I want to start a second career in medicine. Shortly I will be starting an ADN program, but I'm struggling mentally with a few things about nursing. I took a nursing assistant class as a warm up and I've just dropped it. The classwork was interesting but I just can't tolerate the clinical work were doing at the nursing home. Wiping asses, feeding demented patients who can't carry on a conversation with you, don't open their mouths for oral care, patients who have to be moved with total mechanical lifts who do nothing but lay there all day...it's horrible, just miserably depressing and unbearable awful.
My question is: Can I work as a nurse and avoid spending a lot of time on activities of daily living? Call me arrogant, but I really feel that my time (even untrained!) is too valuable to spend feeding a patient. Anyone can feed a patient, they don't need two to four years of schooling and clinical training to do it. I want to start IV's, clean wounds, give meds, educate patients, stuff that requires training. What are the best departments to work in if you don't like ADLs? ER?
