Advice for ancient alternative wannabe gypsy nurse

[harvestmoon, RN]

I have always felt a pull to some kind of social service and have always wanted to "give back". When I realized the shortage of nurses and the decent pay I thought I might have found finally, my calling. I left college (in 1979) after a year thinking I shouldn't continue (my major was Biology) as I didn't know what I wanted to be when I grew up. I spent about 22 years in the computer industry and left when pregnant with #3.

I believe in alternative views. My 4 kids are unschooled, have never been to school (the first spent 3 months in Kindy), are unvaccinated; we'll do garlic before abx, I believe highly in herbs and alternative therapies before allopathic therapies. We've also been travelling fulltime since 2004 in a travel trailer and spend 6 months of the year in Mexico. So we're not your run of the mill family. :)

I am interested in hospice, oncology and L&D nursing. From one end of the spectrum to the other. :) I also would ONLY be interested in travel nursing; I know I'll need at least a year and hopefully more like 2-3 years of experience before travelling. But that is my goal. I would like to work 6 months and take 6 months off (go to Mexico). I would like to work Indian Reservations, Public Health and hopefully volunteer in Mexico (and when I "retire" take my skills to Honduras or other countries in Central America as I believe that Mexico will be very Americanized by then).

So, what do you all think? I'm going to try to get some prereqs done on the road (English, Humanities, etc.) but I'd like to take the NCLEX by 2010. We are in the enviable position to move to an area that would have a better nursing program acceptance, though our principal cities of interest for settling down for my schooling are Silver City, NM and Eugene, OR.

Questions:

1) do I sound like a good candidate for nursing? I'm specifically worried about my belief that alternative is generally more healthy than allopathic

2) do my plans for travel nursing sound realistic? I'm thinking that 1-2 years of Med/Surg would prepare me for travelling?

3) I worry about all the disease and germs I'd be exposing my kids to (secondarily) while working in a hospital. Do any of you take special precautions to protect your children from the dangers of your work?

4) any advice?

[HikingNinja, BSN, MSN, DNP, RN, APRN, NP]

Have you been exposed to nursing before? That would be my first question. I worked in a hospital for a couple of years as a psych tech/nurses aide. It was in that hospital seeing what nursing is all about that I really started seriously thinking about it. Of course I've had a few twists of fate since then, ended up with a masters in psych and was a therapist for awhile along the way, but I'm back to pursuing nursing. As for the holistic/complementary medicine approach, I think it dovetails nicely with nursing. I had a wonderful nurse practitioner as my primary medical provider in my home state who practiced this type of approach. She was more likely to suggest a natural tonic rather than a little white pill. I think it's certainly doable if you go the associate degree route. And as for travel nursing once you have that med/surg experience you should be able to get picked up by a company and work when you like. Have you looked at any programs and talked to the advisors to see what kind of wait lists there are and how competitive it is to get in?

Dee

[tsunami62]

Hi there harvest moon,

I too am curious about nursing but being interested in alternative therapies. I'm and acupuncture/ TCM practitioner going to nursing school in the fall, and I hope that

A) I could use what i've learnt from alternative therapies

and

B) that those beleifs in alternative med won't make me and outcast in the hospital setting....

I'm curious to what experienced nurses think about this.

[traumaRUs, MSN, APRN]

Hi everyone! I think its possible for people that believe in alternative practices to be nurses. However, that said, the caveat is that nursing is interventions. I think you have to examine your own belief systems to see if you could be open to other beliefs. If you realize that naturopathic care might not be possible (or wanted), then you should do okay. As to bringing germs home to your kids, that is very very rare when you use good handwashing and use the appropriate barrier protection. As to travel nursing, yes it is realistic to have 1-2 years of nursing and then travel if that is what you want to do.

My only concern would be that you would have to understand that you would not be giving naturopathic advice to your patients. Very rarely would you have that option and would the interventions clash with your beliefs.

For instance, since my husband was career military I have lived overseas for extended periods of time. When I lived in Korea, abortion was allowed until the woman went into labor. This resulted in many live, premature births. At the hospital where I worked, we would occasionally receive these children from nuns or someone else and try to care for them. It was repugnant to myself that this was allowed. However, there was little I could do to change this, so I subverted my own feelings of anger and disgust in order to care for the patient.

[CHATSDALE]

i think that you would do well if yor children ae homeschoold aahyway you can just about make your own terms''

between times msybe you would like t further your ed into the nurse pract field..will make you very valuable in certain areas where med fac are limited

[cardsRN]

hi. to answer your questions: i know plenty of nurses who started to travel with 1-2 years of med-surg experience. i have a son and the precautions i take are washing hands up to the elbow with chlorhex. very well before i leave work and changing my clothes before i pick him up. my clogs/stethescope stay at work in my locker. he brings home more stuff from the playroom at my gym than i probably do. lol.

as for your alternatve views, i think that you will find many patients interested in and grateful for your knowledge esp in OB and onc. maybe you could be a midwife and attend homebirths! the question is how tolerant can you be? you will have to endure a large part of your education that is NOT in tune with natural medicine, and after graduation, you will be faced with many co-workers/MD's etc who do not agree with you. you should think about whether or not you can tolerate the hospital environment. it may be distasteful to you. we all are faced with the situation where patients are choosing other than what we believe is best for them, with your alternative beliefs you may run into this more often than most in american medicine.

just some stuff to think about, follow your dreams and best of luck!

[harvestmoon, RN]

thanks everyone for all your input. I am looking into job shadowing and getting first hand experience with the structure of nursing. I am very relieved at the low risk of exposure to the kids; that really was my highest fear. I am a very tolerant person and I guess I'll just have to see what happens. I am very comfortable with the world doing what it wants while we do what is best for our family.