Nursing School Tuition Reimbursement - Is It Worth It?
These days, the cost of nursing school can rack up to thousands of dollars and as a result, most nursing students graduate with a burden of student loans. The shortage of nurses in the country however, has become so severe that employers are now offering incentives which are certainly going to be attractive to nursing school graduates: "tuition reimbursement" or "loan forgiveness".
As the name implies, the heath care institution such as hospital or nursing home will offer to pay for part of, or even the whole of your student loans in exchange for you coming to work for them, and this could amount to several thousands of dollars a year. Even some state governments are offering this option.
The idea of being unloaded of your debt sounds so good so why are we even talking about not considering this?
Well, it is not the ideal option for everyone and for every situation.
The way it generally works is, the employer or state government is offering to repay part of your nursing student loan in exchange for your agreement to work for them for a specified period of time - generally at least a couple of years. Other offers will specify a certain amount, for instance $5,000 a year, for a certain length of time, say 3 years.
Before you sign a contract agreeing to this type of offer, you need to do a little research first. Try to find the answers to these:
Is the hospital or facility that you are agreeing to work at a place that has very high turnover? Are you satisfied with the working conditions? Do the nurses working there seem happy? Is there a dangerously high nurse-patient ratio or poor security?
There may be a reason why they are desperate to hire nurses. And there may not be any reason they're desperate other than the fact that there is a nationwide shortage of nurses. You could make some discreet inquiries on the working environment of that institution to find out if you're tying yourself to a contract that may not be good for you and could make you unhappy with your work for the next couple of years or so.
Are you agreeing to work at a certain salary for the duration of the contract? Are you locking yourself in at a lower rate then necessary? Maybe you can earn a much higher pay in another facility, even enough to make up for your repaying the student loans yourself
Let's say, just as a for-instance, that the reimbursement is $4,000 a year, which is currently - in the year 2007 - typical. Say, there's another prospective employer offering an hourly rate that's $3 higher than the facility that has a tuition reimbursement package. For a 40 hour work week, at the end of the year, you would earn $6,240 more by working at the higher paying facility - which means that you would actually be losing $2,240 by working at the place that paid less and locked you in with a contract.
Also, read the fine print of the contract - is there any kind of penalty for leaving before a year or two? If you left after ten months, does that mean that you do not get any tuition reimbursement at all?
If you are very familiar with the facility, and are confident that you will be happy working there for at least the length of the contract you are agreeing to, then tuition reimbursement or loan forgiveness may be right for you. But do your homework first, to make sure that it's a win-win situation for everyone!
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