First let me say that this site is awesome. It offers so much information and has been a great help to me. I hope that the community can help me further and offer some thoughts.

For the past few weeks, I've been seriously considering nursing as a career. A little bit about me. I have a bachelor's degree in liberal arts which i love. I learned how to read, think, and write creatively and critically. I learned about the classics, I learned how to be a good citizen and I learned to value knowledge and learning. Yet when it comes to finding a job, the market is not as lucrative compared to say an accounting or an engineering major. So like many liberal arts majors, when it came time to decide on a career path, I decided to go to law school. I worked in a law firm for a bit to get some experience as well. Every attorney in the firm was miserable and every attorney that I knew well enough for them to be honest with me said that they regretted their decision and were planning on quitting the profession as soon as their loans were paid off. Some with 150K in loans...that was going to be a while.

But like a Greek tragedy, I went against the advice of my coworkers, jumped through all the hoops and got into a tier 1 law school with a good scholarship (all i had to pay for was my cost of living, which is still expensive considering I already had UG debt). I suppose i thought that despite all of those unhappy lawyers, I was going to be different. I don't know what their problem was, but I wasn't going to go down like they did. Boy, was I wrong. Almost immediately after arriving at law school i realized that I made a mistake. I realized that the legal profession is highly dysfunctional, depressing, soul crushing, and mundane. The problems in the legal profession are at an institutional/systemic level. It had chewed up and spit out all of my previously bright-eyed, idealistic, do gooders co-workers who can now only be described as depressed, self-loathing drones handcuffed by the enormous debt they incurred. In short - i realized that i had made a mistake. I decided to give it some time anyway. But by exam time at the end of the semester, I had no doubt that law wasn't for me. So I decided to withdraw from law school after taking my exams.

It has now been about 2 months since I dropped out of school and have been trying to find some direction as to a career. After some time to reflect and think about what I want to do, Ive come to consider nursing based on some of the things I value in a career. I believe that nursing meets my altruistic desires to help people most in need, allows me to financially support a family in the future (and spend time with them), and has lots of room for growth. Now in the past weeks ive given a lot of thought to numerous career paths other than nursing as well and rejected a few. From my experience with law school i learned not to make the mistake of rushing into anything without really considering each aspect of the decision. I learned a lot about myself, - about my strengths and weaknesses, my capabilities and limitations, and what I want out of a career and my life.

This brings me to some of my apprehensions I have with nursing. The dynamic nature of the profession is really appealing. The chance to be able to see patients really getting better and knowing that you're making a difference in their lives seems awesome. But I know that in the realities of nursing, nurses come across some really sad, tragic, and disturbing things. The high/satisfaction from helping someone recover their health must be a great feeling. But how do you handle those who dont make it? How do you handle those who have horribly tragic conditions and afflictions? Ive read how some nurses just leave work at work and deal with it that way, but I don't know if I can do that. I guess what Im worried about is my ability to make it emotionally in a profession filled with pain and suffering.

Sorry if this post seems a bit neurotic in a Woody Allen-esk way. I'm just trying to find my place in this crazy world. Any input is appreciated from those who've been through the same dilemma at the beginning of their careers. Thanks.

Agrippa,

I'm a nurse who is actually currently looking at law school for '09. I'm happy with my decision to enter nursing (and even plan to stay involved in nursing after law school), but the stress in the profession comes from significant sources other than taking care of desperately ill patients.

Example: Hospitalized patients are sicker than ever, but as hospitals strive to contain expenditures, low staffing levels seem to be an issue just about everywhere these days. I'm fortunate to work in neonatal intensive care where the patient:nurse ratios are somewhat controlled, but I still have to live with the knowledge that on any given night I probably won't be able to provide 100% complete and ideal care for my patients. I prioritize the best I can and some things inevitably get passed on for the next shift. I've become okay with that, but it's really hard on some people.

