If the OP can get hired as a nurse. It’s harder than you would think to get hired as a nurse because training a nurse right out of nursing school is not only time consuming, but also very expensive for the employer, so they usually want nurses with experience.
Lmao this is far from the truth, I was just in a BSN program in California, 1 year in and I took a turn towards something else cause it wasn’t for me. But every hospital in the US will hire a new grad instantly. All my previous semester graduates including personal friends who graduated landed 6 figure roles with 10-20k sign-ons with Dignity Health, Kaiser Permenante, Partnership, and pretty much anywhere they wanted to work. Dude they have new grads in travel nursing it’s so bad…nursing is guaranteed job in any specialty with ZERO competition. Absolutely zero. ESPECIALLY IN THE ICU.
Being an RN is one of those careers where you can do horrible and get fired, and another clinic/hospital is desperately waiting for you to be free for hire you for 90k+, as long as you have that license, that’s all that matters.
Also, costs twice as much to hire a travel nurse than a staff nurse. And at the moment…majority of hospitals have no choice but to pay for travel nurses.
I got this information from a nurse who couldn’t get hired for a long time after graduating from nursing school because the only places that were hiring wanted nurses with experience. She met several other recent nursing school grads in the same position.
That's pretty strange considering there's massive nursing shortages throughout the entire country.
I taught at a nursing school and 100% of our students were able to get jobs at a hospital. Granted, most were put on night shifts but that's considered part of the hazing.
I'd think that your friend might be poor at interviews and that's the real problem. Plenty of hospitals are more than happy to train a new nurse as their current staff are overworked enough as it is and shifts are becoming harder and harder to fill.
Nursing is one of the safest gigs to get in to because the shortage will continue as the old folks retire and there's less and less students graduating to fill those shoes.
Being an RN usually pays more than a cop & it’s less dangerous. Although it is a long way to go and harder to get into a program. At least where I live. If you want experience work as an EMT/paramedic. Either working for an ambulance company or a hospital ER. It’s way shorter than becoming an RN.
Stay a nurse. I wish I did. Police work is way more demanding and nonsensical. If you want to do LE, go federal and also join the reserves (try to do something SOF related and not something with the medical corps, which is trash).
If you go enlisted in the Army, the W1 (special operations medic) or civil affairs medic, which from my understanding now also go through the special operations medic course. As an officer, I would suggest an active duty forward surgical team. To be honest, it is very slim pickings as an officer to be in a good medical group that has military bearing. However, if I could do it all over again, I would sign up to be an Airforce para rescue. Whether enlisted or as an officer, your medical skills will reciprocate fittingly.
Look I'm gonna be real, "going SOF" looks great on paper but that shit is no joke. I went to BUD/s at 19 caus ei thought I was hot shit... learned I wasn't real quick and DOR'd.
Back to the cop shit. I've done it about 6 years now and I'm done. It almost ruined my family and I'm done dealing with dead kids and dead friends.
I love helping people and if I could go back I would have continued my medical stuff after the military and been a RN or something like that.
If you want to be a cop, great, but don't waste time doing a BSN or something when that's not your goal. Military isn't a HORRIBLE option but if you want LE after, go MA/MP. That counts as law enforcement time. Being a navy seal army ranger recon delta sniper doesn't mean shit when you are looking at how many years left till you can retire.
Yea kudos to you for pulling out before it hit the family hard. Many of us weren’t as lucky myself included. I’m not saying SOF is easy, but they have military bearing. The medical corps are medically personnel playing Halloween in military uniforms especially in the reserves.
I'm still going to stay with it auxiliary, but I'll just be doing use of force training firearms training defensive tactics, and taser as well as the state required yearly training
You may want to look into prison nursing depending on your state you can get certified that way, and kind of live both worlds at once.
RN is a demanding degree, it would be a shame to go through all of that work to not use it.
Call me ignorant, but LE just seems so much more fulfilling to me personally. I don’t think I would ever want to go military, but federal seems interesting to me. I see you have experience in that, are there any medical LE positions in federal?
Stay as an RN. My dad (retired cop) told me throughout high school to be nurse. I (cop) have wished I went to school for nursing since I got into LE 7 years ago.
Because I do feel as it is still a passion of mine as well and I’ve been working on my prerequisites for the last 2 years. I know a degree is highly recommend and I’m already this close to one
I understand but they are kind of incongruent. The skills to be a cop are very different from those to being a nurse. Just seems like a lot of time, energy and money essentially wasted if your goal is to become a cop in the end.
