Absolutely nobody around me wants me to be a nurse. I am currently a Realtor and everyone thinks I should stick with it. I HATE REAL ESTATE! You don't know where the next check is coming from, it is SO expensive to get started and keep going, I have to work from home so I feel like I am always working, it is cut-throat, greedy and most importantly, I get no satisfaction from it.
I have wanted to be a nurse for three years now and was suppose to start LPN school last fall, but I got pregnant and the school requested me to not start b/c the baby was due in the middle of the program. That worked out b/c he ended up a preemie. But they saved my spot for this year.
I have had to do everything secretly. My financial aid, I am studying up on A&P, I even have a second job to carry me through paying off the credit I had to use for real estate so that I can use that credit for books and such.
Did anyone here ever have to go up against anyone to become a nurse? I really want this, but I don't know how to handle it. When you are doing something as tough as nursing school, you need support. No matter what I am going to school...that is one thing I am sure of.
Absolutely nobody around me wants me to be a nurse. I am currently a Realtor and everyone thinks I should stick with it. I HATE REAL ESTATE! You don't know where the next check is coming from, it is SO expensive to get started and keep going, I have to work from home so I feel like I am always working, it is cut-throat, greedy and most importantly, I get no satisfaction from it.
I have wanted to be a nurse for three years now and was suppose to start LPN school last fall, but I got pregnant and the school requested me to not start b/c the baby was due in the middle of the program. That worked out b/c he ended up a preemie. But they saved my spot for this year.
I have had to do everything secretly. My financial aid, I am studying up on A&P, I even have a second job to carry me through paying off the credit I had to use for real estate so that I can use that credit for books and such.
Did anyone here ever have to go up against anyone to become a nurse? I really want this, but I don't know how to handle it. When you are doing something as tough as nursing school, you need support. No matter what I am going to school...that is one thing I am sure of.
I say do what makes you happy :) . If your husband doesnt support you, try kindly reminding him he should support you in all that you do (especially in a case like this where you are trying to make a better life not only yourself but for the family the two of you have). It might help, just a tiny suggestion.
I am very fortunate to have a grandma who was LPN and aunt who is a RN. They both support my decision and give me tips and help where they can. Actually, my aunt told me that if I decided to become a nurse shed help me with any finances my financial aid didnt cover. But Ima pride fanatic and I cant ask for help so I took out a stafford loan. On the other hand, my fiance didnt have much interest in my schooling. One day he told me that he didnt have to ask how class was going because he knows Im smart and I do well in school. Well one day I got my one and only and first D on a Micro exam and I went home (I got tired of him not supporting/encouraging me) and i stated (very rudely and loudly in the dining room of the house) that it would be nice to be asked what I got on my test or how class was going. I told him it annoyed me that Im busting my butt working fulltime, taking care of our duaghter (who he helps with a great deal) and going to school and he doesnt seem to notice how tired I am or how much Ijust want to burn my books and quit my job. Now I come home from class and its 'hey babe how was class' or 'did you pass your test'. Its good now he supports and encourages me. I even had him on the sofa with me learning the anatomy of the heart and veins and arteries. :chuckle Who would have pictured that????
