A real eye opner

[SmoothKeys]

I just read a fantastic post by Ruby Vee. Why is this not a sticky so that career changers or wanna-be nurses could read and digest? Someone suggested that in the post, but I couldn't find it.

After reading it, I'm even more unsure about a nursing career. But as she mentioned, a certain "calling" is not a must if you want to be an RN. Better to have critical thinking skills, which I love, to be effective on the job.

The indecision: do I pursue graduate school on the road to a PhD in nutritional science and study the various micro/macro nutrients' effects on the body? Should I try to study my true passion in mechanical/aerospace engineering? Alas, time is not really on my side as I have a family now and certain professional ambitions is a bit more complicated (i.e. not easy to relocate to follow said dreams).

For me, I think I lack a strong stomach and this may be my undoing. Nursing school seems all exciting but it is perhaps, a far cry from the real world. I don't know how to get over these fears or perhaps I'm just uncomfortable with the idea.

I am getting close to my decision, slowly but surely, though and I hope its a good one. Now if only I did not need to worry about my pharmacy student loans .

[HouTx, BSN, MSN, EdD]

I am glad you found RubyVees post. She was a wonderful inspiration to all of us.

You seem to have many different roads open to you at the moment - very enviable position to be in. But I realize that too many options can be just as scary as too few options. If you have already made one 'false start' with pharmaceutical studies, you don't want to make another mistake, right?

The most important factor underlying the quality of any decision (purchasing a car, choosing a spouse, buying a dog, etc) is the ability to obtain and analyze pertinent information. Have you done this with all your choices? What parameters are you using? I certainly can't speak to aerospace engineering - LOL - but I am sure it would be a wonderful career. Many go into Nursing because they think they understand what it is but later find the reality to be much different. Compared to the other two options, bedside nursing is a much lower-level pursuit. Much more task oriented, physically taxing, regimented by shift work, heavily controlled and very low on the healthcare professional hierarchy. If you choose nursing, this is where you will be as a new grad & where you will remain until you gain sufficient experience to move into a higher-level position (if there is one available).

I usually rely on the "worst case" method to make important decisions. If ______ (worst case) happened, is this something I could live with? As far as nursing goes, those worse cases would include: > 6 months to get your first job; working in LTC because of a shortage of acute care jobs; working holidays, weekends & nights; etc. Try a few of these on for 'size' and see how they fit with your own personal situation. Only you can make the 'right' decision.

[Runningonfancy]

I don't see many of that type engineering job opening up soon. Just. Bad guess but 1 engineer position for every 10 nursing jobs. Private sector taking over aerospace. Less government funding. But people are always sick. I have a bachelors in forestry and 5 years later no job. So I got a masters in parks and natural resource mgmt. 1 year layer no job still. I'm now taking the few prerequisites I need for nursing. I had the same issue with too many foresters and not enough jobs.