Hello! I have been a long time lurker of this forum and listener of the podcast. I am 28 and finishing up my bachelor’s degree in Healthcare Administration at the end of this year. I have worked in healthcare since high school, but always on the administrative side! I’m currently an office manager at a medical billing company. We have clients from all different specialties, and coding their cases has given me insight into so many different areas of medicine. I’ve been interested in the clinical side of healthcare since high school but doubted my abilities, so I never pursued it. My dad passed away last year of pancreatic cancer, and as cliche as it sounds, that was really what pushed me. He was always my cheerleader and really the one who got me to finally pursue my bachelor’s degree. Because of him, I found an inner confidence to really push myself in school and realize that I am capable.
I have been attempting to work out time to take science courses at the CA state university here in town, but with my work schedule I have been having a hard time. As a non matriculated student, I have last say so most of the Biology/Chem classes I could attend are full before I get a chance. I have been toying with the idea of asking my employer to go part time so I can attend these courses during the day. I have also been looking at post-bacc programs that I could apply for next year. This would mean moving away from home and quitting my job, as none are local. But I just wanted to introduce myself and thank everyone for the helpful topics I have discovered on the forum and podcast!
HI AlexaL,
I am also 28 years old! I love your story… I am also finishing up an online degree and unfortunately with my job lay off and homelessness situation, I pushed back my potential of my 3.88 gpa and now it’s a 3.5. However… With these past few months, I have been in a position of compromise; needing to work and taking care of myself before I carry on too much. I’m trying to see if I can financially afford my part time classes while I am attending full time however I am still paying my own medical bills when I did not have medical insurance.
It would be nice to quit and just go to school but I can’t and I commend those that can. My goal is to work to reduce my credit cards and other emergency room bills while seeing if my FAFSA allows me any funds for my classes. Seems like I may need to take my classes at CC since it’s $200/unit versus $700/unit at university…
We’ll see… again I want to bring it up to my employer but I don’t want to be fired… if I bring it up, I fear being fired because I know my company does not want someone leaving. We are in dire need to people in the company as it is a start-up company in Hawaii and already 5 people have left in less then 1 year. The company only has 30 employees and we don’t currently have any revenue. Again, it’s a start up so we are running off donations. I fear that any reason I give them for why I am not reliable would be dismissal.
Would your company allow you to still work full time, but have non traditional hours while you went to class during the day? I believe that is what I am going to propose to my employer. Thankfully they are flexible that way, or have been with students we have hired in the past.
Sorry for your loss. I would really recommend you shadow some physicians. I cannot stress how important it is to gain experience in the daily lives of physicians to determine if the clinical aspect is something you want to pursue. Especially considering the environment for clinical practice currently. Good Luck to you on your journey.
impressive story , sorry for you dad (