House meets RN

Many months ago I was considering looking into a backup plan for my future career.  I currently hold a Bachelor's in Criminal Justice, but that field is slowly looking less and less realistic for me.  For starters, MOST of the jobs in that field you need previous experience...I have none.  This means I have to start from the bottom and work my way up.  This would be fine, except from all the job hunting I've been doing, it seems I have 2 ways to start at the bottom and both seem pretty unrealistic.

The first one is doing something like security work, but that would involve me taking a HUGE pay cut because security pays dick at a majority of places.  I just can't afford a pay cut right now.  I have a lot of bills to pay, I'm saving to move out with the love of my life, and I'm finally slowly getting my past credit card debt to disappear.  Taking a pay cut just isn't going to happen, at least not a significant one.  The other option is police work and starting as a basic patrol officer.  I'm all for this, except that I'm out of shape and physical test is mandatory in order to move onto the next part of the application process.  I was getting myself in shape, but even when running became easier for me, the upper body strength portion just didn't seem to be working for me.  If I did continue to try to work on my upper body strength (which MOST women have very little of) it's going to take A LOT of work (as if all of my fat glory won't take a lot of work to fix).  The cut off age for new police officers is 35.  I'm going to be 30 in 5 months.  Each process to get into law enforcement can take years.  The last test I took for a law enforcement agency congradulated me on passing the written test and that the next step was the physical, which I will hear back from them to take this within 4 years at the most.  WHAT?!?!?  4 YEARS!?!?  Not realistic when my age is going to be so close to that cut off point.  So, with that reality kicking in, I realized I need a backup plan with my life.  That's when it hit me....I can get into nursing!

I feel this would be a great choice for me.  Not just because I feel I can handle it, but because it's a job in high demand with a lot of job security.  I have the stomach for the stuff they have to do and I honestly feel that I can enjoy it.  Then I was thinking about it and schooling would be totally realistic for me.  The community colleges around here offer the program, so I don't have to go to an overpriced University.  I can apply for grants at the beginning of the new year, which will help pay for school.  There are also lots of scholarships that are offered at the community college I'm looking into that I would qualify for, so if I could get any of those my schooling would be even cheaper for me.  Then last, but not least, my job offers educational assistance if your going to school in a field of study that benefits them.  Since I work in the healthcare field, nursing would be covered in the educational assistance program.  So, overall, my schooling would be significantly cheaper for me and I can still work towards a degree that I know would be a great step in the right direction for my future career.

One thing I do find humorous about me getting into nursing is that I'm a tough cookie.  I'm caring and sensitive, don't get me wrong, but I'm also very straight forward and can be quite sarcastic.  I've been told that if I go in this direction, I may be the House of the RN world.  LOL!  I could ever be as cold as House, but I can see that little bit of a streak in me when it comes to the sarcasm.

I totally see this being a great step for me.  Now it's just a matter of figuring out what kind of hours are available for the classes.  Almost all the hours I see posted may bump heads with my new job position, but I think if I get my Gen. Eds. out of the way first (which you have to do to start the RN program)  and just take the classes here and there as available I can still work my normal hours and work in the beginning portion of schooling.  I mean, since I have a Bachelor's degree already, I'm sure most of my Gen. Eds. will be already out of the way with from my transferrable credits, except there are a decent amount of Biology classes to take and those I don't have previous credits to cover.  So, I'm thinking that this Spring, I will either start those Biology classes or work to get the CNA certificate if this college requires it (it's not posted as a requirement, but most colleges do require it).  My goal is to start my next step with schooling this Spring.  Let's hope this all works out.