Hello. Thank you for sharing your experience. I have just studied for 6 years to become a nurse. After A-level exam, I have made nursing school of 3 years in Belgium. I got no job in my country, Luxembourg. Than I've studied for 3 years at university in Belgium. Yes, more than I ever could achieve, with the result of having one job offer that's not sure for the moment. I must admit that I never wanted to become a nurse. Before beginning nursing studies, I was doing benevolent work in an hospital to know what it was like to be there. Result : Being pushed in a neuropsychiatric department, where nurses were shouting at each other, at the doctors, disputing, behaving totaly wrong. A big mess with psychiatric messy patients. Finally, a nurse told me to stay at home because I could do nothing. They didn't even had the time to show me how to make a bed, but the time for diffamation of colleagues!! That experience made me feel a deep rejection for the nursing profession. I didn't want to become as them, shouting , disputing. It was my submission to environnment, this rejection, unconditional trust in others and my own feeling of not enough self confidence that leaded me to this career. In fact, it is not a career teachers, parents told us to expect or to take. All my class mates have become a doctor, a lawyer, etc.. Oh, yes, I "only" have become a nurse. A lot of persons are fond of me, yes. They still talk to me in the street. But I have not the same respect as the others. I like what I do. But that's it. I must learn to give myself respect, consideration and love others do not have for me in the way I want. It is training for very difficult tasks. Yes, learn nursing for the love of nursing. Otherwise the job becomes unbearable. I know now that all my sufferings came from one single sin : adoring more love and attention coming from others than from me. Absolutely no trust in life. Yes, this has generated experience. Utterly bad experiences helped me to become free with some help. I had the chance not to have the worst experiences. You realize the fact of becoming free only by experiencing servitude. Don't become a nurse because of good job conditions (they are a lie! Stress, sometimes inhuman treatment, mobbing, not that pay that is promised..), because others tell you to do this, say that you are not able to learn for another job, because your father thinks that you always will have a job,that you can take care of your husband or parents, that you have a job ideal for raising children. Don't learn this profession to get a good career and mute from "low" to "high". And no nursing is not the same as "Emergency Room"... Sorry...Every single expectation is made to be deceived. Keep aside every expectation, and ask yourself : do I like this job for itsself? You must know that the first doctors came from Ancient Rome. They had slave origins. They weren't free men at the beginning. This conception of the profession has left traces on our profession. I think that you're on the right way..You clearly do what your heart tells you, even with negative experience. You are even just experiencing a way of freeing yourself from expectations coming from other persons or yourself, expression and experience of yourself in your own will. You are in training of keeping secrets...Life keeps being mysterious...Sometimes I laugh about myself.....
Specializes in med/surg/tele/neuro/rehab/corrections.
I think you should do what you want to do...Don't spend your life in a profession you dont love or someone else picks for you...I say this because I have a dental hygiene degree I dont use because my boyfriend made that descion for me when I was in my early 20's...Then I went back to school for nursing and got frustrated and went into respiratory but stop because of a pregancy 7 years ago...I lack a year having a bachelor in respiratory...
So where does that leave me...Still AGING and not doing what I want...
I now stay at home and work partime as a aide for a plastic surgeron.. All that education I never used because I didnt listen to myself...
I have tried to go back to do nursing and now they say they wont reconize my basics because there too old so take them over..at my age I'm not sure if I'm up for the rigors of nursing school...So my point is and I have one "HA! life keeps going even if you decide or not...SO live your dream...
Donna In TEXAS:)
If you really want to do nursing why don't you go for it? There are many second and third career nurses. Nursing school isn't just for the fresh out of high school anymore. The average age of nurses today is 48, (that's how old I will be when I graduate from nursing school) and I suspect that as the population ages so will the nurses so that average age may go up. If memory seves me right, the oldest poster here who said she was starting nursing school was 58.
Many people have degrees in something that they no longer use. I went back to college the first time (at age 29) to get a degree in Child Development and the second time to pursue Journalism. Now that my head is on straight I am taking my pre-reqs for nursing and chiding myself for not having started them sooner. But when I turn 48 I will be a nurse instead of the housewife with no future. I will have a career that will take me anywhere.
I took anatomy so long ago that it is not accepted and I am taking it again. I'm glad to have some foreknowledge of such a difficult subject so that not all of the material is new. Sure I"ve made some mistakes with decisions in my life but I'm a plodder so I will just keep plodding along and eventually I will get there. And when I do get there that will be the beginning of a whole new journey. :)
If you really want to do nursing why don't you go for it? Nursing school isn't just for the fresh out of high school anymore. Many people have degrees in something that they no longer use. But when I turn 48 I will be a nurse instead of the housewife with no future. I will have a career that will take me anywhere.
