It is a pleasure to be able to speak with others regarding the nursing field. I will share my back story and hopefully get some feedback.
I am 29 years old. It is funny, actually I was taking all the nursing prerequisite courses about 4 years ago. I was gung ho about being a nurse and to get experience I signed up for and completed a cna course. Let me tell you that cna course was a great experience but the place I did my "clinicals" at was horrible. Actually it frightened me away from nursing all together. I guess it was just a bad experience. I never put to use my cna license.
I ended up majoring in biology and I am still completing that degree. I have worked for about 3 and half years in science laboratories doing everything from microbial growth for food and cosmetic items to chemistry testing for pharmaceutical products. Honestly I felt and feel dead inside. The pay was ok, about 13-14 per hour. Not alot but it payed the bills.
I developed Bell's Palsy about 4 and half months ago and I am still getting over that now. I have twitching in my right eye that seems to never go away.
I am now unemployed because my job at the last lab was so terrible that I had to leave. It was the reason I firmly believe I developed Bell's Palsy.
I have had about three weeks to sit on my butt and think..... think about my life.. think about where I am going... and think about what a mistake it was not to follow through with the nursing degree plan.
I wonder now if it is too late to meet with an advisor and see what can be done about completing nursing school.
In my younger days my ego was fully fueled and I was like " yeah I am going to go get my BS degree apply to med school or pa school and do one of those, but after being humbled greatly by:
1. Developing Bell's Palsy and
2. My last surviving grandmother passed away June 28th of this year with Alzheimer's disease I realize my priorities were completely in the wrong arena.
I am being presented today with an offer to work at a pharmaceutical company doing assay testing on controlled substances and as fun as that might sound to some it makes me cringe. It will pay well but I will be frank, I dont think I will be happy.
Now with time to sit, think, and realize what my sole purpose of pursuing nursing was I see that I made a mistake changing fields. The sole reason of going into nursing was to help people, to make a real difference in peoples lives. I sit here today very unhappy and feel like what I do have little meaning to it.
I am an only child and I only have my mother and father left. Funny thing is my mom used to be a nursing student too, about same age as I was when I stopped and switched majors. Speed up many many years she said she regrets not following through with it. She got side tracked just like I did and now works at a minimum wage job and is soo unhappy.
In a way I feel like I am following her path damn near identically. My uncle recently married an RN who is now retiring. She is a wonderful person and very intelligent. I sat and looked at her and thought... Why did I ever stop pursuing what I set my goals out to be? She is not rich, but she is HAPPY. That is the main point of my post. I considered being a doctor or even PA but I look at what entails of both and I feel it does not fit my own personal model of what I want to do.
I am 29 and in 5 years I want to be able to start settling down. I would love to become an RN and work a few years and then see if pursing an NP would be what I want.
Have any of you out there gone through something similar? You wanted to do nursing then you got side tracked for several years and now you are wanting to finish what you started? Life can be a kick in the butt sometimes but I really regret not completing it when I had the chance. My grades overall are pretty high so I do feel good about potentially getting accepted into a BSN program.
I just wonder if it would be worth it to finish my biology degree and then start BSN degree. I just feel so sure but a the same time confused... Any thoughts? I know my post is not a clear cut question but more like a short story/rant/question. I do appreciate those who take the time to read it and respond.
