I don't know what to do (literally!)...

Mayisontheway, excellent point! We need more diabetes educators in hospitals and elsewhere.

A childbirth educator does NOT require a nursing degree. If you are teaching in a hospital, maybe. You can teach your own classes, though, or through other organizations. I worked for many years at a birth center, and our childbirth educator was not a nurse, but she was certified through an organization, and she was very good.

Look at www.dona.org or www.icea.org for more information. However, unless you are teaching classes all day every day, this isn't a job at which you can make a living. Even hospital classes are often just two hours a day, one day a week. No one makes a living teaching childbirth classes.

But I don't think, given your present grades, inclinations, and situations that you should go to nursing school. You'd just be wasting your money.

Isn't the main reason there aren't more diabetes educators because of budgetary reasons as opposed to not enough qualified educators? I also wonder about pay scale as well. Some very interesting and important preventative health/health educator type positions tend to pay very little. I've seen pretty low wage offerings for master's prepared public health educators.

To the OP, it does sound like you are at cross purposes with your current goals. I agree that the type of educating you're interested in IS valuable and satisfying, but it doesn't seem like it's a stable, clear career path. That doesn't mean you can't make it work somehow, but it does mean that you can't just take these certain classes, get that certain degree/certification and - boom! - find a good job. Check out current job listings, qualifications, etc. Call and talk to people doing the type of work you're interested in. Visit their work place if you can. You might want to look into public health nursing which is often more focused on education than physical nursing assistance.

It can be VERY difficult to get a realistic picture of the work world before one has to choose a course of education. You just do the best you can and figure it out as you go sometimes. You might want to consider just finding a job and working awhile before investing in more education at this point. You might learn something about yourself and the work world that would make your next step more clear. Good luck to you!!

I do think that being a nurse will give you an edge over other candidates for the position but I don't think you need to be a nurse.

I attended the Lamaze International training course and our instructor wasn't a nurse. And half the class attending weren't nurses. I also worked for the Comprehensive Perinatal Services Program (CPSP) and most of the educators weren't nurses (although less pay than being a nurse)!

Like the other posters said, if you become a doula, certified lactation specialist, or certified childhood educator, that can also open up the same career path for you. I would definitely recommend pursuing your masters degree -such as the MPH in Health Education or also being a nutritionist would also help in your career goals (I don't know though if that's an option for a masters degree).

The career prospects are a little murkier if you are not a nurse (I mean, it's not like there are jobs for those positions advertised everywhere like nursing is) but they do exist! They just require a little bit more networking and research about organizations.

I really think that it's not a negative to know what things really don't suit you. (I, for one decide after one short office job that I would "sell it on the street" before I would ever try being a file clerk again!) Now though, you need to sit down and make the other half of the list - the things you excel at, the things you most enjoy doing, the classes where you did well. From that you may be able to narrow your consideration of careers, or get suggestions from others. Have you checked to see if your local college has a career counseling center?
By the way - 23 is still young enough to be "trying on" professions for size - you'll have plenty of years to work at whatever you decide on.
Just as a note - I saw several people suggest doula - not a career I'd suggest for someone who doesn't care for blood or close personal contact - being a doula involves a lot of hands on and close interpersonal contact with clients up to and throughout labor and birth - which invariably involves a good bit of blood and other body substances.

It's okay to not know what you "want to be when you grow up"... many a person has "fallen into" their jobs/careers - as opposed to deciding on a path and then making it happen. And most of those folks around you who seem to have it all together and know exactly what they plan to do, well, in another 5-10 years, you'll find many of them doing something different than what they planned anyway. You'll also find many a person much older than yourself at a similar place to yourself, either due to lay offs or deciding to change paths, not sure what direction to head. But people will often say they're going to do this or that even if they really don't know for sure about it.

No one wants to "waste time" getting started on their career/education but if there's not a clear destination or if you change paths along the way, it's not necessarily a waste of time. In fact, it may be a necessary part of figuring out what will work for you.