Confused...please help

nursemike, ASN, RN · May 5, 2008

I am 28y.o. male working currently as a biochemist with my Masters degree but I am really considering going back to get my RN. I originally started pre-med about 10 years ago in my undergraduate work (and had my CNA in high school) but changed to purely research after meeting many of the pre-med students that I absolutely DID NOT get along with at my rather uppity undergraduate school. Now that I am considering going back to school I have a few questions. I have read many threads on the male nursing boards for the aspect of both in the classroom and in the workplace and it has me worried.
Are the nursing school people as bad as the pre-meds in college? Albeit, I would go to a 2 year school to get my RN since I have everything else.
How hard is it to start all over?
How in the heck did you work it financially? My wife is an ER nurse and makes good money but one income is hard to live off of if I want to get done with school ASAP.
In my job now I dont get any sense of accomplishment when the day is done. On a scale of 1-10 how would you rate your feelings (for those currently in nursing) when the work day is done for accomplishing something?
I have more questions but I dont want to bombard the board with my very first post.
Thanks for the info in advance.

Lotta tough questions, there. I don't quite know what you mean by as "bad" as pre-med students. You mentioned "uppity." I wouldn't use that word to describe my classmates. In fact, I tend to see nursing as a rather down-to-earth profession. A lot of nurses do seem to be interested in the professional aspect of nursing. Few if any want to perpetuate the old image of "the doctors' handmaidens." And I generally support that view. But I also think it's fair to note a bit of a schism between nursing leaders and nursing theorists and bedside nurses. Bedside nursing has very little to do with ivory towers. We do, at times, wipe other peoples' butts. A bit of humility comes pretty naturally.

On the other hand, a fair number of students at my school were either taking the opportunity to mature a bit before moving to a larger university, or taking a few classes to bring up their GPAs after partying too hardy at university. By comparison, nursing students were "drudges" who took their classes very seriously, including a number of older students who went home after classes to raise families and/or work jobs. We had fun, but it was a long way from Animal House. My program, though, was not competitive. If you got 93% of the questions right on an exam, you got an A. If everybody got 93%, everybody got an A. There was no curve to speak of, so no one was hurt by someone else doing well, and helping each other was the norm. Which is a pretty good prep for working as a nurse, where teamwork can make or break a unit.

Going back to school as a "non-traditional student" was interesting. A lot of my classmates and I had outside commitments we had to juggle with a pretty demanding class load. There's a temptation to envy the kids whose only job is going to school full-time. But there is also something invigorating about jumping into something new and challenging, and working for a living does give you a perspective many might not have, right out of high school. My first attempt at college was rather aimless. I was in college because that was what I thought I was supposed to do, but I was easily distracted. In nursing school, I had a clear purpose for being there, and while extraneous issues made it tough, working toward a goal helped me focus on what I was doing. I was exhausted a lot of the time, but when in class, whatever mental energy I had was focused on class, not thinking about an upcoming party or wondering whether some girl liked me. And it turns out that making As can be as much fun as drinking beer.

I went through an associate's degree program. There are also accelerated BSN programs for those who've completed a bachelor's degree in another field, so you don't have to repeat freshman English, etc. Either way, you're getting through school and getting a license in a couple of years. Both routes have their strengths and weaknesses, but the bottom line is that the sacrifices you have to make to get through are a bit easier to swallow when it's only for a couple of years. Whether it's worth it depends a lot on the individual. I love my stupid job. I grumble, complaint, rant, and whine, but at the end of the day (night, actually) I feel like I'm tired for a reason. It's rare to get through a shift without some irritation. It isn't rare to have a shift where something rather alarming occurs, and it isn't rare enough to have a point where you're in pee-your-pants panic.

But there are pretty much always opportunities to make a difference, be it a small one lie offering a weary, worried family member a cup of bad coffee, or mustering the team to save a life.

Last night, I called a doctor to suggest a laxative for a patient who had self-administered Dilaudid, which tends to cause constipation. Helped the same patient out of bed to a bedside toilet. Did some of my two-hour neuro checks by asking "How are you feeling?" when I had to awaken them for something else, rather than going in at precisely 2 a.m. and asking a full set of orientation questions. Probably didn't save any lives, but didn't kill anybody, either, and did feel my patients were kept as comfortable as possible while I was there. It ain't like the movies, but it's no small accomplishment, either.

Spatialized · May 5, 2008

To answer some questions...

As bad as pre-med? Nope. Driven like mad? Sure, we all were. But snobby/snotty about it we were not. We had our moments of fun, our moments of stress and moments whee we wanted to give it all up and go sling burgers at McD's.

Starting over wasn't that bad. It's just a shift. What makes it easier to handle is the knowledge that this is only short-term; there is an end to it. We had a ton of non-traditional students in my class and we all did great. Being out in the "real world" gives us a unique perspective that folks who are fresh out of high school don't have. For some of them, the world is still black and white, whereas for many of us, it's in shades of gray. And besides, with starting over, you're not so concerned with being "cool" or meeting people of the opposite sex. You're there for school, not a social life.

Financially it was tough. I worked through school, nearly full-time and it kicked my butt. But is is doable. Things to consider would be per diem/on-call shifts as an aide/tech, or an internship of some variety. It's a way to bring in some $$$ while getting exposure into the world of health care.

I love my job. Sure I whine, moan and complain some days, but who doesn't ( out of 10 times, I leave feeling like I have made a difference, or if nothing more, kept folks alive for one more night. I get a great deal of satisfaction from my work, it's physical and intellectual and never the same.

Good luck whichever road you choose though!

Tom