I have been a reading this board for months and finally decided to join today. I need some advice. I have been accepted into an RN program at my local community college starting in Sep. I have an undergrad degree in Environmental Science (though I'd like to teach until I had kids of my own), and an AS in Human Resource Management, and I am a veteran of the USAF. I love working with people and their families. While in the military I worked in assignments and helped relocate military members and their families. It was my favorite job. I have been working the past ten years as an office manager for the family business. I though it would only be for a few years while my kids (6&10) were young - ten years later. It is flexible with little stress, but so unrewarding and boring. I decided I wanted to change jobs, started looking, and absolutely nothing appealed to me. I applied to nursing school on the advice of a friend. I'm just not sure its for me. I love people, but also have to look the other way when I have blood drawn and have been known to get woosy at the sight of a needle. However, the military taught me that we all have the strength to get past most things. I just don't want to put my family in debt, neglect my children, and spend the next two years studying - only to find out I'm miserable as a nurse. However, the more I thing about nursing, the more I think it might fill a void currently in my life. I am living the middle class dream, but really not making a difference. On the other hand, my experience in the military has given me little patience with winers. How do you feel bad for the overweight smoker who needs to be on oxygen. I also don't know about spending two years in school, only to spend nights and holidays away from my children. I should note the husband is a firefighter EMT, works a strange schedule, but supports whatever I decide. Any advice on making this decision would be helpful. I need to withdraw from the program soon, if I do, they have hundreds on the waiting list.
Shouldn't you be able to get some type of help as an Air Force vet? I think they still offer GI Bills....
As far as the squimish thing, don't worry you get over it, lol. I, personally hate seeing other people get cut. I can handle emesis, sputum, stool, blood...but to see someone actually CUT into the skin, I am out cold, ROFL. Every nurse I know has ONE thing that absolutely makes them sick. I have been a nurse for over 7 years now and I still love it. I love being with the patients, I love my co-workers, I love the flexability of the schedule. Yes, there are patients that I just want to say, OK, you 450 pounds, 47 years old and smoke a pack a day OFCOURSE your on a heart monitor. But I still give them the same care that everyone else gets and in the end I always walk away learning something from the experience.
I also still cry the whole day when I work on Christmas day. No lie, I am ok driving to work and once there I look around and just start. Most people I work with try to comfort me, until I say, just leave me be, I will be okay, but if your nice it makes it worse, LMAO.
I never have a dull day at work. Just yesterday alone, on my telemetry unit I had a gentleman that was dying. I spent the whole first part of the shift in the room with him, his nurse and the family. (I was in charge.) Then, after helping him "go home" and comforting his family as best I could I was called to another room. There was a 21 year old man on the floor in the bathroom, with the lights out and rocking, sobbing that he couldn't go back into "that bed." I sat down next to him to figure out what the real problem was, it couldn't be just "that room." Once I talked him out of the bathroom, we went walking around the hallway. Turns out he was burned very severly in a fire as a child and spent a lot of time in the hospital. I moved him to a private room and called intensive to see if they would send him a scrub top so he didn't have to feel like a "patient" and could wear a "real shirt." I also got an order for him to shower off the monitor. When I left that night, he was lying in bed with the side rails down watching TV.
Why don't YOU elaborate on WHY I should reconsider.
Oh my goodness, I just read your public profile, thinking that maybe you had been a nurse for quite a while. I see that you are still a student. I am not trying to be harsh, & while your post does have some accurate information, do you think that maybe YOU should reconsider nursing?
I am going to get my CNA license by Sept. However I have all my prereq for the RN program that starts in January. Im just waiting to see if I have made based on my GPA. Until then I would like to get my CNA and work on the side. Does anyone have any recommendations as to what kind of pay I should receive per hour as well as any recommendations on where to work.
HELP! I have finished all my nursing requirements and am STILL on the waiting list at my university! I have also finished all but one class towards a music minor. Can anyone suggest classes that would come in handy for nursing. I hate this "standing still" feeling. I want to get on with my life!
ShayRN
1,046 Posts
Shouldn't you be able to get some type of help as an Air Force vet? I think they still offer GI Bills....
As far as the squimish thing, don't worry you get over it, lol. I, personally hate seeing other people get cut. I can handle emesis, sputum, stool, blood...but to see someone actually CUT into the skin, I am out cold, ROFL. Every nurse I know has ONE thing that absolutely makes them sick. I have been a nurse for over 7 years now and I still love it. I love being with the patients, I love my co-workers, I love the flexability of the schedule. Yes, there are patients that I just want to say, OK, you 450 pounds, 47 years old and smoke a pack a day OFCOURSE your on a heart monitor. But I still give them the same care that everyone else gets and in the end I always walk away learning something from the experience.
I also still cry the whole day when I work on Christmas day. No lie, I am ok driving to work and once there I look around and just start. Most people I work with try to comfort me, until I say, just leave me be, I will be okay, but if your nice it makes it worse, LMAO.
I never have a dull day at work. Just yesterday alone, on my telemetry unit I had a gentleman that was dying. I spent the whole first part of the shift in the room with him, his nurse and the family. (I was in charge.) Then, after helping him "go home" and comforting his family as best I could I was called to another room. There was a 21 year old man on the floor in the bathroom, with the lights out and rocking, sobbing that he couldn't go back into "that bed." I sat down next to him to figure out what the real problem was, it couldn't be just "that room." Once I talked him out of the bathroom, we went walking around the hallway. Turns out he was burned very severly in a fire as a child and spent a lot of time in the hospital. I moved him to a private room and called intensive to see if they would send him a scrub top so he didn't have to feel like a "patient" and could wear a "real shirt." I also got an order for him to shower off the monitor. When I left that night, he was lying in bed with the side rails down watching TV.
Do I have the best job in the world or what?!?!?