My sister is an RN. She works on the Med Serve floor ( I think I got that right) of a very big, prominent hospital.
She likes the job but hates the politics involved. Silly stuff mostly, but it wears on you I guess.
As for the schooling....there are several community colleges (2 year, associates degrees) in this area that offer 2 year programs to be an R.N. This is what my sister did. She is now on some fast track program and will have her MASTERS in three years!! =)
However, they strongly recommend that if you can't devote yourself completely to the full course load, then you take your pre-reqs first. My sister had no children to care for, so she just went in full time.
She spent every waking minute studying. When she wasn't studying, she was at the hospital before the crack of dawn doing her clinicals.
Unless you have someone who can watch your children at all kinds of screwed up hours, so that you can study without a little one tugging at your leg, or having to be at the hospital at 4am for clinicals, you might want to consider taking one or two classes a semester...knocking your prereq's out of the way, then when your little ones start school, you can get the rest of the schooling out of the way.
I thought I was going to be a nurse a year ago. I started my pre-req's and had my whole outline plotted out. See, I wanted to be an L&D nurse. Mine had inspired me so much. I wanted to be among the first to welcome new lives into the world. I wanted to help laboring moms. I wanted to rock new babies to sleep. But then a realization hit me. Those things wouldn't really be my job. Those things were more fringe benefits. My job would be giving needles (talk about skeeving me out), listening to people bitch, following orders (HAH) of doctors whom I think are idiots....etc. Not to mention that if a baby were to be born sick, I wouldn't be able to look at the situation objectively. I would break down and bawl right along with the mother.
Start taking classes now. That way in 2 or 3 years, you will be that much closer to your goal than just starting out.
I joke with people all the time about how I am on the 15 year plan to get my degree. But I always tell them that at least I'll have it in 15 years instead of getting there and wondering "why in the hell didn't I go back sooner"
K, I've rambled enough. hope this helps.