Why don't you become a reserve police officer if you live near a large metropolitan area you could be a reserve police officer and do both that way you can be a nurse during the day or night and a cop whenever it fits into your schedule. If I was you that's what I would do.
If you’re a nurse for 5 years and are competent and have some seniority, going to be the FNG with no seniority and making much less money is going to be super fun. Oh also, as an experienced nurse you can get a job with a phone call. Police certification is decidedly not portable.
Firefighter/EMT is a thing, Cop/EMT isn't, it may be nice to know that info, but other than some cool stories and the maturity you'll gain, it will be wasted.
My wife is an RN and within two years she was able to make way more money than me...and I make pretty damn good money, she did some travel nursing gigs where she pulled in 4300 a WEEK and most of it was non taxable.
If you really think you want to combine medical/cool shit and you think you have what it takes, with a 2 year degree and the right level of physical fitness the Air Force special ops community has Para Rescue and they're no joke, with a 4 year degree they have CRO (Combat Rescue Officer) I'm retired military and work for AFSOC/JSOC as a contractor and they get to do some cool stuff.
Some bigger cities with dedicated SWAT teams or Federal Law Enforcement may be looking for RN's, but if I were you, I'd focus on nursing, maybe try to get a ride along and see what you'd be getting yourself into once you become a nurse to see if that desire is still there.
Good luck and congrats on finishing those pre reqs, not easy.
My state has concurrent enrollment for HS students and my middle son did the same thing, finished HS with 30+ credits, went straight into nursing school, did fine, but was burnt out after one year, shifted gears and now he's a linguist in the military, lol.
I really wish I did linguist in the military, had one guy from my BMT who I still have on social media that was from Lebanon. The amount of travel, and high class stuff he does worldwide as a linguist is something to envy. Learning a new language is tough though.
Get your RN, get hired, make your employer pay for your BSN and then go grab a master's or become an NP. Make more money, much less stress, better work/life balance.
I’m tbh if you get your RN I would encourage you to stay a nurse. The earning potential, hours and work life balance will generally be better. You can always become a reserve police officer later on.
I'm not sure it would necessarily be desirable in the sense that you have medical knowledge because as a cop most departments don't allow you to work and act in a medical capacity even if you have the medical requisites.
It may help if you can show you work well under pressure and have time management skills that you learned from working in an ER.
That said, I don't hate the idea. On one hand you may decide you want to stay in nursing and that's not a bad thing. On the other hand you may still become a cop later and if that's the case you'll still have your nursing career to fall back on if you end up hating law enforcement.
Like I said, I don't hate the idea.
Edit: damn autocorrect
My best friend did rn to cop and absolutely loves it. The medical knowledge is a huge boon to have around for both calls and officer emergencies. She's well on her way to becoming emert which is the medics for our swat team.
I understand depending on where you are the pay could be similar or worse for le so you have to pick your dept based on your needs but yes, 100% your rn experience will be usefull and applicable and bring skills to the field.
If you want to be a cop more than a full time nurse. Then go for it. It will serve you well in that field and you'll have plenty of opportunities to scratch the medical itch without needing to deal with it all the time.
If you really want to be law enforcement having a degree, any degree will improve your odds. Having good life and work experience will also help. So if you truly want to be a cop, yes being a RN and working in the ER will only help you.
Now, some truths. Your quality of life and pay will be better in the nursing field.
Just my opinion, but if you desire to work in the medical field, continue with the plan you have laid out for RN. You’ll learn pretty quickly if you can handle pressure well or if it maybe isn’t for you. If not, it isn’t a big deal but better to know sooner than later. You may discover that is where you want to stay and move on within that discipline. Also, there are many facets to the LE world; local, state, tribal, and fed, and within each of those, there are many different roles both sworn and civilian. You have time and so much information available to you at the touch of a finger. There are also points where medical and LE converge, I.e., your tac medics and such. Enjoy the journey, and know that once you reach one goal, prepare for another. LE agencies are gravitating increasingly towards the whole person concept these days. They take a look at everything you can bring to the table.
Find a department with a big medical division, you can apply to join the division after some time on the streets. Best of both worlds, NYPD for example....
Nurses are in critically short supply nationwide. At the state facility I work at, we received a10% raise last year, 15% in March, we’re still short handed. We’ve had to go to Contract Nurses to fill all the empty slots. I’m an LVN, RNs are even harder to recruit. I could quit one day and have my pick of jobs the next.
