Doubts about a Career in Nursing

[harvey91]

So I am in my first year in the nursing program and I was wondering if it is common for people to have doubts about if this is the right career path for them. There will be times where I just think that I will not be able to handle the blood or giving needles. But I also don't want to finish the course, and then find out that I do not wand to persue nursing as my career path and have already spent all that money with a degree that I no longer want. Any thoughts? Has anyone thought that nursing would not be what they wanted to do and then realized that they loved it?

[diane227, LPN, RN]

Well, for me, from the beginning, nothing bothered me and I was not really afraid of anything. Now I was VERY CAUTIOUS when it came to medications but other than that I just sort of jumped right in. I have had jobs that I LOVED and jobs that I hated but I would say that for me, 90% of my career has been spent loving my jobs in nursing. I have tried a lot of things. My first love was the ED and I worked in the ED forever, working my way up to director. I did upper level management for a long time, legal nurse consulting, psych nursing, ICU, Med surg, all kids of jobs. That is the good thing about nursing. If you don't like what you are doing, you can move on to something else, especially if you live in a large city. I was fortunate to live in Houston and to have access to the Texas Medical Center where nursing jobs are a dime a dozen. I had experience there that I would have never had anywhere else. If I could say one thing to you, get to the largest facility that you can. If possible try to get a job as a CNA while you are in school. I worked as a CNA during my senior year and it really helped me. You may have to move around a bit to find what you want. But when you decide to leave a job do it within the first 90 days or stay there at least 12 months. Do not job hop too much. Looks bad on a resume.