How does your family/SO feel about your pursuing nursing education?

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  1. How does your family/SO feel about your pursuing nursing education?

    • 39
      I'm lucky - they support me in my decision!
    • 5
      Indifferent - they don't care either way!
    • 4
      Sucks to be me - they don't think it's a good idea!

48 members have participated

Chris/hobbes, in reading your post, i just want to say that she may not like it now, but once you can finally quit the job you hate, and are working in a field you love, that will be worth its weight in gold because your entire outlook is likely to change, less stress will equal a happier home life eventually. Keep your eye on the goal!

As for me, my husband is ultra supportive. (praise god) He actually pushed me to make the change by making me sign a contract last xmas that stated I would indeed quit my job in the coming year to go to nursing school, after many broken promises i had made to myself out of fear of the unknown. Of course its easy for him to be supportive, he is an unhappy engineer making the transition to a pilot for hire, and thats a lot tougher and more poverty striken road then we are on.

As for everyone else, family and such, they dont say much so I guess they dont have much of an opinion. Sometimes I wish they would ask me more questions, or something, anything!

zero support from mother and brother. They think its a foolish field to go into and that I should go into computers. LOL

Aunts and friends are extremely supportive.

Husband is supportive...he knows which side his bread is buttered on.

Not much support here either from husband. Because I am so uncertain about it myself, he makes it worse. He thinks I am more of an administrative type person and that I won't like nursing. I do have so many doubts even to this day I keep thinking about not even beginning the program, so I guess I can understand how he feels to a point.

Well my aunt is a nurse, and my grandmother was the director of nursing at a local hospital until she died, and my grandfather was a nurse's aide, so we have like a nursing epidemic in my family. My cousin is also in nursing school :)

My boyfriend, I think, doesn't understand what being a nurse is all about. He thinks it's like Doctor junior, and "Why don't you just become a doctor?" I don't *want* to be a doctor. I want to be a nurse.

My husband is very supportive. His reasons are financially motivated. There is a huge demand for nurses and healthcare is one of the few career fields that is growing. He sees it as a practical business decision.

But I do wish he more understood the emotional reasons I am going to nursing school. We can't have children and just going to work and coming home to play with the dogs made me feel my life was empty and somewhat meaningless.

I went to a counselor and she helped me see that fulfillment comes not from receiving but from giving. Thirty years from now, I want to look back on my time in nursing and know that I was there to provide support, compassion and care when people were in need.

I am grateful for the support I get from my husband and, if his reasons for helping me get through nursing school aren't quite the same as mine, the end result is the same.

my husband is totally supportive. I think he's just glad that I have finally found a field that I enjoy. My parents and siblings are supportive as well. I have gotten a few snarky comments from my BIL to the effect of "you spent all the money to get your BS and now you're going back to tech school???" this from a man that took 8 years to finish his bachelors, walked the line at graduation and then didn't go to summer school to finish the 2 classes he needs to actually get his BS. Whatever, all that matters to me is my husband's support because he is the one I have to live with! :D

My in-laws are also supportive, sending us money, restaurant gift certificates, etc, but they do that regardless of whether we're in school or not!

A

Specializes in School, Camp, Hospice, Critical Care.

My nine-year-old daughter is my biggest cheerleader.

My two teens are too wrapped up in their own lives to be supportive. They've each given me the "I thought you were a nurse already" line (because of the last two semesters of pre-reqs) a couple of times this summer.

My husband is supportive when my time away from home (school and a very part-time job on an ICU) does not in any way inconvenience him. So it's really just lip service. I had to work a half day today and the youngest is still on summer vacation, so he had to stay home with her this AM. He has total flex time and has been with his company for 20 years--he has COMPLETE liberty to come and go as he pleases, and COMPLETE liberty to work from home--but it was an enormous inconvenience to stay home until 10-11AM and he was surly about it. I called home around 9AM (I go in at 6:45) to ask him to fax a book list for school to me, so I could stop at the bookstore on the way home--and that was a major inconvenience, too. It was a rough shift on the ICU, multiple admissions and a death; needless to say, by 10 I was in the ladies' room in tears!

We've talked about it, had counseling about it, and he often moves toward improvement--but he always "relapses." I think that mostly he's just selfish and wants all of life to revolve around his timing, wishes, and needs. He has been warned that nursing school is part of my master plan toward financial independence (and divorce) unless things change. He says he wants to stay married, but nothing really changes :o

Thanks for the venting opportunity!

I haven't really told anyone, except for my son (whose first response was "But they don't make any money"!); he's generally supportive, though. Aslo told one friend who's very supportive, in fact, she offered me a job when I graduate. I feel like I've started and stopped so many things, career-wise, that I want to get through pre-reqs and be admitted to school before I tell a lot of people.

I too consider myself very fortunate after hearing some bad stories on here. I too could be one of those bad stories b/c my dad is very old-fashioned and believes no women should work but even he is very much so behind me on this !!! I feel very blessed !!

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