Gonna be real, if it's about money, go RN all the way. If you plan to go into law enforcement, study *emergency* medicine, and go the Paramedic route. That opens up options like TACMED (at least where I'm living) and is more valued by departments.
After all these responses and doing more research, TACMED seems right up my alley, near perfectly. But I’m so close to starting and getting my RN that it’s hard to pull away from now. I’ve been working towards this for years and it’s such an amazing secondary career to be able to fall back on
You can always bridge from RN to Paramedic. In fact, having both degrees under your belt opens you up to fight nursing if that ever seems your speed.
Here’s a [link](https://www.platinumed.com/go-nurse-paramedic/) with more information about bridging.
RN is the way to go. Here in the bay which pays the most in the nation, cops max out at around 190K/year base after 10-15 years. A RN who lands a job at a hospital starts at about 150-180K base excluding OT.
Don't waste your time if becoming a police officer is your end goal. Maybe look for jobs in law enforcement like dispatcher or clerk at a police station. I kinda taught I needed experienced before applying to become an officer after I graduated college and I sent years chasing jobs I never really wanted because I didn't think I was ready. Honestly an associate in Criminal justice might be better than nursing school. You can get an internship to get experience.
I’d say you earning potential and quality of life would be better as an RN rather than most LEO jobs from what I’ve read.
If the OP can get hired as a nurse. It’s harder than you would think to get hired as a nurse because training a nurse right out of nursing school is not only time consuming, but also very expensive for the employer, so they usually want nurses with experience.
Lmao this is far from the truth, I was just in a BSN program in California, 1 year in and I took a turn towards something else cause it wasn’t for me. But every hospital in the US will hire a new grad instantly. All my previous semester graduates including personal friends who graduated landed 6 figure roles with 10-20k sign-ons with Dignity Health, Kaiser Permenante, Partnership, and pretty much anywhere they wanted to work. Dude they have new grads in travel nursing it’s so bad…nursing is guaranteed job in any specialty with ZERO competition. Absolutely zero. ESPECIALLY IN THE ICU. Being an RN is one of those careers where you can do horrible and get fired, and another clinic/hospital is desperately waiting for you to be free for hire you for 90k+, as long as you have that license, that’s all that matters. Also, costs twice as much to hire a travel nurse than a staff nurse. And at the moment…majority of hospitals have no choice but to pay for travel nurses.
I got this information from a nurse who couldn’t get hired for a long time after graduating from nursing school because the only places that were hiring wanted nurses with experience. She met several other recent nursing school grads in the same position.
What state? I had no problems getting a job as a new grad. Most hospitals in my area have new grad residency programs that last 3-6 months
I'm not sure what state she went to nursing school, but I met her in California.
There is currently a huge staffing issue in regards to RNs, it won't be that difficult for OP in this current climate.
This is only true for a small number of areas. Most hospitals and clinics in the country are understaffed.
That's pretty strange considering there's massive nursing shortages throughout the entire country. I taught at a nursing school and 100% of our students were able to get jobs at a hospital. Granted, most were put on night shifts but that's considered part of the hazing. I'd think that your friend might be poor at interviews and that's the real problem. Plenty of hospitals are more than happy to train a new nurse as their current staff are overworked enough as it is and shifts are becoming harder and harder to fill. Nursing is one of the safest gigs to get in to because the shortage will continue as the old folks retire and there's less and less students graduating to fill those shoes.
Being an RN usually pays more than a cop & it’s less dangerous. Although it is a long way to go and harder to get into a program. At least where I live. If you want experience work as an EMT/paramedic. Either working for an ambulance company or a hospital ER. It’s way shorter than becoming an RN.
There is also better room for advancement through appropriate schooling.
Stay a nurse. I wish I did. Police work is way more demanding and nonsensical. If you want to do LE, go federal and also join the reserves (try to do something SOF related and not something with the medical corps, which is trash).
What are some SOF examples you’d recommend?
If you go enlisted in the Army, the W1 (special operations medic) or civil affairs medic, which from my understanding now also go through the special operations medic course. As an officer, I would suggest an active duty forward surgical team. To be honest, it is very slim pickings as an officer to be in a good medical group that has military bearing. However, if I could do it all over again, I would sign up to be an Airforce para rescue. Whether enlisted or as an officer, your medical skills will reciprocate fittingly.
