re: Spinoff: Starting a new career by going to nursing school

My wife went back to school a few years ago to become an RN. She was in her late 30s and had been in pharma sales for 5+ years but could see the writing on the wall. (Her employer was about to do a round of layoffs.) A good friend of mine quit his job a while back and just wrapped his first semester in nursing school - he's in his mid-40s. My wife went to OLOL College, my friend is at a community college in Acadiana -- they both agree that nursing school is a BITCH. The teachers aren't great, the classwork is difficult, if you make below a C you can't go on to the next class, plus there are constant tests that you have to pass to stay on the path (doing dosage calculations, pre-NCLEX exams, etc.)

Like everyone said, nursing is a good career to get into because you'll always have work. (After a few years, my wife went back into pharma sales and had a better job than what she had before. Six months later, her entire division was 86d. Good thing was that she got a nursing job the minute her severance checks stopped coming.) But it's tough work. Patients and their families are by and large, assholes. You have to really enjoy the job.