I would check into some volunteer opportunities with local hospitals to find out whether your perception of nursing matches up to the reality. It's tough to make decisions even based on that, as every unit (and every shift) is a little different, but it gives you a starting point.

I agree with Eric. Dealing with really sick people and sad outcomes is NOT the main source of stress in nursing. The health care industry is in deep trouble in the US (and in many other countries as well) -- and as the largest segment of the workforce and the people most involved at the interface between the patient and the health care system, nurses bear the brunt of all that trouble. Also, as a professional group we are as dysfunctional as any, moreso than some others.

Spend some time in a hospital and/or nursing home as a volunteer to see how well you will tolerate working in the actual health care environment before you make a big investment. You've already invested in education for 2 different careers only to decide they weren't for you. I think it would be wise for you to work a while, save up some money, and get to know yourself as a worker before you invest in a 3rd career. Join the adult workforce full time and use that experience to learn who you are as a worker while you also do some volunteer work in a hospital to see if you would really be happy in health care.

Let me preface my comments by saying that I am not currently a nurse, and will only be beginning a program this fall at Yale, to become an acute care nurse practitioner in three years. However, I've spent the last five years (yes, five!) deciding if nursing was the right place for me, and I've decided that it is!

The best thing I've learned about nursing so far is that it will open up so many doors for you, so that even if you were to decide that bedside nursing isn't for you, there are opportunities in clinics, research, pharm/biotech companies, and even legal nursing. You can be a bedside nurse, a nurse practitioner or a nurse educator, just to name a few.

Nursing, probably much like law school, is a very opinionated field, and for good reason. You will find many unhappy people, and many who couldn't imagine a better profession. I was scared out of nursing for many years by people who were miserable and told me that I was crazy to go into nursing. Once I really got out there and started volunteering, meeting nurses, nurse practitioners, and nurse educators (and getting myself a mentor!), I found that the possibilities for me are limitless (including become a nurse educator, something that I'm really excited about).

Anyway, good luck with your decision, and feel free to PM me if I can do anything to help! :)

Kens

Thanks for the insight all. I didn't try 2 careers, I tried one after I graduated from UG (law).

I guess what im most worried about is making another wrong life decision on one hand, but stagnation on the other. I think I will try to get my CNA and at least work part time in a hospital part time. I am also interested in some allied health careers as well (pa, pt, rt, etc).

I had a similar path, except I never actually applied to law schools. I had always planned to be a lawyer, and I quite honestly think it was because I read too many John Grisham novels. Plus, what else can you do with a history degree? Teach? I don't have the mindset for it. I did take the LSAT and I scored very well. I had planned to take one year off after UG before I applied, and that stretched to about 5. I was a bartender, and I kept meeting extremely unhappy lawyers. I started really thinking about whether I actually wanted to be one, and I decided that I didn't. I didn't want to be a bartender with $100,000 in loans and a JD, and I wasn't sure that I actually wanted to practice law. Eventually I realized that nursing took all the things I loved about tending bar, and applied them to a more stable profession in which I could actually use my education and get neat things like health insurance. If you can afford to work as a CNA, it probably is a good way to get exposed to the hospital and get a better idea what nursing is like. Some people hate the job though, and remember that it's different than being a nurse. Watch what the nurses do when you're there - you won't just be turning patients and checking vitals as a nurse, so hating a CNA job doesn't necessarily mean you'll hate being an RN.

Thanks for the insight all. I didn't try 2 careers, I tried one after I graduated from UG (law).

I guess what im most worried about is making another wrong life decision on one hand, but stagnation on the other. I think I will try to get my CNA and at least work part time in a hospital part time. I am also interested in some allied health careers as well (pa, pt, rt, etc).

Your plan sounds like a good one. Taking a little break from higher education doesn't mean you have to stagnate. Your break doesn't have to last forever -- just long enough to spend a little time in the health care industry so that you can make an informed decision about your next step.

Good luck to you.