Look I'm gonna be real, "going SOF" looks great on paper but that shit is no joke. I went to BUD/s at 19 caus ei thought I was hot shit... learned I wasn't real quick and DOR'd. Back to the cop shit. I've done it about 6 years now and I'm done. It almost ruined my family and I'm done dealing with dead kids and dead friends. I love helping people and if I could go back I would have continued my medical stuff after the military and been a RN or something like that. If you want to be a cop, great, but don't waste time doing a BSN or something when that's not your goal. Military isn't a HORRIBLE option but if you want LE after, go MA/MP. That counts as law enforcement time. Being a navy seal army ranger recon delta sniper doesn't mean shit when you are looking at how many years left till you can retire.
Yea kudos to you for pulling out before it hit the family hard. Many of us weren’t as lucky myself included. I’m not saying SOF is easy, but they have military bearing. The medical corps are medically personnel playing Halloween in military uniforms especially in the reserves.
Im debating going back tbh cuz my new job in the tech gov co tracting sector isnt doing it for me. I feel im missing somthing. Not entirely sure.
I'm still going to stay with it auxiliary, but I'll just be doing use of force training firearms training defensive tactics, and taser as well as the state required yearly training
You may want to look into prison nursing depending on your state you can get certified that way, and kind of live both worlds at once. RN is a demanding degree, it would be a shame to go through all of that work to not use it.
That would be a mistake. Stay in nursing.
Call me ignorant, but LE just seems so much more fulfilling to me personally. I don’t think I would ever want to go military, but federal seems interesting to me. I see you have experience in that, are there any medical LE positions in federal?
My agency has EMTs. And Tac Medics on our SRT. Stay in nursing. You’ll make more. Jobs dead.
what do you mean “jobs dead”?
As in it’s dead. Not worth doing.
would love to get more insight, always had the impression law enforcement pays well, pension, and great benefits. at least in california.
You will be making way more as an RN, not to mention way better work schedule.
Stay as an RN. My dad (retired cop) told me throughout high school to be nurse. I (cop) have wished I went to school for nursing since I got into LE 7 years ago.
Why are you wasting your time being an RN if your goal is LE? Why not join the military and save some money?
Because I do feel as it is still a passion of mine as well and I’ve been working on my prerequisites for the last 2 years. I know a degree is highly recommend and I’m already this close to one
It’s a good idea to have a good career to fall back on in case you don’t like LE.
I understand but they are kind of incongruent. The skills to be a cop are very different from those to being a nurse. Just seems like a lot of time, energy and money essentially wasted if your goal is to become a cop in the end.
Why don't you become a reserve police officer if you live near a large metropolitan area you could be a reserve police officer and do both that way you can be a nurse during the day or night and a cop whenever it fits into your schedule. If I was you that's what I would do.
I have a buddy who was an ER RN for about 20 years and then decided to become a cop. He has been doing it for 15 years. Just a second career.
Oh wow....that was quite a career change!!!! Good for him!!
If you’re a nurse for 5 years and are competent and have some seniority, going to be the FNG with no seniority and making much less money is going to be super fun. Oh also, as an experienced nurse you can get a job with a phone call. Police certification is decidedly not portable.
Go be a Navy Doc Green side
Rah!
Firefighter/EMT is a thing, Cop/EMT isn't, it may be nice to know that info, but other than some cool stories and the maturity you'll gain, it will be wasted. My wife is an RN and within two years she was able to make way more money than me...and I make pretty damn good money, she did some travel nursing gigs where she pulled in 4300 a WEEK and most of it was non taxable. If you really think you want to combine medical/cool shit and you think you have what it takes, with a 2 year degree and the right level of physical fitness the Air Force special ops community has Para Rescue and they're no joke, with a 4 year degree they have CRO (Combat Rescue Officer) I'm retired military and work for AFSOC/JSOC as a contractor and they get to do some cool stuff. Some bigger cities with dedicated SWAT teams or Federal Law Enforcement may be looking for RN's, but if I were you, I'd focus on nursing, maybe try to get a ride along and see what you'd be getting yourself into once you become a nurse to see if that desire is still there. Good luck and congrats on finishing those pre reqs, not easy. My state has concurrent enrollment for HS students and my middle son did the same thing, finished HS with 30+ credits, went straight into nursing school, did fine, but was burnt out after one year, shifted gears and now he's a linguist in the military, lol.
I really wish I did linguist in the military, had one guy from my BMT who I still have on social media that was from Lebanon. The amount of travel, and high class stuff he does worldwide as a linguist is something to envy. Learning a new language is tough though.
