Nurses’ Assistant). She only took a 8-week course and a test and then had a probationary period. She works at a nursing home and earns $11 an hour. She loves it. She could also work in home health care which would be $12-18 an hour with a stipend for mileage.

After a bad hospital rotation my friend decided to do like my mother was. She’s now enjoying LPN status at a rehab facility earning about $22 an hour.

My aunt is a RN and she works at a children’s home. The work is hard but she loves it and loves that she can help these kids and get to know them. The same reason my mom loves her job. She earns $25 or $30 an hour…more if you “include” benefits and perks.

The elderly come with poo and other problems but typically (according to my mom) are kind and loving and happy to see and talk with people (even in a care facility).

Now they have the Advanced Practice RN degree, too, which can have you doing alot of things and earning around $70k. (midwife, nurse practitioner, etc.) I have another aunt with this degree who worked at a insurance health program call center and now works at the hospital’s version. Its a call-before-you-come-in free medical advice. Called “Nurseline.” She LOOOOVES it. She dosn’t have to deal with anything gross but she gets to help people all day.

Hospitals do pay more and they try to recruit nurses becuase they are undesirable jobs and there are much better places for nurses to go.
 
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