Hi everyone! My name is Niki, I'm 26 years old and new to this site. I have spent the last few years trying to decide what to do with my life as I was working in a few dead end jobs. However, here recently I have decided that nursing is the direction that I would like to head in, but I am very unsure of where to start. I have only completed about a year of college, as at the time I decided it was more important for me to have a job and spend some time figuring out which way to go. Does anyone have any advice on what I should do? Also, am I too old to be making this type of choice now?

Hey Niki! First and foremost your never to old to go back to school and start a new career. Speaking of myself I am 37 going on 38 and am working to become an RN myself. About a year ago I was laid off from my career field of 15 years and have since gone back to school. I am taking prerequisite classes right now with the plan that I will be entering the nursing program in the fall of 2011. By the time I finish the program I will be 41 and re-entering the field as a new grad and a new nurse. So go for it!

As far as where to start the best thing to do is go to your local community/state college and talk to a counselor there. They will certainly help you in sending you the right direction on what classes to take. It will take you a few years but anything worth doing isn't easy and doesn't happen overnight. Good luck and hope to see you keep posting your progress on the forums here.

pblack2107 says ...

Welcome to Nursing Link! You are never too old to make a positve decision for any area of your life, even a career. Look at it this way-- you're gonna be old eventually anyway.There is a lot of experience on this board and I'm sure a lot of folks are going to weigh in, but I say GO FOR IT!!!

Thank you for the very kind welcome! Also thank you very much for your support! I am definitely going to go for it!

Never too old. Question is, what are you passionate about doing?  If you aren't passionate about being a nurse, tak a little time and do some soul searching and ask your self the question, if money were no object and I could do ANY job in the world I wanted to do, what would that be? If your answer is nursing you are on the right path... If not, maybe you need to really look closely at what that answer is. Don't trap yourself somewhere you don't want to be. Because if you are where you REALLY don't want to be, you will eventually feel trapped.