Advice from experienced RNs please!!!!

When I went to nursing school 15 years ago, I wasn't sure what I wanted to do either. The good thing about nursing is that you will have many options. Because I had 4 kids under 7 at the time I graduated, I took a very flexible hours job at a skilled nursing facility. I thought I would hate it, but I did what I had to for the family, and really enjoyed it. Because of that job, I received training as Medicare Coordinator. I now travel from one hospital to another on my own schedule, completing their swing bed assessments and making more in half a day than I did in 2 days working bedside. So keep your mind and your options open. There are many other things to do than bedside nursing if you dont like that. One of my RN friends is a pharmacy rep. She loves it. Even though we all have to pay bills, finding your niche and enjoying it is most important

I'll be honest - when I was going through nursing school, I wasn't the student who loved clinicals; nor did I really enjoy floor nursing very much as a new grad. What I did love, though, was the pathophysiology and the science behind the diseases, always learning new things, understanding the treatment plans and why they were or weren't effective. I definitely found that the ER was much more of a better fit for my personality and what I liked about nursing - I had the chance to look at labs, EKGs, X-rays and learn how they helped to form the diagnoses.

After several years of sticking it out in ER nursing, I returned to school to become an NP. From my first class up until I graduated and even now, I have discovered it is just a much better fit for me, and I enjoy being an NP. Not that I didn't enjoy being a nurse, but being an NP is more of what I always pictured myself doing.

So, I guess the point of my post is that maybe you just haven't found your niche yet, maybe there is a certain type of nursing that will fulfill your wishes, such as critical care or the ED; maybe if you do go on to grad school you will find that being an NP or a CRNA is more along your alley. Maybe going to PA school is another option. Seriously though, follow your dreams if you can. If you really don't think that nursing is for you, don't be afraid to move on to something else. Sometimes it does take a while and a little experience in the field to discover if it was truly meant to be or not. It doesn't mean that you will be a bad nurse if you don't love it right from the beginning; sometimes it has to grow on us. We nurses were not all born knowing it was our calling - I know I sure wasn't!

The question is what about nursing do you not like? Is it the long hours, the patient care, the fact that you take orders from someone else? Once you have that answer then you can decide what you should do. For example, if you don't like working with people then med school isn't the answer either and you should rethink the whole health care field.

Thanks for the advice everyone! I'm very much like softballmama, I love the patho part of nursing very much, just not the whole bed side and healing touch mess... Sorry if I offended anyone but I really think the wholistic part of nursing where your an angel with touching hands is a little too much for me... I like the healthcare field, love people and love learning about diseases but I'm just not feeling it yet... Let's just say an aspect of nursing hasn't grabbed me by the tail yet. To answer the question, you can go to med school with any Bachelor's in any field as long as the requirements are met, so I decided to get my BSN because I thought that the two would kind of mingle or maybe nursing could be an option for me. Either way I have less than a year left and still confused as to whether or not I can cont in nursing.

Nursing doesn't catch on - either you like it or you don't. The medical and nursing models are very different so you better make up your mind fast. Yes you need a Bachelor's to apply to med school but you obviously haven't read the fine print on the application because they are very specific about what classes they require - ie chemistry (and not the dumbed down version that most nursing programs use), organic chemistry, physics, etc ... AND you have to get a high score on the MCAT. A bachelor's in nursing WILL NOT prepare you for medical school.

My advice drop out of the nursing program and enter into the premed program. It is very obvious that nursing is not for you and that is OK. Its better you know it now rather than AFTER you graduate. There is nothing much worse then someone who becomes a nurse but hates their job.

By the way nursing and medicine are not your only choices. There are many other choice such as physical therapy, pharmacy, resp therapy, radiology, etc...

Since you are almost done with your BSN program, I wouldn't recommend dropping out. I would finish it out and get your RN and then if you decide you want to go to med school, you can do that. I think it would look better too, to med school admissions committees for you to have actually finished the BSN program and worked in healthcare. It shows stamina on your part and that you have seriously considered a career in healthcare.

Also, I think it would be wise to work as an RN and maybe get some experience in some different areas of nursing which may help steer your decision long-term. I know you mentioned you enjoy much of the diagnostic part of maybe being an NP or an MD. Then one of those two options just might be for you. The NP route is very different than the MD route. The education is a different, not to mention the clinicals that you are exposed to can be pretty different as well.

When you look at being an NP vs MD, there are quite a few things to consider. There are quite a few other threads on this and I don't want to go into too much detail on this. But I think one of the biggest things you may want to consider is what your lifestyle would be like if you choose one profession over the other. MDs work longer hours, generally speaking than NPs. As an MD you will be in training longer which may delay other personal goals you may have such as having a family. It really is a very personal decision and you just have to decide how much time you want to devote to your career.

For myself personally, I really enjoy being an NP and I don't feel like I have to be the top dog (MD) to feel like I'm making a difference or having a major part in deciding a patient's coorifice of treatment. The NPs I did clinical with all had their own clinics and were totally independent and if they needed to consult with a cardiologist, they did, but most of the time, they didn't need to. I would recommend getting some experience as an RN. ER is a great place to start like one of the other posters mentioned. Good luck with whatever you decide!

That was awesome! Thanks so much!!!

If you want to be a physician, then study Biochem, take the MCAT, and go to medical or osteopathy school. I worked in the hospital as a Respiratory Therapist for 15 years before going to Nursing school. I considered medical school, and really enjoyed all of my undergraduate chemistry, biology, and physics classes. However, working in the hospital, observing many physicians, and asking them questions about medicine ad nauseum taught me that medicine was not for me! So I went to Nursing school instead (organic and biochem made pharm a breeze). I now have two more semesters (if I ever get done with my thesis) and I'll be a Nurse Practitioner. Not a day goes by that I regret my decision. Nursing is the best career in the world, and I encourage young men and women every day to become Nurses!!

That was a valid point! Thanks for the insight...