Accounting Or Nursing

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I am currently working full time at an Oil and Gas company. My plan is to quit my job and go to school full time. I have tried night classes and I just lose focus easily after a long day at work. I am an average student (mostly B's, some A's & C's here and there). I cannot, for the life of me, decide what degree I want to try for. I have always wanted to be a L&D nurse. The chance to help mothers and families in such a life changing event would be amazing. But I know I would have to most likely work my way there. On the other hand I have experience in the Oil & Gas industry and could get a job as an entry accountant or somewhere in the accounting department and work my way up to being a director. Both jobs are good, stable jobs with pretty good pay but I want to make sure I am at a job that I LOVE. I want to be able to get up and not dread going to work.

I am 24 years old and I want to have a degree by the time I am 30. I want to have a stable career by the time I try to bring children into this world but I also don't want to have trouble having a child because of my age. I know things don't always go as planned but this is my plan so far. Lol.

I have made a list of pros and cons for each and they both weigh each other out. I'm hoping a current nurse could give me any advice on how they picked nursing, pro's and con's a non-nurse like me doesn't know, is the debt going to nursing school worth the first/second year pay...anything at all!

Please help!

Thanks in advance!

One more thing! I read in a forum that I should take into account my personality when choosing my major. I am a shy person but will speak up when I need to. I kind of keep to myself until I'm comfortable. This leads me to believe accounting is what I should be in but I feel like that is a silly way to choose what I will do for the rest of my life.

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Specializes in PCT, RN.

There is a huge difference between nursing and accounting lol.

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Specializes in Nursing Professional Development.

Personally ... and I mean this with all kindness ... I believe that if you don't KNOW whether nursing is for you or not at this point ... and that accounting seems just as attractive to you ... you should go for accounting.

I'm not one of those people who think you have to have a "calling" to be a good nurse, but if you don't have a strong "pull" in that direction -- a "pull" strong enough to overcome the hardships of working 12-hour shifts, nights, weekends, and holidays -- a "pull" strong enough to survive getting threatened, hit, kicked, spat at, cursed at, etc. ... then nursing is not for you. A lot of people would truly LOVE to be a nurse when things are going well, but once they experience the hardships, they change their minds. In order to choose nursing, the desire you have to be a nurse should be strong enough that you KNOW it will be a fit for you -- not a "maybe."

If you didn't have another field that equally interested you, I would answer differently. But since you DO have something else that offers a good career and is based on experience you already have ... I would recommend accounting.

Another recommendation you should probably do before finalizing your decision: Spend some time in a hospital or long term care facility (e.g. as a volunteer). See how you like it.

Or become a Certified Nursing Assistant (takes about 6 weeks to take that type of program) and get a part-time job while taking those first few college classes. See how you like it before investing more time, effort, and money into a nursing career.

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What is it about accounting that you don't like? I have to agree with PP. Accounting vs. nursing are 2 completely different things.

I cannot, for the life of me, decide what degree I want to try for.

I would not head into nursing on a whim. Have you considered job shadowing to get a feel for different fields or spoken with a nurse? I would get a little more information before suddenly diving into something else. Good luck!

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Most people I know who became accountants ended up switching careers. Most became teachers. Just saying. But you might like it! The two are so different though, before even taking classes for either, I would try shadowing a nurse for a bit. Not sure if this is possible for an accountant, so see if you can speak to one about what their days entail.

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Specializes in Critical Care.

This is kind of funny to me. My first semester in college I was an accounting major. I met a male nurse and it kind of introduced me to the idea of being a nurse. The following semester I switched majors to nursing and the rest is history.

Only you will truly know if you will enjoy nursing. My decision making ideal when I was starting college was that I "wanted to help people" and I could not see myself "pushing numbers" as an accountant.

Nursing involves death (even the infants you plan to work with). It involves poop, lots of it, of varying consistency. Vomit, blood, sputum, argumentative patients, aggressive family and complete idiots. You may end up going to work each shift with anxiety of whether today you will lose a patient (or your patient will lose their baby).

Each shift is a challenge. The reward is what you make of it.

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Specializes in Critical Care.

You don't have to make a decision right this instant, OP. I started seriously thinking about nursing school when I was 23 (after playing with the idea off and on since childhood). I thought for two years before I decided I was going to go for it. Part of the reason I'm going for it is because the thought kept coming back to me, no other career path has ever stuck with me this hard for this long. I've purposefully gone and read the grossest nursing stories reddit has to offer, thought realistically about whether or not I could handle cleaning poop and vomit and blood, giving medications, dealing with combative patients (and/or combative families), seeing people die, seeing people survive, dealing with very strong emotions, etc. The thought of being a nurse scares the crap out of me and simultaneously is something I really, really want to do. Two years ago though? I didn't know I wanted to do this, I just knew I wanted to think about it. It's okay just to think. Take things one step at a time, don't get all mired down in planning out your entire future and sticking to a timetable! Give yourself the freedom to make a decision without pressuring yourself to get it done by a strict deadline :)

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What is it about accounting that you don't like?

I am just not sure if I can see myself sitting at a desk staring computer screens and numbers all day long for the rest of my life. I cant see myself coming into work at 7am to leave work at 9pm because I cant figure out where that .98 cent difference came from. But I also have never shadowed an accountant or a nurse so that's definitely something I want to do before making any decisions. Thank you for your input!

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Thank you all so much for the information and thoughts! I'm going to talk to an accountant in my department to see if we can schedule a time for me to shadow. As for shadowing a nurse..I'm not sure who to talk to for that but i'll start off with my mom since she works at the women's hospital. Hopefully that will make my decision easier. I'll also try not to get too caught up in planning every step of my future out. Lol

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Specializes in LTC, Med-surg.

But there are shy nurses too...don't think every nurse is extroverted. I have met my fair share of nurses who are not extroverted. I also graduated nursing school and I am extremely shy but I will talk when the situations presents itself (life and death decisions, hello!).

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I mean accounting you'll probably need to get your Master's eventually and take the CPA exam. You'll have to have the desire to be behind a desk crunching number's.

I am in your same boat 28 not sure life direction want to start to make my life stable by time I am 30. I considered accounting.

I am trying to find quickest highest paying job can get with a degree now. I really do want nursing, but way schooling goes pushes me away.

If you have the time the money and the opportunity to go for nursing school go for it . You will regret it.

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