Lack of male role models and excess of estrogen

Fact: I don't have a penis . But I thought I could still have a little insite for the simple reason that I feel a lot like you do.

In the clinical setting I am often dissappointed. I am instructed to do similar things.... Make beds, wash people, ambulate patients, give them the bed pan , so on and so on. YES i do understand that is part of the job... YES I understand it has to be done... But Ive been a CNA for 4 years.. Im pretty sure I've mastered those skills . It is even more frustrating because now I am entering my 3rd semester and the majority of our clinical time is STILL focused on those aspects... Im with you.. I would much rather be focusing on my patients medications and effects...lab values and why... wound care... EKG readings...and so on... So on my end Ive come to the realization this is just how school is.. I educate myself a LOT outside of class Im constantly doing research and figuring things out on my own. Many nurses I have talked to have told me that you learn most when you are on the job. So keep on truckin threw school...Get out there get some real experience and THEN figure out what you want to do to advance... Thats what I would do.

I hear ya man. The thing of it is I guess, that even though nursing is a wide open field with lots of very varied specialties (flight nursing, community health, OB, OR, NICU, med/surg, assisted living, and on and on), we all (at least at my school) get trained as floor nurses for a Med/Surg unit. Not bad work mind you, just not at all what I want to do as a nurse. So I get frustrated when I feel like the emphasis is all on things I won't do in the real world or otherwise don't care about it, but I have also found that in the past, when I thought I was learing something stupid and pointless, sometime down the road, I often used that "stupid and pointless" knowledge. So I just keep plugging on and hope it will be the same here to, that even if I don't always know why it is important or care much about it, it may come in handy some day.
Keep on keepin' on.

Ive stopped coming here after my semester started partly because Im busy again and partly cause Im tired of seeing sob threads. This is the most refreshing post I have read here in awhile. I am still waiting to start my nursing program, but I can see myself in your shoes. Im not the touchy-feely type at all, and I do hope to be a CRNA one day (for the money). But if that doesnt happen, I hope I can find a niche where I am comfortable. Nursing is a very broad field, so I havnt given up hope yet. I just hope I can get through the program.

I've been lucky in that I've had some instructors that are not namby-pamby. I've also encountered men on staff at the various sites I've done clinicals at. Roughly have of the nurses on the cases I do for my agency are men.

That all said, I can see where some of you are coming from, and I am extremely grateful that I've been spared the brunt of it. I assure all of you that it is worth it to put up with some of the silly crap to make it through. It gets better once you're working, at least if you pick the right job. And if you pick the wrong one, you can always find another.

I'm gonna go ahead and agree with what most these people are saying... I am not currently a Nurse, but in most hospitals I've been in Nurses do much more of the "important" work. Bed changes and wiping butts may be something that you will need to do at times, but a lot of hospitals have other people who do that for the RN.

If the hospital you're working in isn't giving you the kind of work you want, it's not hard to find another hospital with a need for nurses.

I feel the same way with most of the posts in this thread. I am also hoping that it changes by the time I am done with my BSN program. I do plan to go to grad school. If I like being a nurse then I'll do MSN/DNP otherwise I'll go PA.

I am sure there are many others (male and female) that feel exactly the same way. I am currently a programmer, I take problems and fix them, or create new solutions. Touchy feely really aint my thing but I'll try the best I can because thats what I do.

First of all, ANY nurse with "Crossfit" in his (or her) name has no grounds to complain about anything at all. I would rather clean up 5 soiled patients than do Fran.
But the simple truth is that all nursing school students put up with their teacher's crap. It's a rite of passage. You've gotta suck it up and work through it. And keep your head down and your mouth shut. Nothing makes a nursing school instructor more annoyed than a student with an opinion or personality.
And you need 1 to 2 years of clinical experience in an ICU to apply to CRNA school, but you don't need to complete that experience before applying, (I know this, because I'll be attending a CRNA program in the fall, and I'm currently finishing my RN to BSN program, with 2 years of clinical experience).
There are all sorts of advanced degrees in health care, but nursing gives you quite a lot of options. If you can grit your teeth, and make it through school, you will have all sorts of doors open up to you. Being a physician can be a rewarding job, but the longer I watch them as a nurse, the more sure I am that it wasn't for me.

Lmao... going into "CRNA (for the money)" as one guy said is the stupidest thing I've ever heard (ok... the stupidest thing you can say). Healthcare in our lifetime is going to change dramatically, and very soon. It won't matter if you are an MD, LVN, CRNA, or CNA... we're all about to be in the same boat. I feel that if you are chasing something for the money, you will not be happy in the long run- not because of this "money can't buy happiness" BS, but Doctors and the field of anesthesia are not going to be the same in 20 years as what they are now... probably not even in 10 years. You realize that CRNA pay has already started to level off, right? Guess what happens next? It goes down.

You can't base your life around hunting for money, it's not reliable. You could lose it all in a second [insert your own scenario here]... I know RN's making the same as a new grad CRNA's, and they've only been working for 3 or 4 years.

Not going to turn this into some sort of debate... that one comment just urked me, so really... everyone else can ignore this if they want; except for that person... he'll probably be the only one I reply to again anyway.

As for OP... all you can do is be knowledgeable about the body, but be an expert on "The Bachelor" and "Nancy Drew"... lmao.

Ok, it was a bit of an over-simplified and naive statement. I tend to use the term "hope" the way 8 year olds do, in that I hope to get superpowers and my own rocket ship. Sorry that it bothered you so much, but please dont think that I'm totally serious about that.

That said:
I'm pretty sure you are right that the medical field is going to change drastically in the coming decades, and my plans (if you can even call them that) now are going to be drastically different when the time comes to make the decision. But im a college student and having the typical financial woes of a college student, a fat paycheck certainly entices me. Im not saying that my sole purpose in life is the pursuit of green, and I hope to be in a position one day where I am not forced to make decisions based on financial constraints. But being where I am now, I would be lying if I said money is not an important concern. Chances are I will be perfectly happy with a typical RN's pay, but as long as I am in debt and jobless, what harm is there in dreaming big?

Don't worry, I will never tell anyone to become a CRNA "for the money".

The post-grad job I have researched most extensively is being a PA, and I would say the odds of me trying to do that is far higher than CRNA.