Aspiring Nurse

canigraduate · Apr 13, 2016

Hello! I'm currently 18 years old and I will be attending a 4 year university this fall. My major is microbiology, I picked that because the nursing major is SUPER impacted and I didn't want it to hamper my chances of being admitted. I know microbiology is a course you need to take for nursing so I hope, with the help of my counselor, I can transfer!
I've never been great at science or math (I enjoy writing and english much more), but I always like to push myself. Also the abundance of jobs and necessity for this profession is a plus! Im a people person and I enjoy taking care of others and impacting their lives. With that being said, I heard nursing can be extremely challenging and nurses like to "eat their young" when on the job. All of this makes me extremely reluctant but i still really wanna do it. I don't do too well with confrontation and it makes me anxious to hear nurses can be bullies. Any advice? Can anyone truly do it if they set their mind to it? And most importantly if I do pursue this I will be receiving a BSN, is the extra work for the BSN worth it?
Any comments would be helpful, thanks for your time :)

Hi!

I am usually the blunt, no BS, doesn't suffer fools kind of poster. But I have a soft spot for kittens and you seem cute and fluffy.

First, I, like many others here, want to educate you on some of your mistaken beliefs. Not to be mean, but to make sure you don't waste your time on something you may be miserable doing.

Second, I want to tell what I like about nursing. There are some good parts, honest.

To start off with, it is fairly easy to change your major in a four year university. Ask your advisor. Starting off with a microbiologoy major most likely isn't going to work for you if your goal is nursing school. Nursing sciences and microbiology sciences are a little different. If your goal remains to get into nursing school, look at the program and take the prerequisites for it. You can't just transfer into nursing a nursing program, usually. I don't know your university, so I can't say specifically "yes" or "no." You need to make sure your plan is feasible before you waste two years and find out you can't get in to the program.

You don't have to be great at science or math to be a nurse, but it helps, a lot. You do have to be competent in science and math. It usually gets easier with practice. I rocked out statistics the second time I took it! The first time I barely squeaked by with a C.

As others have pointed out, there may be an abundance of jobs, but there is not an abundance of places hiring new grads in most urban settings. If you are in a rural or underserved area, you may have a better chance. One of the best things you can do is to start networking as early as possible to get your foot in the door of a hospital, if you want to do hospital nursing. A lot of nursing students work as CNAs or patient care techs.

As a nurse in the hospital setting, you do not spend a lot of time helping people. You spend a lot of time charting, passing medications, and talking on the phone to other members of the care team. You spend a lot of time fetching and carrying, too. Home health and private duty nursing are more patient-centric, but you usually need some experience before getting that kind of job. You do impact lives, every day. Which is why you need to be competent at math and science.

Being a nurse is very stressful. You must be able to deal with conflict every day, almost every hour. Your patients will sometimes be verbally abusive. Families are often demanding and unreasonable. Your coworkers will all have different personalities, some of which will clash with yours. Your bosses will have to correct you and maybe even discipline you.

Doctors... well, doctors are usually either really great or really not. And they are overwhelmed 90% of the time and don't have time to be warm and supportive. They expect you to know what you are doing and will chew on you if you don't.

Nurses don't eat their young. That's stupid. Bullies will bully you whether you are a nurse or not. According to some studies, there is more lateral violence in nursing than in other professions, but I haven't experienced that. I was bullied more before I became a nurse.

Not everyone is cut out to be a nurse. Go over to the student threads and look at all the people who have failed the NCLEX 3, 5, 7, 11 times.

Usually they get weeded out in nursing school itself, but some make it all the way through and then can't pass the licensing exam. Don't get too worried, though, the majority pass it the first time.

I think someone already posted that there are 3 levels of education for RNs. The best one is the diploma. I say that only because I went to a diploma school, LOL! There are many debates on this site about ADN vs. BSN. It doesn't matter, though, all three levels prepare you for licensure. BTW, community college RNs are just as smart as university RNs, AND they have less student loan debt.

If you are already admitted to a BSN program, it really isn't much extra work. You just have to get through all the humanities like English and Intro to Art. It may save you time and money in the long run, as many hospitals are moving to hiring mostly or only BSN prepared RNs.

Okay, now for what I like about nursing. I like figuring out what is going on with my patient and treating it appropriately. I like educating my patients and seeing the understanding on their faces when I explain about how to live better so they don't come back and see me as much. I like the human touch of helping someone to the bathroom or giving them a bed bath. I like holding people's hands when they need it, and kicking their butts when they need it. I like seeing patients leave the hospital better than when they came in. I like hanging around with other nurses who "get" what it means to care too much while remaining professionally distant. I like being a change agent on my unit whenever possible and reducing the transmission of health care acquired infections like pneumonia and UTI's from catheters.

My fingers are sore, time to stop.

Hope that helped. Good luck!