Hi! I'm not really sure where to post this, but I wanted some advice from people who are already nurses. I'm a senior in high school and am trying to figure out what I want to major in when I go to college. I've wanted to be an Emergency Department doctor for a really long time; but for the past few months, I've been realizing that nurses get the patient interaction, not the doctor. And patient interaction is the thing that I want the most. I've had a few friends who have had to spend time in the ICU and they told me that they barely remember the doctor. The people who helped them the most were the nurses. But, that being said, I'm kind of a really big control freak, and I'm not sure how well I'd do having to follow orders all the time. Is it worth giving that up for the patient interaction? My family is mostly doctors, there are no nurses in my family, so everyone is confused as to why I'm leaning towards the nursing route more. My parents are telling me that they think that I'm better suited to be a doctor. At this point, I honestly don't know what it is that I specifically want to do. Is there any advice that you can give me based off of your own experiences? Thank you so much!

I think you should spend some time shadowing docs and nurses and figure out which you would actually prefer. How much time you spend with patients and what level of relationship you build with them really varies depending on your specialty, both for nurses and physicians.

I will say that nurses don't just follow orders, especially in the ED or ICU. The medical providers are the one putting in the orders but this something we approach as a team and a lot of the experience and opinions of the bedside nurses are huge to the provider decision making. Also, nurses can and will refuse unsafe orders. If you want to be a 'control freak' I know many ICU nurses who thrive in that environment.