[RDHtoRN]

Hi, I am brand new to allnurses! I graduated from Dental Hygiene school in 2000. I always thought I would go to nursing school but chose hygiene because of the pay and hours. BUT NOW, after all these years, I still have the "itch" to go so I think I'm gonna do it. I have 3 kids and wonderful supportive husband. I have all my pre req's but I plan on taking A&P's and micro again to hopefully get a better grade. Is anyone else here applying to Athens Tech?

[beachgirl17]

Hi RDHtoRN, I just found your post and saw no one has responded.
I am sorry it is so long after you originally posted, but I thought I would respond anyway.
I wanted to say that I am an RDH and I worked DH for 3 years before I started thinking about nursing. I now am 2 months away from completing my RN. I am so happy that I made my decision to go ahead and become an RN. Although being a RDH was great, I felt like it was a stagnant career.
If you want to be a RN, I recommend shadowing a RN to see if you really will enjoy it. Then, go for it!

[VVCNurse]

Originally Posted by beachgirl17

Hi RDHtoRN, I just found your post and saw no one has responded.
I am sorry it is so long after you originally posted, but I thought I would respond anyway.
I wanted to say that I am an RDH and I worked DH for 3 years before I started thinking about nursing. I now am 2 months away from completing my RN. I am so happy that I made my decision to go ahead and become an RN. Although being a RDH was great, I felt like it was a stagnant career.
If you want to be a RN, I recommend shadowing a RN to see if you really will enjoy it. Then, go for it!

OMG!!!!!I am not crazy after all hehe, and here I thought I was the only one. I too am thinking into changing careers. I am currently an RDA and took my pre reqs for Dental Hygiene, I only needed the chemistries. Our economy has taken a major plunge lately, which made me realize that with such a small amount of pts for RPs, dentists will probably see the need to reduce staff, hygienists included. Why pay someone to do the work when maybe thats all the pts you have for the day? So I looked into nursing, which is what I wanted to do to begin with, but somehow I ended up in dentistry which I love and enjoy to the day. I am very scared to make a change, I feel like I will be starting all over again, and dentistry feels like a security blanket to me.

Anyways, thank you sooo much for replying to the previous thread, your reply made my day

[VVCNurse]

Originally Posted by beachgirl17

Hi RDHtoRN, I just found your post and saw no one has responded.
I am sorry it is so long after you originally posted, but I thought I would respond anyway.
I wanted to say that I am an RDH and I worked DH for 3 years before I started thinking about nursing. I now am 2 months away from completing my RN. I am so happy that I made my decision to go ahead and become an RN. Although being a RDH was great, I felt like it was a stagnant career.
If you want to be a RN, I recommend shadowing a RN to see if you really will enjoy it. Then, go for it!

Originally Posted by RDHtoRN

Hi, I am brand new to allnurses! I graduated from Dental Hygiene school in 2000. I always thought I would go to nursing school but chose hygiene because of the pay and hours. BUT NOW, after all these years, I still have the "itch" to go so I think I'm gonna do it. I have 3 kids and wonderful supportive husband. I have all my pre req's but I plan on taking A&P's and micro again to hopefully get a better grade. Is anyone else here applying to Athens Tech?

Welcome to the club!!! I am to going from dental to nursing

[PreRN Katie]

Originally Posted by RDHtoRN

Hi, I am brand new to allnurses! I graduated from Dental Hygiene school in 2000. I always thought I would go to nursing school but chose hygiene because of the pay and hours. BUT NOW, after all these years, I still have the "itch" to go so I think I'm gonna do it. I have 3 kids and wonderful supportive husband. I have all my pre req's but I plan on taking A&P's and micro again to hopefully get a better grade. Is anyone else here applying to Athens Tech?

Are you talking about Athens Tech in Georgia? I'm hopefully applying there for Fall 2009. I'm not a dental hygienist or anything but try posting in the GA forum, you might get some more responses there! Good luck!

[beachgirl17]

VVCNurse, If you have any questions you can PM me. Things may be different here though cause I am across the country. Anyway, I understand the scary feeling of leaving your security blanket of the dentistry field. I feel that it is worth the leap, but you have to be ready for many changes. There are similarities, but definitely huge differences in hygiene and nursing. The great thing is that you don't have to leave dentistry altogether. I plan on working nursing full-time, but then working a few days a month in hygiene. I am sure you can do the same as a RDA, so you can still keep up skills in dentistry, too. You mentioned the economy as one of your reasons for wanting to be a nurse and I agree to a point. I think nursing is more recession proof than hygiene, but in my opinion, no job is completely recession proof. I think available job openings depend on your location, but I really feel that nursing will give me more choices. Good luck to you!

[cherryfirecracker]

I, too, am exiting dental hygiene to embark on a nursing career. I have been a hygienist for 10 years and am bored out of my mind. Dental hygiene has been very profitable for me and I have worked abroad, in pedo, and perio. I never felt inclined to get my bachelor's degree though because the limited number of jobs, my personal lack of enthusiasm for dental hygiene, and pay did not seem to be worth it to me. This unfortunately, has left me stuck in clinical hygiene and forced me to consider what to do.

For the past year, I have researched transitioning to a different career, and kept coming back to nursing. There are so many challenges and opportunities with nursing, both educational and professional. The possibilities are nearly endless. You can continue your education all the way to the doctorate level, you can work bedside, or have not patient contact whatsoever. Currently, I am in the process of retaking my science classes which have expired. Ironically, this week I was laid off from my 4 day a week dental hygiene job due to the economy. So my husband and I decided next semester I will go to school full-time and be able to apply to a few nursing programs here in the area to start in the fall of '09. Financially, this will be a bit rocky, but I am SOOOO excited to have concrete timeline to be working towards.