Question for Nurses...please help!

Hello!

I have only been a nurse for 2 years, but I will try to offer you a bit of advice. Certain aspects of nursing you have to have a stomach for, that is for sure. In nursing school, I almost passed out when starting my first IV. That was the only time though. Unless you are a VERY squeemish person, once you get familiar with all that goes on in a hospital, it might not bother you as much as you think. Plus, the rewards usually outweight the gross-out factor. <--- In my experience anyway. I find my work with kids very rewarding.

I don't know much as far as pay scales go for Respiratory Therapists and Radiology Techs.

Respiratory Therapy - You are right, be prepared to deal with mucous, mucous, and more mucous. If this is something that you can't handle respiratory might not be for you either. In the PICU, our respiratory therapists are responsible for administering respiratory treatments, help managing the kids on ventilators, lots of suctioning, some tracheostomy care. We work pretty close with our RT's. At the last hospital I worked at, I made a few trips to the ER to help with trauma kids. The RT's there worked closely with the doctor's during intubations. Nurses help with all of the above as well.

Radiology Techs - I appologize that I don't know more about this dicipline. The most contact I have with them is when they come around each morning to get the chest x-ray's on the kids. Radiology Techs have minimal patient contact in our unit. There might be more down in their department, but it is much less close-patient contact than nursing or respiratory therapy.

Nursing is a challenging and demanding profession. We hear frequently about the "nursing shortage", and I ran into a lot of people in my nursing school that were just in it for the money. They didn't last long. If you do decide to go into nursing, make sure you are going for the right reasons, and be prepared to study, study, and study some more. If you love to learn and continue learning everyday, nursing is a great career. I can't speak much about the other 2 professions you are considering because I have gone through neither of those programs.

Best of luck with your choice!

Maybe some other forum members have more extensive advice