nursing career doubts-advice needed

Nurses Career Support

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  1. should I be a nurse?

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hi anyone reading, hope you're having a nice day! my problem is that I'd like to be a nurse only I don't know if I'm made out for it?

my mother always thought I'd be a good nurse (probably cause when I was a child I'd take care of my siblings when they were sick or hurt etc) until I started getting freaked out over blood! I can handle blood like cuts and nose bleeds but I don't like when it's gushing out fast and heavy like in the movies so I don't know if that's a problem?? other than that she thinks I'd be good at looking after people and that I'd be patient with people. would I get over my little blood issue or would it be a problem?

also, I'm not sure if I could do the cleaning up faeces and vomit cause of the smells. would I get over this or is it a problem too?

I love the idea of having a job where I get to help people and I even considered becoming a psychotherapist but I realised I don't want a job where I'm kinda in a chair all day, I want to be more hands on and meet new people all the time so nursing seemed better ? I also love hospitals if that helps haha

academically, i love biology! I do biology in school and I've been getting As and Bs in the tests so far (hopefully I can keep it up!!) I also enjoy maths, home economics and English. I'm doing 7 subjects and my results vary quite a lot from As and Bs in science and maths to Cs and Ds in languages..do I need to be super smart for nursing?

btw I'm Irish so sorry if the school stuff doesn't go with American grades and things! I think I can get the points for Irish colleges but I'm not super brainy so I hope that's not an issue

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Specializes in Critical Care, Education.

Bless your heart. There are very few Nursing Jobs in which you would ever encounter gushing blood. Anyone experiencing this would undoubtedly be in the midst of some sort of crisis situation in which a physician would be leading the corrective actions. Honestly, my clinical background is critical care & the only time I can ever recall 'tons of blood' was when a blood transfusion bag fell apart due to excessive compression. The amount of blood splatter looked like the prom scene from

, but it was not coming from the patient.

Nurses have to deal with some yukky things, but nursing education prepares them for this aspect of the job. Most of us have some specific thing that still grosses us out, but we learn to cope. Mine are loogies & retrobulbar injections.

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Thank you for your comment! So you don't think I should pursue nursing?

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Specializes in Nursing Professional Development.

You should only be a nurse if you really want to be a nurse. It's a tough job, even for those people who really WANT to do it. If you don't want to do it, you will be miserable. Do something that will make you happy.

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Specializes in Ambulatory Case Management, Clinic, Psychiatry.

Work as a tech/cna or as an assistant/volunteer in a setting you're interested in before you start.

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Good advice about working in an area that will familiarize yourself with a healthcare environment. The fact that your mother thought you'd be a good nurse is nice, and apparently imprinting, but maybe she never considered other careers you were also suited for. It's back to what makes you happy. Yes, you probably could be a nurse, but do you want that?

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I'm in a somewhat similar position to you except probably a little older, I'm 27 and decided that I want to become an RN. I've been doing a lot of research into the realities of the job, and have gotten feedback. It has been around 50/50, of people saying go for it and people saying stay away. Cleaning up feces and vomit are an everyday reality of the job, my best recommendation would be to go get your C.N.A. first, especially since it seems like you are really young, and do that for a little bit to see if you can handle the work. It is not exactly like being an R.N. but somewhat similar. Good luck to you on your journey!

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