Is Nursing right for me?

Nursing Students Pre-Nursing

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I'm 24 years old with just an Associates degree in Liberal Arts. I'm single with no children at all. I would only be supporting myself. I already took all prerequisites except Anatomy and Physiology. I did take Anatomy and Physiology 1 and actually attended class two times, but dropped it. I did take General Biology (the prereq) in 2008, but there is so much info in the class and I can't even understand it. It was like a foreign language to me. I took Microbiology and really loved it. I dropped out of the class because 1) The waitlist is four years. 2) Afraid I would fail the TEAS test. 3) Too much info in A & P. 4) Wondering if Nursing is really for me, what if I start the career and decide I don't like it? 5) Nutrition is my true passion, but could I really find a job as a Registered Dietitian and the pay is not as good as good as nursing. 6) The long hours in nursing, 12 hour days standing up all the time and high stress.My aunts are nurses and told me to get anything past a BSN would simply be too much stress. They are burnt out too. I want a career though. Should I be a dental hygienist, xray tech, registered dietitian or for the long road even a physical therapist or pharmacist? The reason I'm drawn to nursing is the benefits, health insurance, plus I do love to help people and make them feel better. I'm quite shy though and wonder if that would be a negative as you have to talk to patients families.Finally, the job situation I hear new nurses not getting any jobs and I do not have a background in health care at all. This is the same for just about all professions I read up on though. What would be your opinion on what I should do? I can never make up my mind and change it every day.Sorry about the one long run on paragraph but I had it separated into four paragraphs or five and it will not post that way.

What exactly does a speech pathologist do? I'm slightly familiar with it, but not 100 percent sure. Where would I go to shadow all these types of jobs? I'm not sure how to go about asking. Registered Dietitian does sound like what I'm most interested in, but as you can see I'm undecided and all over the place. I worry about there not being enough jobs though for RD. There are many more nursing jobs. Thanks very much for the all the advice. It really helps getting all of your input.

A speech and language pathologist works with people who have speech disorders and swallowing disorders. Its a really fast growing career and you can work in a school, hospital, nursing home, or in a private practice. You would need to find a university that offers a Bachelors in speech path or "communication disorders" and then go to grad school so you can become certified. Google it. I was a speech path major before I decided I wanted to pursue nursing and it really is an interesting field!

Specializes in Pediatric/Adolescent, Med-Surg.

I think you should research registered dietician more. Look at the education requirements for schools around you for RD's, see if you can find out about job prospects for them. Who cares if they make less than RN's, and quite frankly, I am not sure if that is true, it is certainly not true for everywhere.

Specializes in PICU.

Don't get any degree if you aren't fairly sure you will like the job, because it is a ton of wasted time and money then. You sound really undecided, so I think spending some time working in a hospital would be a great thing for you. Usually the easiest job to get is a CNA type job. Depending on the state, sometimes you have to do a short couple of week course and other states, the hospital just trains you in for the job. This would give you a chance to see what RNs, RTs, RDs, PT, OT, speech, rad techs, ultrasound techs, etc. do in the hospital. There are so many different jobs that this would give you chance to talk to people, see what they do and then decide what you like. I think taking a year off school and then going back for what you want to do is much more efficient that spending a couple of years in school only to finish and find out you don't like what you are doing. And if you like kids, look into becoming a child life specialist. It's a job I didn't know existed until I started working at a children's hospital. Good luck figuring out your path:)

Don't get any degree if you aren't fairly sure you will like the job because it is a ton of wasted time and money then. You sound really undecided, so I think spending some time working in a hospital would be a great thing for you. Usually the easiest job to get is a CNA type job. Depending on the state, sometimes you have to do a short couple of week course and other states, the hospital just trains you in for the job. This would give you a chance to see what RNs, RTs, RDs, PT, OT, speech, rad techs, ultrasound techs, etc. do in the hospital. There are so many different jobs that this would give you chance to talk to people, see what they do and then decide what you like. I think taking a year off school and then going back for what you want to do is much more efficient that spending a couple of years in school only to finish and find out you don't like what you are doing. And if you like kids, look into becoming a child life specialist. It's a job I didn't know existed until I started working at a children's hospital. Good luck figuring out your path:)[/quote']

I second this. I became a cna for this very reason because I thought I wanted to be a nurse but didn't want to go through all that if I didn't like it. Plus I had other healthcare careers in mind and being a cna I often come across people of many different fields. I decided against nursing but I still admire what they do because now I really see everything they go through.

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