[jhrn]

I am a 28 year old mother of two. I have my elementary teaching certification and have taught for three years. I have always been interested in nursing and now feel that I want to pursue the profession of nursing by going back to school in the evening. I am particularly interested in being a L&D nurse. However, my husband says I already have a degree and a loan from that to pay off and should not go back to school. I really would like to give it a go but he just doesn't support my on the issue. I love being around pregnant women and would love to help them through labor as my wonderful nurses did. Also, I am pretty set on working as an obgyn nurse and am not as interested in doing much else in the field. What are your opinions/advice?
I appreciate your time and input, this is a really big decision in my life!
Jen

[Angel Baby]

My thoughts--committing to nursing is a calling and working in L&D is an even higher calling. Women's health probably is the greatest area of medicine where teaching is a huge factor in what we do. You never walk into the room of a laboring, antepartum, or postpartum patient without engaging in some kind of teaching.

If you can find the time to search around you can probably find scholarships and grants--that would negate the issue of a second school loan to pay off. Pay for RN's is much better than teachers--so that's another way to counter your husband's objections. However, nurses training is demanding--you might contact reps of area schools that have programs and get a feel for what their programs are like--you might even ask to audit 1 or 2 classes or speak with instructors. You will need to have a solid understanding of what the clinical requirements will be because schools are not usually flexible for clinical rotations and this may interfere with your current job.

There are major concerns over the lack of students entering into the nursing profession and as a profession we are looking at an ever-worsening shortage, so you'd always be marketable and have a job.

Good luck making a decision--do you know any nurses or have any friends who know some nurses? I work with a nurse who used to be a high school English teacher (she's a fantastic nurse--it can be done!!!)

[shay]

Here's something that will make you AND your hubby happy....in my opinion anyway...

You have training in education, and you love being around pregnant women, right? Well, have you ever considered becoming a childbirth instructor? Or perhaps a doula? Here are some links:

http://www.lamaze.org/2000/certification.html

http://www.dona.org/

Neither require a nursing degree. It's a good compromise.

However, if nursing is what you want, one of the universities in my area is offering an accelerated degree program for adults who have previous bachelors degrees in other fields of study. It is a one year intensive program. Maybe somewhere in your area there is a similar program.

Good luck in whatever you decide.