Jobs Nursing Students Can Work While in School

Nursing school is expensive and eats your time. If you need to work, you need a job that pays the bills, flexes around your schedule, and ideally builds skills you will use after graduation. Here is what to look for and seven jobs that fit.

What to look for in a student job

Three things matter most:

• Low stress. Your program is already supplying plenty of that.
• A flexible schedule. Your hours shift every semester, so you need an employer who can move with you.
• A manager who understands school and will work around your clinicals and exams.

A job that reinforces clinical skills is a bonus. It builds experience and confidence and makes you more marketable when you graduate. If you work in healthcare, your employer may also offer tuition reimbursement, just read the fine print, since many require you to stay on for a set number of years afterward.

Earn while you learn

When the nursing shortage hit critical mass in 2020, hospitals and nursing programs, especially in rural areas, pushed to grow the workforce. "Earn While You Learn" programs were one result.

Specifics vary by state, but the idea is to help LPN, ADN, and BSN students keep working while school is in session, offset costs, and sometimes guarantee a job after graduation. In Virginia, an Earn While You Learn partnership between Mary Washington Healthcare and Germanna Community College put 30 nursing students to work 12 to 20 hours per week as nursing assistants. In their third semester they moved into targeted clinical pathways and completed 36 clinical hours, with the hospital hoping they would stay on after graduation.

Seven jobs that work with nursing school

1. Nursing companion

Most seniors want to stay in their own homes, and even independent ones often need company. Nursing companions provide nonmedical, in-home support: emotional companionship rather than hands-on care. Most agencies want you to know CPR, basic first aid, and emergency care, but no degree or certification is required.

2. Medical interpreter or translator

If you are fluent in a second language, you can help clinicians communicate with patients who do not speak English. Interpreters work onsite or over video; translators convert medical records and pharmaceutical materials and can work from home. Sign on with an agency so you are not chasing clients.

3. Phlebotomist

Phlebotomists draw blood in hospitals and labs. It is not the same as starting an IV, but it builds the hand skills and patient rapport that make IVs easier later, and it puts you inside the healthcare system.

4. Emergency medical technician

Some students become EMTs first. The course runs a minimum of 170 hours and requires no prior medical experience. You learn to assess patients and deliver some treatments, the schedule is flexible, and the work teaches you to stay calm in a crisis.

5. Telemetry monitor technician

Techs need a high school diploma plus unit training. You watch cardiac monitors and alert the nurse to abnormal rhythms. It is good preparation for ICU work, though it means staring at a screen for your whole shift.

6. Nursing assistant

Nursing assistants bathe, feed, and dress patients, take vital signs, and help with activities of daily living. It is hard work, but it gives you direct patient care experience and the confidence that comes with using skills you will rely on throughout your career.

7. Hospital clerk

Clerks work the nurses' station: entering orders into the electronic health record, answering phones and patient questions, and handling administrative tasks. It is usually low stress, and the manager knows exactly what nursing school demands.

Balancing school and work

Working through nursing school is a balancing act, and your mental health is part of the equation. Good mental health takes the same care as physical health: enough sleep, decent nutrition, and exercise. Chronic stress wears down your immune system and pushes some students to drop out. Take the income you need, but do not overdo it.