Y'all have me scared witless!

[javagirl]

This forum rocks. I'm so glad to have found it.

I'm very strongly considering a 2nd career transition to nursing. Ironically,

when I first entered college eons ago it was nursing school, but at the time

I did not think I had the emotional fortitude the profession requires. The desire to work in healthcare has never left me. I am in the process of getting geared up to finish nursing pre-reqs when I found this extremely informative forum that tells the good, the bad, the ugly. Sometimes I'm extremely exhilarated by my choice to go to nursing school, but after spending a few days here reading the posts I'm terrified! :uhoh21: I'm wondering why I feel so compelled to enter a profession where one is verbally abused, cleans up a constant stream of poop and is often in hazardous physical conditions and a state of anxiety or tears. :stone

FYI: My areas of interest are palliative care and holistic nursing. I would also love to do L & D work, too. I started wanting to go into nursing again after from recovering from an "incurable" chronic pain condition. Basically I feel I'm being compelled into the profession by something larger than myself and sometimes I feel like I'm being dragged by the hair by something larger than myself.

Did you experience this? Does it all work out in the end?

Thanks much,

Javagirl

[zacarias, ASN, RN]

I'm wondering why I feel so compelled to enter a profession where one is verbally abused, cleans up a constant stream of poop and is often in hazardous physical conditions and a state of anxiety or tears.

Javagirl

Javagirl,

Awesome that you're finally making the choice to join this great profession!

I can understand how you would feel scared after reading a lot of nurses' posts but remember that these nurses are venting, that is they are letting off steam and we nurses are hardly objective when we let off steam. :)

Also, the "constant stream of poop, hazardous conditions, and state of anxiety," this is a worst case scenario. A small percentage of nurses work in these conditions and of course they have the right to vent, they also can find other work in other locations.

I for one work in a large Magnet teaching hospital that is very good to its nurses the conditions are good although they can always be improved.

Again, welcome to the profession!

[Tweety, BSN, RN]

Good luck in all you do. If you go in to it with an open mind, realistically knowing what you are getting yourself into, then you really must want to be a nurse, and we need you. It's a tough back breaking profession, but honorable and full of many rewards.

Good luck!!