Help A Highschooler--wants 2 Be A Nurse

classicdame, MSN, EdD · May 29, 2008

Salary depends on where you live and the market in that area. In East Texas starting salary for new graduates is about $35,000/year but experienced nurses earn much much more. There are a lot of variables.

Besides labor and delivery, maternal-child nurses can work in postpartum, in the MD office, for the county health dept or state health dept or lots of things. You might even like pediatrics or nursery. Good luck on whatever you decide.

If you are going after the money only, nursing is not for you. Nurses earn every last dime they get!

indiawhitaker · May 29, 2008

Salary depends on where you live and the market in that area. In East Texas starting salary for new graduates is about $35,000/year but experienced nurses earn much much more. There are a lot of variables.
Besides labor and delivery, maternal-child nurses can work in postpartum, in the MD office, for the county health dept or state health dept or lots of things. You might even like pediatrics or nursery. Good luck on whatever you decide.
If you are going after the money only, nursing is not for you. Nurses earn every last dime they get!

Oh, no.

I honestly want to be a nurse.

I LOVEEE it.

I just also want to make sure that I can keep my head above water & enjoy the luxuries of life.

What is working in prenatal exactly?

RhodyGirl, RN · May 29, 2008

Oh my goodness. :banghead:

racing-mom4, BSN, RN · May 29, 2008

I have a daughter your same age who wants to be a nurse, she just signed up for a CNA class so she can work this summer.

I think that would also be a great thing for you so you can see 1st hand what nursing is all about.

As far as your questions, one of the great things about nursing is all of the opportunities, you can work as little or as much as you want. Once you have a few years exp you can take travel assignments and work in many great cities.

Best of luck with plans and have a great summer!!

bollweevil · May 29, 2008

Nursing isn't a field that pays well.

Why not consider being a doctor?

To really get a sense of what nurses do in the Prenatal area, why not talk to and spend a few hours with nurses who do that in your town? Then you could see firsthand what they do and see if you might like to pursue it.

BTW, nurses don't do the ultrasounds. Radiology technicians do it. They take courses to become expert/specialists in ultrasounds. Check this out locally, in person, with people who are doing ultrasounds. Ask them about educational requirements and salary.

Good luck.

BTW, I think it's great that you have a good idea of what you want to do. I had no idea when I was your age.

racing-mom4, BSN, RN · May 29, 2008

Nursing isn't a field that pays well.
Why not consider being a doctor?
.

I tell my kids if they want to make the big bucks go into to dentistry school and become a dentist!!

PiPhi2004 · May 29, 2008

Oh my goodness.

LOL I felt the same way when I read this one! If you want name brand designer stuff on a nurse's salary I hope you live in your parent's basement, but then again you have a few years to grow up and learn about the 'finer' things in life. Hope that happens for ya!

jjjoy, LPN · May 30, 2008

I think the OP may have been saying that bit about bmws and coach purses rather tongue in cheek - but does want a career that will allow a comfortable middle class lifestyle and some disposable income - as opposed to having every last penny going right out the door to pay for basics or having to live in a studio apartment their whole life. Correct me if I'm wrong, though!

I can definitely see the draw for pre-natal and ultrasound. As another noted, many of these personnel are not nurses, but instead have their own specialized training.

The best way to get more info is to make contact with people actually doing the kind of work you think might be interesting. A local school might be able to give you contact names of alumni. Ask your friends and family if they know anyone doing what you're interested in. They might be able to give you a name and number. You could just look on-line or in a phone book and call a place and ask to speak with someone doing what you're interested in. Just say what you've said here. That you're a high school student interested in XYX and was hoping someone could spend a few minutes telling you about their job. And the crown jewel is asking if you could come in and actually see what they do.

One thing to keep in mind is the frustrating reality that jobs that pay well generally pay well for a reason - they are stressful and demanding with lots of competition (because so many other people want that income, too). If it's actually a low stress job that pays well, there will be even MORE competition because no one who gets such a job will ever want to leave!

When people say a job is in demand NOW and pays GREAT, it often means the demand is for experienced workers (meaning neophytes have a hard time landing a job in the area of their choice and/or may have to accept lower pay and/or a less-than-ideal job just to get started) and/or in a few years, the job market will be flooded with newly minted trainees all having also been promised great jobs with great pay... now competing for jobs, possibly driving the wages down overall.

In other words, there are no guarantees for jobs or income no matter what career direction you choose, so it's a good idea to pick a career direction that interests you for more than the money or for one very specific job in that field.

Choosing majors/career directions is never easy, especially when you're still in high school and haven't had the chance yet to really see what working life is like.

Good luck with whatever you choose!

rph3664 · May 30, 2008

Hello. I am a junior in high school & I will be majoring in Nursing in college.
I want to specoalize in obsterics.
I was wondering, what is your annual salary (not by the hour)? i want to make enough to have a big house, a bmw, & to afford coach purses as well. lol.
& also what is required of an ob-gyn nurse? all i really want to do is prenatal care (ultrasound & stuff). i dont want to deal with births too much, is it anyway that can happen?

India, it sounds like you're interested in OB nursing because you think it will be "fun." I'm sure it can be, but are you aware that you will also be dealing with things like fetal demise (babies that die in the womb), birth defects, drug-addicted babies, women with abusive boyfriends or husbands, women who don't want their babies but keep them anyway, etc.?

A med/surg nurse (that's the regular hospital floor) I met some years back told me that when she was doing her OB rotation, her non-nursing friends all thought it would be really fun, and she said that in all her years of nursing, she never got peed on, pooped on, or barfed on quite as much as she did in that newborn nursery. She added that every boy who passed through there must have had some kind of code where he told the other boys, "Hey, you! That nurse over there doesn't like babies very much! FWEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!"

FWEEEEEE!!!!!!!! means that the baby sprays you with urine, which baby boys will do.

If you are interested in nursing, getting a CNA certificate this summer would be a great idea; your community college will probably offer such a program. CNAs used to be called nurse's aides, and it's a great way to find out if this is what you want to do. I don't think they use many CNAs in OB/GYN (you nurses correct me if I'm wrong) but they use a lot of them in nursing homes.

white_tigress_247 · May 30, 2008

Possibly,an unltrasound technician??

Elvish, BSN, DNP, RN, NP · May 30, 2008

A med/surg nurse (that's the regular hospital floor) I met some years back told me that when she was doing her OB rotation, her non-nursing friends all thought it would be really fun, and she said that in all her years of nursing, she never got peed on, pooped on, or barfed on quite as much as she did in that newborn nursery.

This is so so true. Not a night goes by in which at least one of the above doesn't happen. If it's a real bad night it'll be bad enough that I have to change clothes.