Describe nursing, please?

[Satori]

Thought I just had... I was in a car accident last year, resulting in a coma, some brain damage (pretty mild, compared to alot of what I've seen), and some orthopedic injuries. The net result was that I left the hospital wanting to be a nurse. I went back to work at my old job, customs brokerage, but then 9/11/01 happened, the economy fell apart, and I was out of a job.

I've been playing with the idea of going back to school for nursing on and off since July 2001, and since I lost my job, I've decided to go for it. I'm not doing anything else after all!

Anyhow, I've always had the idea of working with individuals like myself, the ones who suffer from head injuries. Gosh knows I could have used a nurse assigned to me with some experience in the subject who could've answered my questions with something like, "Well, all head injuries are different, so it's really hard to say", rather than those who just shrugged and didn't know what to say.

But, I saw something the other day that made me think about there being other possibilites in the field. I realized that I didn't really consider any of the other possibilities, and now I'm wondering what they really are. My mother was a nurse in a nursing home, so I know what that would be like. I was just wondering how other specialties might describe their jobs?

[renerian, BSN, RN]

Good question. I will comment on the type of nursing I have the most experience in and that is home. Home health keeps people of all socioeconomic levels in their home to avoid more costly types of care, and to increase their satisfaction with the health care services.

As far as the head injury, everyone is different and it is very hard to gauge.............so glad you recovered well! My stepkids mom was not so lucky. She has permanant injury disability. Can't work..

renerian

[l.rae]

Satori...glad you are doing well!, l admire that you are using this misfortune to your advantage. l have been a nurse for 22 years , last 5 in ER, l have done office peds, office family, ltc, med surge and home care before ER...l find ER fits me best at least for now...it is fast paced, the nurses have a lot of autonomy..(nothing like the show ER), no matter what a pia the pt or family is, they are always gone in a few hrs, a shift at the most.....no coming back the next day wondering if you will be assigned the 600# guy w/ creater wounds elbow deep that smells like the bottom of an out house for the 4th shift in a row.....no bed baths when you need to pass meds..send someone to surg or chart......not to imply there are no obstacles in ER too...there are many, but l find the challanges more fitting to my preferences and personality...good luck....LR

[researchrabbit]

I presently do pharmaceutical research trials for psych (am soon switching to a job doing research in various fields, all to do with government grants -- done this for 12 years, ready for something a little different). Research is generally slower paced than floor nursing. You schedule and see your patients; you gather data (can be a lengthy process in some studies; one of mine takes an entire day for the patient's first visit), dispense & track meds, inform the MD what s/he is supposed to do at each patient's visit; then there's lots and lots of paper -- patient chart, required FDA documents, correspondence. You may even compose your own consent forms or other paperwork. There are phone screens of potential patients, visits with the study monitor to review all your paper, and potential FDA audits. You may get to follow your patients over the long-term, or you may have only one visit, depending on what the study requires. There's a learning curve to it, but after that it's variations on the same theme.

[MICU RN]

When you hear nurses saying we have plenty of autonomy ask yourself compared to what other professions? I have worked in a major teaching hospital (sicu, er, micu) and have about as much autonomy as you can have as a bedside nurse. And you know what? It is very little compared to other professions, I would even say it is the least out of all professions that I know of. If you had a career where you enjoyed making your own decisions on how to manage projects you will find that being and RN has very little autonomy. I think nurses confuse being able to decide which order to follow first or when to turn the patient with real autonomy such as actually managing the patients care. You can't even give a patient tylenol for a fever without a doctor's order whether it be a standing order or getting the doctor to write an order. Nursing is a lot of responsibility but not lot of autonomy.

[2banurse]

I think that this BB is a great source of different options for nursing. I would suggest that you look through it in detail and you may be amazed. Plus you can get feedback pretty quickly.

[NannaNurse]

Hi dear, glad to hear that your healing and also glad to hear that after such a tragic event in your life you felt inspired in such a dramatic way.

I'm a Acute Rehab nurse...I work directly with patients who, like you, have been in MVA, suffered CVA's (strokes), ortho surgeries like knee and hip replacements, etc.

I truly LOVE my job. I work closely with the physicians, physical, occupation and speech therapists and its great to work as a team for the same goal.

Good luck on you quest and continued recovery!!