Career Change.....

Hi,

I am 23 years old, fell into Admin work since i left school, did a few courses, tried uni for a year and then decided to go travelling in Australia and Asia etc.. Anyway, on coming back i have realised that i miss Oz soooo much and i need a change of career - what better time to do it than now when i am starting from scratch.

I have been thinking about nursing, the first prompt for this was the fact that is is a possible way to go back to Australia, i met a lot of nurses there too who love their jobs (there and in the UK). I have been thinking about this for a good 6 weeks now and i can't decide if this would be right for me. I would not be taking the course JUST for Oz purposes as i am looking for a 'career' now that isn't really office based, that involves working a lot more with people and that i will get a lot more satisfaction and fulfillment from. I think i have some good qualities i could bring to nursing, i am caring, patient, hard working, relaible, honest, understanding, friendly etc. and i am willing to out my all into whatever i choose to go into. The shifts and the pay do not put me off either, in fact i would welcome a bit of diversity in my working life!

To get to the point, i am finding it hard to make a decision as i don't really know a great deal about what being a nurse will involve, i attended an open evening yesterday to find out more but it wasn't very helpful and i need to know more about the day-to-day life of a nurse before i can make my choice - could be difficult i know as i am sure each day brings something new....

Reading some of the topics on this board do not paint a pretty picture nor recommend nursing as a good thing to get into, which kind of makes me think twice.....but any information/advice would be most appreciated as it would be totally new to me and i don't want to make the same mistake i have in the past by picking the wrong course and wasting a years study on the wrong thing...

Cheers, H