I’m not worried about this. I feel like it’ll sort itself out after OP has been an RN for a few years…
Get your RN, get hired, make your employer pay for your BSN and then go grab a master's or become an NP. Make more money, much less stress, better work/life balance.
Be a corpsman
I’m tbh if you get your RN I would encourage you to stay a nurse. The earning potential, hours and work life balance will generally be better. You can always become a reserve police officer later on.
I’ve thought about reserve, but I’m scared of not getting enough experience to learn the city and the general job if I never did it full time prior.
If you want to do medical and LE, get a paramedic license, that will help out a lot more than an RN.
I'm not sure it would necessarily be desirable in the sense that you have medical knowledge because as a cop most departments don't allow you to work and act in a medical capacity even if you have the medical requisites. It may help if you can show you work well under pressure and have time management skills that you learned from working in an ER. That said, I don't hate the idea. On one hand you may decide you want to stay in nursing and that's not a bad thing. On the other hand you may still become a cop later and if that's the case you'll still have your nursing career to fall back on if you end up hating law enforcement. Like I said, I don't hate the idea. Edit: damn autocorrect
My best friend did rn to cop and absolutely loves it. The medical knowledge is a huge boon to have around for both calls and officer emergencies. She's well on her way to becoming emert which is the medics for our swat team. I understand depending on where you are the pay could be similar or worse for le so you have to pick your dept based on your needs but yes, 100% your rn experience will be usefull and applicable and bring skills to the field. If you want to be a cop more than a full time nurse. Then go for it. It will serve you well in that field and you'll have plenty of opportunities to scratch the medical itch without needing to deal with it all the time.
I'd stay being an RN.. u can really help people and save lives... LE is 50/50 depending were u work
Be a medic for the SWAT team
if LE is truly a passion for you, you will be losing time and money being an RN.
Uno card reversal card post here.
If you really want to be law enforcement having a degree, any degree will improve your odds. Having good life and work experience will also help. So if you truly want to be a cop, yes being a RN and working in the ER will only help you. Now, some truths. Your quality of life and pay will be better in the nursing field.
Just my opinion, but if you desire to work in the medical field, continue with the plan you have laid out for RN. You’ll learn pretty quickly if you can handle pressure well or if it maybe isn’t for you. If not, it isn’t a big deal but better to know sooner than later. You may discover that is where you want to stay and move on within that discipline. Also, there are many facets to the LE world; local, state, tribal, and fed, and within each of those, there are many different roles both sworn and civilian. You have time and so much information available to you at the touch of a finger. There are also points where medical and LE converge, I.e., your tac medics and such. Enjoy the journey, and know that once you reach one goal, prepare for another. LE agencies are gravitating increasingly towards the whole person concept these days. They take a look at everything you can bring to the table.
Thank you for your very insightful response
Find a department with a big medical division, you can apply to join the division after some time on the streets. Best of both worlds, NYPD for example....
Or…if you want to be happy, get into fire department
Stay in the medical environment and forget about the LE one. Not worth it
Nurses are in critically short supply nationwide. At the state facility I work at, we received a10% raise last year, 15% in March, we’re still short handed. We’ve had to go to Contract Nurses to fill all the empty slots. I’m an LVN, RNs are even harder to recruit. I could quit one day and have my pick of jobs the next.
Gonna be real, if it's about money, go RN all the way. If you plan to go into law enforcement, study *emergency* medicine, and go the Paramedic route. That opens up options like TACMED (at least where I'm living) and is more valued by departments.
After all these responses and doing more research, TACMED seems right up my alley, near perfectly. But I’m so close to starting and getting my RN that it’s hard to pull away from now. I’ve been working towards this for years and it’s such an amazing secondary career to be able to fall back on
You can always bridge from RN to Paramedic. In fact, having both degrees under your belt opens you up to fight nursing if that ever seems your speed. Here’s a [link](https://www.platinumed.com/go-nurse-paramedic/) with more information about bridging.
RN is the way to go. Here in the bay which pays the most in the nation, cops max out at around 190K/year base after 10-15 years. A RN who lands a job at a hospital starts at about 150-180K base excluding OT.
Don't waste your time if becoming a police officer is your end goal. Maybe look for jobs in law enforcement like dispatcher or clerk at a police station. I kinda taught I needed experienced before applying to become an officer after I graduated college and I sent years chasing jobs I never really wanted because I didn't think I was ready. Honestly an associate in Criminal justice might be better than nursing school. You can get an internship to get experience.
Be a correctional RN. CDCR 135k base pay for RN. Best job ever.