I completely agree with you. I am currently finishing my prereqs and there is a woman who is (well she wouldnt give her exact age but a age range :chuckle ) approximately 45-50 yrs old. She is starting her clinical in Spring '06 and plans to work as a nurse for at least 15 yrs. Anything is possible. I agree you are NEVER too old!!
Sorry, but there must be a problem in communication. I have one of the best trainings available in Benelux and the longest studies for a nurse. I will achieve it very soon. But I don't find a job, not even as a third career!! I am a nurse, and I'm finishing a masters degree in public health.
If you really want to do nursing why don't you go for it? There are many second and third career nurses. Nursing school isn't just for the fresh out of high school anymore. The average age of nurses today is 48, (that's how old I will be when I graduate from nursing school) and I suspect that as the population ages so will the nurses so that average age may go up. If memory seves me right, the oldest poster here who said she was starting nursing school was 58.
Many people have degrees in something that they no longer use. I went back to college the first time (at age 29) to get a degree in Child Development and the second time to pursue Journalism. Now that my head is on straight I am taking my pre-reqs for nursing and chiding myself for not having started them sooner. But when I turn 48 I will be a nurse instead of the housewife with no future. I will have a career that will take me anywhere.
I took anatomy so long ago that it is not accepted and I am taking it again. I'm glad to have some foreknowledge of such a difficult subject so that not all of the material is new. Sure I"ve made some mistakes with decisions in my life but I'm a plodder so I will just keep plodding along and eventually I will get there. And when I do get there that will be the beginning of a whole new journey. :)
I just graduated at 48, and Lord knows I'm not a housewife! Being older does make it tougher in some ways: it's hard to recover from an all nighter. Then again, you learn to avoid pulling all nighters. Good sense beats stamina every time. Well, most of the time.
Specializes in med/surg/tele/neuro/rehab/corrections.
I just graduated at 48, and Lord knows I'm not a housewife! Being older does make it tougher in some ways: it's hard to recover from an all nighter. Then again, you learn to avoid pulling all nighters. Good sense beats stamina every time. Well, most of the time.
Oh hey Nurse Mike that is cool! you're 48, thats good. The news just said that the average age of nurses is 47 (a posting here said 48) so I look forward to starting a new career at that age. Plus it's great that those hiring me won't discriminate because of my age since everyone is around the same age as I will be when I graduate.
Yes very much so. My very good friend was a nurse in CA on a CCU floor for 20 years....I rarely talked to her about work UNTIL I announced I wanted to be a nurse...then she literally was calling me L+R telling me I was making the worst decision of my life yadda yadda...in a weird way it gave me more motivation....she's always had a flair for the dramatic:)
My mother wasn't too pleased when I announced that I wanted to be a nurse-- but she's given up on trying to talk me out of it.
I've had several nurses try to talk me out of going to nursing school, too. They often give me that "get out while you still can" speech.
I know that I might not like what I see when I start my clinicals, given all the problems in hospitals today. (In the end, I guess it's better that I'm going into this with my eyes wide open. I might not be too shocked over working conditions, etc. when I become a nurse.)
To that end, I really don't want to do anything else with my life. If I don't like working in hospitals, I can always find another type of nursing job.
So far everyone thinks its great.I'm getting alittle nervous about if I'll be able to handle it and work also.Got 7 prereq's left,then the fun begins:uhoh21:
You know everyone has to learn for themselves and everyone is different. I don't ask anyone anything about nursing anymore and don't ask for opinions either. My motto is "Just do It". If I hate it, OH WELL, won't be the first career mistake I make and I doubt it will be the last.
You just gotta go out there and try things sometimes!! Besides, if we ALL listened to the naysayers WHO is going to be here to take care of US in 30+ years??????????????
BETSRN
1,378 Posts
Do what feels good to you. No need for secrecy!!