Re: New Student, Old Bag going back to school! Could use some encouragement! Originally Posted by DewB
Hello everyone!
I know just enough about the RN program to know that while academically I think I can handle it, I know for a FACT that it's hard work, early mornings, lots of physical activity and a fair amount of stress. I'm scared to death that a bad week or month might derail my enthusiasm. That's why I joined this forum....it seems very supportive and I already feel at home here. So I hope to meet a lot of you, and greetings from yet another new....old....hopeful student!!!
Andrea
DewB)

Hey Andrea, Don't doubt yourself at all. I went to nursing school and obtained my RN at 55 and my BSN the following spring. I started working on my MSN this January and with any luck and a lot of hard work should be a FNP with a MSN before I turn 60. I work full time at a very busy intermediate care unit. There are a few coworkers who are my age or a little older but many of them are burned out and worn out, they have been on the job so long. Most of the nurses who started either just before or just after me are 20 somethings with a few 30 somethings thrown in. I won't kid you at all, I am a good student, I hold my own with the best of them. When I hit the floor I expected to work hard but basically did not expect the enourmous challenges I found. Nursing is a very hard field to learn once you get the degree and go to work. It is challanging mentally, emotionally and physically. You have been an aide, so you do have a clue as to what you will be expected to do. I had been a medical social worker in this same hospital years ago, but had no idea of the intensity of nursing.
The learning curve is very steep, you will question your sanity for getting into this field, however one day at about 8 months you will find yourself breathing a bit easier. Then in about a year you will look back and see how far you have come and you will smile. You will run into some more bumps, maybe some pretty hard ones, but you will be able to use your life experience to get through it. Some coworkers will be wonderful, they will be supportive and great teachers and friends. Others will look at you expecting you to fail and do nothing to help you when you feel like you are drowning, maybe even pushing you down in the current a little. If the saying "what doesn't kill you makes your strong" applies to any career field it applies to nursing. Personally I would rather have a good bit fewer muscle building opportunities, but the fighter that I am meets these challenges head on.

Nursing contains the best and unfortunately the worst of career experiences to which I have been exposed and this is my third career.
The twenty and thirty somethings accept me in an odd way, sort of as a curiosity. Earlier it was almost like they keep expecting me to faulter, but often they turn to me for advice and support. The gals closer to my age are shocked that I would want to do this after having a "desk job" which they see as higher status, with little work, for almost 30 years. Physical condition is very important on my floor. When you can't keep up, you are regarded by the majority as useless, so just be aware, take care of yourself physically, because the herd will trample you if you fall. Put a lot into your job, but remember it is not who you are. As awsome as nursing is, make sure you have a life outside of nursing.
I may sound like I don't like my job. I actually love it and know that I absolutely made the right choice in going to nursing school. I am able to see the good, the bad, the ugly and the wonderful in this job which gives you 4 free days per week to do what you want to, gives you the opportunity to make life and death differences in peoples lives, and gives you the opportunity to help teach other nurses, and to influence them to bring out the best in themselves and others. Nursing is never ever boring at least on my unit. I learn loads of new things almost every day. I have some phenomenal coworkers. I once had the experience of a patient with a tramatic brain injury coming out of a coma and responding to my usual "chittchatt" to coma patients by saying to me "you are so nice."

That was a high point in my early career!
Keep going bravely forward but go with your eyes wide open! You sound like you will make a great nurse. We are not old bags by the way. I am a fairly new nurse with 57 years of life experience!
Mahage
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