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Today’s nursing school students, many of them older with families to support, must balance work, school, and clinical rotations with their everyday lives.

Every day, Doris Bleah puts in enough hours to fill the days of two people. The single mother usually works 40 hours a week, cares for her four children — one with cerebral palsy — and is pursuing a nursing degree.

“I’ll have vacation after school,” the 31-year-old native of Ghana said.

In many ways, Bleah typifies today’s nursing school student — especially the growing number of older students with families to support. Many must balance work, school, and clinical rotations with their everyday lives. Although many students work in the medical field, for others, finding a job that provides flexibility sometimes takes priority over gaining career experience.

Even students fresh out of high school need to work, said Patricia Black, RN, EdD, MSN, dean of nursing and health professions at Everett (Wash.) Community College. “There are very few people anymore who have mom and dad footing the bill,” Black said. “Most need substantial financial aid.”

Bleah attends Indiana University’s School of Nursing and supports her family by working as a student nurse trainee at the Department of Veterans Affairs.

She likes the flexibility of her job, as well as the work experience. Other than administering medications and making assessments, Bleah performs all the tasks of a licensed nurse: reading vital signs, administering catheters, measuring blood sugar levels.

Most of her colleagues at the school work as either student nurses or hospital technicians, said Beth Richardson, RN, DNS, CPNP, assistant dean for student affairs. “It helps prepare them for their eventual role as an RN because they’re learning on the job as well,” she said.

The VA asks Bleah to work at least 24 hours per two-week pay period, but her employer allows her to write her own schedule. Although she nearly always writes herself in for 40 hours a week to make ends meet, having that flexibility is what allows her to juggle work with school and parenting.

Bleah works before and after her afternoon classes, often studying when she returns home around midnight. “Since my daughter was diagnosed [with cerebral palsy], my sleep has been disturbed anyway, so my body is used to it,” she said.

On rare occasions, she will schedule herself for fewer hours so she can be with her children. More often, though, she has to do two things at once. “When I study, I give them paper and crayons, so we’re all sitting at the table coloring and studying,” she said.

Bleah makes time for herself by attending church with her family every Sunday and by eating lunch with colleagues at school. Her mother lives with her and helps with child care, giving Bleah the freedom to take her one “vacation” a year: She will leave school, children, and work behind to attend a Summer Research Opportunities Conference in Iowa, an annual summit offered by the Committee on Institutional Cooperation. There, she’ll learn about opportunities at 12 major teaching and research universities in the Midwest.

Last year, she was part of a group presentation on colic in American infants that was later published in Gastroenterology Nursing. This year, Bleah will give a solo presentation on colic in the children of African immigrants.

Employee benefits

For Yashmi Patel, job flexibility also was critical in her decision to continue working as a teller at Bank of America after she started nursing school at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston. “I was actually going to quit, but they said just stay and work Saturdays,” she said.

Patel worked only six hours a week during her grueling first semester, but the bank was flexible about letting her pick up more shifts. Once she adjusted to her school schedule, she increased her hours to 40 a week to earn a full-time salary.