Find a Job You Really Want In
Nursing school isn’t easy, and working a job while you’re in nursing school is even less so, but it’s often necessary.
Whether you need the money or the experience (or both), there are some jobs that are often especially good fits for nursing students.
Key Takeaways:
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Nursing students may be qualified for roles such as Home Health Aide, Occupational Therapy Assistant, Hospital Clerical Worker, and more.
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When looking for work as a nursing student, it’s important to keep your program’s schedule in mind and make sure you’re able to maintain a healthy work-life balance.
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As a nursing student, try to find jobs that will give you beneficial experience in the field, especially if you have particular skills you’d like to practice with.
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The 10 Best Jobs for Nursing Students
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Average Annual Salary: $23,000
Hospitals need workers to move patients from one room to another, either into operating or testing rooms, between departments or even to their cars when they’re being discharged.
To do this, transporters are trained to move beds, stretchers, and wheelchairs, as well as support someone as they walk from one place to another.
Requirements to become a Transporter: You typically don’t need a degree or certification to be a transporter, and you’ll get to know the inner workings of the hospital, which is a valuable experience for a future nurse to have. In addition, you’ll be able to practice your interpersonal skills and hone your bedside manner as you interact with patients.
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Average Annual Salary: $23,000
Patients need to eat, and they often need to eat very particular things. Because of this, hospitals have teams of dieticians and dietary aides who plan, make, and deliver meals to patients.
While working as a dietary aide, you’ll not only get a better understanding of the nutritional needs of patients, but you’ll also practise administering care (via food) since often a large part of this role is ensuring that patients eat and follow their dietary plans.
This is good practice for your interpersonal skills, as you may have to deal with some stubborn patients both as a dietary aide and as a nurse.
Requirements to become a Dietary Aide: Dietary aides don’t usually need a degree or special certification, and almost every healthcare facility needs dietary aides, which makes this a great option for nursing students.
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Average Annual Salary: $29,000
Orderlies are the behind-the-scenes workers who keep healthcare facilities operating smoothly. They clean and sanitize rooms and equipment and help escort patients around the hospital to ensure they get to their destinations safely.
In addition, as an orderly, you’ll get a better understanding of everything that goes into keeping your patients’ rooms and equipment clean and how a medical facility works. This is a valuable perspective to have as a nurse since you’ll likely be working with orderlies in the future.
Requirements to become an Orderly: You won’t need any additional certification to be an orderly, and often these roles have part-time options, making this a relatively easy role for a nursing student to take on.
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Average Annual Salary: $24,000
Home health aides fill in the gaps for those who need regular medical care but can’t visit a healthcare facility every day to receive that care. These professionals visit patients’ homes to provide basic medical care and treatment for patients suffering from disabilities or illnesses.
In addition, they often help these patients with everyday activities such as bathing or dressing. Working as a home health aide will give you great experience caring for patients and interacting with them and their families.
Requirements to become a Home Health Aide: Home health aides work under the supervision of a nurse, and they need a home health aide certification. However, these usually don’t take long to obtain and often aren’t difficult for nursing students to get since they already have some experience.
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Occupational Therapy Assistant
Average Annual Salary: $47,000
Occupational therapists help patients who have temporary or permanent disabilities or injuries increase their ability to perform daily physical tasks.
Occupational therapy aides assist therapists with this by transporting patients, preparing treatment areas, and managing equipment. They also often perform administrative tasks such as scheduling appointments and filing insurance forms.
In addition, depending on where you work as a nurse, your patients may be in occupational therapy while you’re treating them. Understanding how this type of therapy works can help you support your patients even more effectively.
Requirements to become an Occupational Therapy Assistant: Occupational therapy aides usually don’t need a certification or degree, but they usually do need a CPR certification, making nursing students a perfect fit for this job. This role will also give nursing students great experience by providing opportunities for them to interact with patients with a variety of ailments.
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Average Annual Salary: $34,000
Nurses often have to use a lot of needles on patients, whether they’re drawing blood for a test or setting up an IV. Phlebotomists’ expertise is drawing blood as a part of blood drives, tests, and transfusions, so this role is a great opportunity for nurses to be able to practice their sticks and get used to the process of drawing blood.
While working as a phlebotomist, you’ll not only be able to practice using needles and getting over your squeamishness about it, but you’ll also get practice making patients comfortable during an often stressful process.
Requirements to become a Phlebotomist: Often, phlebotomists are required to complete a certification program before they can begin working, but there are some programs that provide on-the-job training for current nursing students. To find out, talk to one of your instructors or the health care facility directly.
