Better career: Nurse or secondary teacher?

Question

Which do you think overall is the better career choice? A nurse or secondary teacher? Anybody have any useful info on either one? Also, is going to college for nursing better than just going to a trade school for it? Or is there not much of a difference? Which one is easier?

Answer 1

Both of my parents were teachers, and the job is essentially what you make it.
I have seen teachers (parents friends) that were out the door when the bell rang, who watched soap operas in their computers, and who cut down entire forests for worksheets.
I have also seen teachers that have put their heart and soul into their job. Who at six o'clock at night were still sitting at their desk grading research papers, who stay after and offer extra help.

In teaching you can essentially be two things, respected or not. You can really make a difference in students lives (more in HS and college), or ...not. Teaching isn't a five days a week, 180 days of the year summers off job. No matter what. My parents few to conferences, had parent meetings. Those two months of summer are there for the mental therapy that teachers need for putting up with kids eight hours a day!

Compairing the salaries is almost null, and it depends on your skills as both a nurse or a teacher. Some will argue that nursing has greater opportunites to move up the career ladder, and they are probably right, but so many people forget about administrative or university professor opportunities in the education system.

With nursing, the pay is high, with great flexibility in scheduling, but with teaching you have job security, predictable income, and some great healthcare/insurance plans.

If you go with the education, I would reccomend almost anything but middle school. Avoid the adolescent-hormone-driven-children-pubescent-children!!!!

Answer 2

I think Nursing will provide you with more flexibility and potentially much more variety in your work life. There are so many areas of nurseing you can work in.

Nurses typically need a 4 year degree and need to pass a state test to be registered.

Talk to someone that is a nurse and talk to someone that is a teacher about their careers.

Answer 3

it depends...a nurse you can work 3- 12 hour shifts a week but being a teacher you work 5 days a week,but summers off. As for nursing, in most places you make more money and can do more with a bachelors degree. associates will take about years and bachelors will take at least 4 and that is full-time. there are also programs where you can get an assoc. and then go back while you work and get your bachelors, also if you work at hospital at least while going to school they will prob. help pay your tution.

Answer 4

Depends on which type of nurse, and long of shifts you want to work.
LVN's are a couple years of a nursing program you can do at a community college. It tends to be cheaper than vocational school and more respected. In my area they pay $14 to $18 per hour depending on the location (hospice, hospital, VNA...)
RN's are a couple more years of training including extra biology and math classes. In my area they start at $20 per hour, and get $30 an hour for experienced.
Both work at least 12 hour shifts. In rehabs they can work up to 24 hour shifts!
A Schoolteacher certainly doesn't pay as well, put you go to work alot less. You are in class about 6 hours a day, and you get about two to three months off a year. You get all gov't holidays off....sounds like a sweet deal to me! And you don't have to give IV's.
I guess it all depends on whether or not you can handle blood, and how many hours you like to work in a shift.

Answer 5

First of all, what do you want to be or what kind of job what you want to do for the rest of your life? You have to ask yourself.

Nursing: have to study hard. it's not very easy since the job is related to people's lives. If you screw up, someone could even die. So the training for being nurses is not very easy overall. You need to learn all about anatomy, physiology, psychology, sociology, microbiology, Biology, Chemistry, Basic statistic math, and other minor classes in the first 2 years so that you could be eligible to apply for the RN program or BA program. Not yet to mention about how competitive to get into the nursing program, after becoming a pro-nursing candidate, you will be study both at hospitals and in classes. As far as I know, hospital round is always 7 AM and then, go back to classes at college or university. When you get into nursing program, you have to study harder than before. Then you finish your program, you prepare for the test so that you will get license for your career.

So let's say you get the job, working at the hospitals, taking care of patients, helping doctors. Here is the best part. If there is a balance, your doctors and hospitals sit on one side and the patients and family sit on the other side. You are in the middle and trying to keep it balance. So stressful? of course, it is.

Payment is great. if you finish 2 year RN nurse, your salary is almost same as entry level engineering. In the US, if you are not permanent resident or citizen, you will even have a chance to become permant resident or easy to get H1 visa which is work permit up to 5 years in the US and after that apply for green card. Sounds cool? Maybe. So overall, nursing career is like "no pain, no gain". Think about it. Do you want to work at the hospitals or love to take care of people?

Secondary teacher: need to love kid and need to be able to teach, plus teaching should be your passion. It is not as competitative as nursing. But don't expect it would be very easy cause there is no easy thing in this world. You have to pay the price much or less. That's all. You need at least BA degree and salary may not be as high as Nursing career which needs only Associate degree in most cases.

Career is not about easy or hard. You need career to make a living, but money shouldn't be the only issue. Career is like your life-long companionship that you have to live with for next 30 years at least. If you have passion for what you want to do, you will enjoy it and find a way to make it easy. So why don't you talk to advisor for your career choice? Before doing anything, sit down and relax, and then think about what you want. Good luck!

Answer 6

Stick with nursing, so much more to offer you there. Start with Community College, get your 2yr Degree. You can go and get your other two years while your working. Most Colleges cater to working nurses. You can even teach in nursing, so there get both. Nursing I feel would be much more rewarding in the long run.

Good luck