I decided I wanted to become a nurse seven years ago. It was the only thing that gave my life direction. I was a high school dropout and a selfish, unmotivated twenty-year-old, and the minute someone said, "I think you'd make a great nurse" that all changed. The same person also told me that there was a dire need for nurses, especially in the rural area where they worked. It took me a long time to pull myself up by my bootstraps, raise my GPA and earn my prerequisites. I never lost sight of my goal, though. I finished one undergraduate degree in public health and worked for two years before entering a BSN program. By now, times have changed. With the financial crisis, many folks returned to school to become an R.N. because they were also told there was a need, or they needed a financially stable second career. Every time I go to a coffee shop to study there's always another nursing student from some other nursing school studying there as well. The way schools are turning out new nurses is frightening. With a few months left until I graduate, I'm terrified. Did I make a huge [twenty-thousand dollar] mistake? Yes, this is still an incredibly fulfilling path for me. But, am I needed? It seems now there is also a trend for new grads to go directly on to NP school...I'd originally hoped to continue on to become an FNP, but even that seems like a saturated field now. Not even hopefully that I'll find a job a an RN after graduation, and even if I do, it seems that new nurses are now a dime a dozen...if I wanted to make a difference in the world, I'm beginning to think I should've gone a different route. Ugh.
