Fire / Nurse?

HouTx, BSN, MSN, EdD · Mar 25, 2014

Have you thought about transitioning into paramedic? It would provide the same sort of first-responder environment that you enjoy now.

While Emergency Nursing may be an area of nursing where there is more 'excitement' than other clinical areas, the majority of a nurse's day is spent in much more mundane work - work that the vast majority of the population finds demeaning such as providing for personal needs.

My advice? Take a look at your local schools of nursing to see exactly what is required to become a nurse with a BSN and what you will have to do in order to enroll in a nursing program. (You will need a BSN to ensure that you are qualified for a hospital job.) If you want to invest this much time, money and effort - then start taking your pre-requisite courses. This will take a while. Don't be surprised if your desire to become a nurse starts to diminish long before you are able to apply to a nursing program. Usually, this happens with the first semester of Anatomy & Physiology.

Best wishes on your career transition.

PG2018 · Apr 4, 2014

In my city, the FD still provides EMS. Each substation is staffed three FFs, an engine, and an ambulance. If it's a fire call they get on the engine. If it's an EMS call they all get on the ambulance. They're required to all be EMTs at a minimum and can go all the way up to paramedic. There just has to be at least one medic at each station, obviously. Several have quit and gone to nursing school to become RNs, and several have done nursing school while working at the FD.

I know several of the guys because I was once a volunteer FF in the suburbs, and many of the FD guys lived out here too and vollied in their spare time. I actually went to EMT school in 2001 and a couple of years later paramedic school, passed the National Registry exam, and never used it. Actually I worked a couple of days a month over about an eight month period but didn't care for it so, as a side job, I let it go to the wayside. I eventually dropped the paramedic, ACLS, and all the other advanced stuff, but I kept the EMT. Nursing school was an after thought many years later and largely unrelated to anything connected to what I'd done in the past.

I worked ER and ICU some but mostly med-surg which is the part of the hospital where people are laid up recovering from their illness or surgery. I never got any adrenaline rush from any segment of the hospital, but I hear some of the urban trauma centers appeal to the adrenaline seekers as well as flight nursing. Also, if you're of age maybe military nursing might suit you. Just a thought. Good luck with things and be safe out there.

Esme12, ASN, BSN, RN · Apr 4, 2014

I love me a firefighter!

Consider nursing carefully. There is a LOT of mundane in nursing and in nursing school. There will be NO guarantee of a ED job when you are graduated. Positions offered to new grads in specialty areas are few. The adrenaline moments are followed by many moments of mundane. The pay is...better but the rewards are few. We get very little recognition or positive feed back from anyone. We are responsible for everything yet have very little power. You will not receive any thanks, nor recognition for a job well done.

The public....well they are a different animal. We are treated like personal servants and spoken to with even less respect in many cases. While nurses save the day most days...no one cares no recognizes a job well done.

For you....maybe look into paramedic first...get an inside view of the workings before you jump in with both feet. Get on a flight crew or critical care transport team...see how you like that before making the jump to RN. I would hate to see you disappointed and frustrated. If you are looking more long term maybe look in to PA school (physician assistant)

I love being a nurse and I'm an adrenaline junky as an ED nurse and trauma fight...but these jobs are few and I had a ton of mundane in between. Nursing is going through a surplus right now and even finding a job without a BSN is very difficult.