Potential Nurse, but scared to do it?

Students Pre-Nursing

Published

You are reading page 2 of Potential Nurse, but scared to do it?

Your fears are natural. I am 40 and changing gears and getting into nursing and I have the same fears as you do, in fact, those fears are what held me back from doing nursing sooner, which now I regret. So here I am now taking the plunge, wish I would have started sooner though. But I know that I really like to help people and that urge has grown with each passing year.

My advice to you would be to shadow a nurse (or a couple), get a nurse mentor, volunteer at a hospital a couple days a week. Really get in there and try to get an inside insight on nursing before fully commiting to a nursing program. There is no harm in going into college as an undeclared major the first year(usually the first 2 years are spent fullfilling your general ed requirements anyway) and then declaring nursing as your major once you have had time to explore nursing more.

Good luck!

NightNerd, MSN, RN

1,130 Posts

Specializes in CMSRN, hospice.

Just to echo PPs:

1) Your fears about the profession make total sense and you're not alone! I think that those are things that never go away, and they are part of your motivation for being thorough and careful. We all make mistakes, and we all most likely WILL make these kinds of mistakes that we are afraid of. That's what school is for: getting down and dirty and having our judgment questioned by professors and instructors who have been there, done that. I hate being wrong, especially when it hurts someone else, but think of all the good we'll miss out on doing if we give into that fear.

2) It might help a lot to get more experience in direct patient care. You said you mostly hung out with the unit secretary at your last job/volunteer experience if I'm remembering right. I used to work as an admin assistant at an inpatient hospice unit and thought I was learning a lot. I got my CNA training and started doing nursing assistant work at the same place, and everything was sooooo much different! There is no substitute for doing the real thing. As a CNA, you'll probably be helping an RN, or at least witnessing an RN, doing a lot of their everyday tasks, and that puts you in a better place to decide whether it's for you. Plus, it puts your ability to deal with every kind of sight and smell and situation with grace and compassion. If you can continue to be pleasant to a patient and family who has been running your butt off all day, you can probably have faith in your ability to do this nursing thing.

Good luck in your decision!

+ Add a Comment