A Mother Seeking Healthcare Career Advice for High School Junior

[Psata]

My Daughter who is a Junior in High School is not sure what she wants to do, except that it should be in the Healthcare field. Initially she wanted to be a Nurse, but lately seems to be wavering a bit.

She is currently enrolled in a Dual Enrollment (DE) Program at her High School and so far is doing 3 courses (9 credits) at a Local Community college. For the Winter Term she will be doing 11 credits and for her senior year, she plans to spend the entire year taking classes at the Community College full time (They call it Early Admission). If all goes well, she will probably have close to 60 credits and receive her Associate Degree through the DE. Her current Educational Plan is setup to complete all her prerequisites for a BSN program, which will have her enter directly into a BSN program at one of the State University and complete her BSN in two years. There is still time to change this to a more generic program that would be applicable to other fields. I'm just trying to avoid her going to College and doing a degree that is not marketable and have her spending more funds to finally get a career that is meaningful/rewarding.

My question is: What other career options are available in the Healthcare field for her apart from Nursing, coming out of high school? What are some of the hidden gems that a lot of students are not aware of (Healthcare wise)? If you could do it over, would you pursue nursing as a career or something else within the health sector and what would that be? Thanks in advance for your thoughts/suggestion.

[DoeRN]

Look up allied health. There are other careers besides nursing.

If I could do it over again I would have gone for nuclear medicine, radiation or radiology.

Sent from my iPhone using allnurses.com

[krisiepoo]

what ideas does she have? She sounds very bright, what has she indicated would make her happy?

It's very natural to waver at anything when you're 17-years-old... I'm in my 2nd career with nursing :)

[Palliative Care, DNP]

Tell her to choose pharmacy, PT, OT, Respiratory, PA, or med school. Basically any health care profession other than nursing. That is what I tell my children. There is no nursing shortage and many new graduates can not find jobs.

[melizerd, ASN, RN]

Does she really want to be a nurse? If so I wouldn't stop her. I'd let her know she might need to relocate, work in LTC, etc before getting her dream job. Not all places in the country are hard on new grads. I'm in Wisconsin and new grads have jobs either before graduation or within 3-4 months afterward. So there are jobs.

I waited to go back to school and I can't imagine doing anything else now.

[Not_A_Hat_Person, RN]

Has she considered being an ultrasound tech, radiology tech, or x-ray tech?

[loriangel14, RN]

It's her life. How bout you let her choose?

[Fiona59]

If I'd known Health Records Technology existed, I'd have chosen that. No night shifts, no contact with patients, families, bodily fluids. Street clothes, my own desk, and regular breaks. Pay is good as well. Two years at our Technical Colleges.

I have a young friend who is mechanically minded and doing a Medical Devices Processing Technicians certificate. Minimal night shifts, starting wage of $22/hr, uniforms supplied. She thinks it's the greatest thing ever and never knew the course/job existed until I jokingly suggested she look into it.

[Future FNP 14]

She needs to volunteer hospital or clinics to know if this is what she wants to do. Do not force her if she doesn't want to be a nurse. She can also go into biology or chemistry / public health/ health educator, genetics, nutritionist, etc

[Marisette, BSN, RN]

If I could do it over, I would not choose to be a nurse. It all depends on your personality. Is your daughter a people person? It's probably a good idea for her to volunteer at a health care setting so she can talk to others who work in healthcare. If she decides, not to pursue nursing, have her look into audiology or optometry.

[amoLucia]

Pharmacy! Pharmacy! Pharmacy!

It pays better; job is nicely respected; physical work environment is clean; work demands generally less stressful.

The entry-level education is a bit longer and continuing, on-going education is the expected norm.

Variety of work specialties, like research, consultation, acute care hosp, drug store, sales, teaching, etc.

Nutritionist/dietician would be a close second.

Honestly, if I had to do it over, I would want to go into pharmacy. Seriously thought of second-careering it into pharm at one time, but life got in the way.

[hope3456, ASN, RN]

There is an Ebook on Amazon.com called Nursing Sucks: 101 Reasons You Don't Want to be a Nurse. It provides a very accurate description of the challenges nurses face nowadays.