Change in Major what to do!!!!!

Nursing Students General Students

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Hello everyone,

I am a freshman at Armstrong state in GA. I decided to be a nursing major because i love helping people and working with babies. I love the idea of working 3 days a week and getting paid a good salary. (My dream is to live in Buck head one day) Anyway, i also love learning about finances. Interest rates, Retirement plans, and saving money is something i love to talk and learn about. So long story short i am currently taking bio 2 and its so boring. Nothing in the class interest me and i truly don`t care for science in general yet i know its going to be huge in my career. I need to know which route i should take because if i switch to finance my classes will be completely different.Sorry for the long post.

Thanks

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Specializes in Critical Care, Education.

Oh my, seems you've fallen for the "nursing is the pot at the end of the rainbow" line. If so, you may want to re-think. Staff nursing jobs may be associated with higher starting salaries (because that's what it takes to get people to take those jobs) but there is a ton of information about the severe salary compression in nursing. It's not unusual for staff nurse jobs to top out (salary-wise) in about 5 years... the only way to escape that rut is via advanced education & promotion - to land one of those jobs in which you'll be working waaaay more than 3 12 hour shifts per week.

As someone who is interested in finance, you should know that Healthcare in general is a low-margin business - and this is reflected in many ways. Annual salary "raises" over the last few years have averages ~ 2%.... srsly. This is evidenced by the fact that many new grads are hired on at the same hourly wage as their much more experienced coworkers; salaries just haven't been keeping up with inflation. Another consideration - few healthcare organizations provide any sort of the traditional "defined contribution" or "defined benefit" pension plans. The best you can hope for is some sort of fractional contribution in relation to the amount you contribute to your 401K or 403B. Tuition reimbursement is dismal. etc, etc, . . .

In summary, if you're seeking maximum financial return on your educational investment, nursing is probably not the way to go.

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