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Average Annual Salary: $22,000
Personal care aides visit people’s homes and assist them with daily tasks such as shopping, laundry, cooking, and bathing. Usually, the patient’s personal care aides work with aren’t able to fully take care of themselves due to a mental disability or illness.
As a future nurse, working as a personal care aide will give you experience working with patients who can’t do much for themselves or who are cognitively impaired. This is important, as you’ll need to learn how to communicate, empathize, and care for patients who are suffering in this way.
Requirements to become a Personal Care Assistant: Personal care aides are similar to home health aides in that they visit patients’ homes, but they do less medical work than home health aides do. Because of this, they generally don’t need professional certifications. They only need CPR and first aid certifications, which most nursing students already have.
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Undergraduate Tutor
Average Annual Salary: N/A
This job isn’t in the medical field, but if you need some cash while you’re taking classes, tutoring can be a great option for nursing students. Most colleges and universities hire tutors to help underclassmen through their classes, so if there is a class or subject you excelled in, look into tutoring options for it.
Tutoring can also benefit your future nursing career in several ways. If you’re tutoring for a nursing class, for example, you’ll be able to really solidify the material in your mind by teaching it to someone else.
In addition, much of nursing involves teaching patients and their families how to continue to care for themselves or their loved ones once they go home. Getting experience as a tutor will sharpen your communication and teaching skills as well as your patience, helping you to excel when you’re working as a nurse in the future.
Requirements to become an Undergraduate Tutor: Third-party organizations also hire undergraduate students to tutor high schoolers and college students, and since you’re in such a strenuous program, you’ll likely be an ideal candidate for one of these roles (as long as you’re succeeding academically, of course).
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Hospital Clerical Worker
Average Annual Salary: N/A
Hospitals need people to take phone calls, check patients in, handle billing, communicate with insurance companies, and perform a plethora of other administrative tasks.
While a role like this wouldn’t necessarily help you with your technical nursing skills, it will give you a good perspective on how hospitals work and how clerical workers’ and nurses’ jobs intersect. It will also give you practice interacting with patients, their families, and the rest of the hospital staff, which you’ll need to be able to do well.
Requirements to become a Hospital Clerical Worker: Most hospital clerical workers don’t need a certification or degree, but they do often need at least some experience in a hospital, which nursing students often have if they’ve spent time in clinical rotations.
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Average Annual Salary: $28,000
CNAs assist nurses wherever nurses are found, which means you can try working in a variety of settings to figure out what you want to do after you graduate.
As a CNA, much of your job will likely include bathing, shaving, dressing patients and doing whatever else your supervising nurse needs you to do. This is hard work, but it’s a great way to get a taste of what it’s like to be a nurse.
Requirements to become a Certified Nursing Assistant: While you’ll have to complete a four to 12-week training to become a certified nursing assistant, this is a job that will give you a massive amount of nursing experience before you even graduate nursing school.
What to Consider When Looking for a Job as a Nursing Student
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Schedule
If you’re attending a four-year nursing program that gets a summer break, the hours you can work during your break are going to be much different than the hours you can work when you’re in school.
On the other hand, If you’re pursuing your nursing certification or degree on a more part-time, year-round basis, you’ll be able to work a more consistent, albeit unusual, schedule throughout the year.
Because of this, often, the work schedule is one of the most significant deciding factors when nursing students are looking for jobs. To give yourself the best opportunity for success possible, decide ahead of time what you’re able to do and then stick to your parameters when you’re job hunting.
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Work-Life Balance
It’s important that you find a job that offers a good work-life balance when you’re a nursing student. Your work schedule has a lot to do with this, but there is even more to it than that.
You’ll need time to study and have some semblance of personal life, and you’ll likely need to have some flexibility for when your clinical hours change or when your class load increases.
In addition to this, though, finding a job that doesn’t necessarily require a significant amount of mental stimulation might also be a good idea. You don’t want to be bored, but you want something that will allow you to save your mental and emotional energy for your studies and clinical rotations instead of saddling you with more stress.
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Experience
Sometimes you just need a job that will pay the bills and give you time to study, but if you can, consider looking for a position that will also give you some nursing-related experience.
This doesn’t necessarily mean you have to work with nurses, though, as even working at a hospital or doctor’s office reception desk would give you a new perspective on the medical field.
If you know you need to hone a particular nursing skill, however, look for a job that will give you the opportunity to practice that skill. You can ask an instructor what types of jobs they’d recommend for you, and they may even be able to give you some resources on particular positions that are available.
Author
Abby is a writer who is passionate about the power of story. Whether it’s communicating complicated topics in a clear way or helping readers connect with another person or place from the comfort of their couch. Abby attended Oral Roberts University in Tulsa, Oklahoma, where she earned a degree in writing with concentrations in journalism and business.
