For all pre-nursing students

[NickiLaughs]

It has been noticed that due to mass media and just general word of mouth that there is a HUGE number of people scrambling to get into nursing school any way they can. I just wanted to provide a little information for those of you who are considering it and dismiss some myths that you have probably heard.

However, if nursing is what you really want to do in your heart, this is not meant to discourage you, just to provide a realistic view of the current nursing trends.

#1 There will always be a job for you

This is not necessarily true unless you have the ability to relocate on a whim's notice, even then, no guarantees.

I am a new graduate RN and have many former classmates who live in the bay area of california. They are currently working as LVN's or not at all. Many of them are unable to find jobs, and I know that the bay area is not the only area that has this problem. It has taken me three months of job hunting to obtain employment, and I started searching for a job two months prior to graduation. By the way, it is not my dream job, it's a med-surg night shift every other weekend. I am actually a lucky one.

#2 You can work in a lot of different areas right away

Don't I wish! Some places will hire new graduate RN's in their dream area. But certain state regulations can vary. For example, in California there is a law that states a nurse must have a year of experience to even be hired in hospice. Some facilities require a year or more experience for specialty units. And you will probably be competing against other nurses for those sought-after positions.

Also, all those travel jobs that I know most pre-nursing students google (I know this, I did it too!) are reserved for experienced nurses, usually several years of experience is recommended if not required. You don't want to go onto a floor you're not familiar with and have a patient crash on you and not even know where the crash cart if or what the hospital protocol is.

#3 Nurses make really good money

They make average salary for as long as the schooling takes to complete. Most people who go the traditional route are going to realize that an associate's degree of nursing even takes four years to complete. 2 years prerequisites and applying, then another 2 years of nursing school. Same amount of time as the average bachelor's degree. The salary may be a bit more, but you are giving up your weekends, your nights, the typical mon-fri normal job life. If you plan on having a family, or if you want to take a weekend trip, it's not going to happen that often. The main part of the "shortage" anyway would be hospital med/surg nurses who are willing to work nights/weekends.

Even more so, many do not realize the emotional and physical exhaustion nursing brings. As an LVN, I have had MANY shifts where lunches did not happen, breaks did not happen, and going home and hitting the bed was all I wanted to do. Not every job is like this, but it happens. If your patient is dying it's not like you can leave the bedside to go eat an apple. Nursing school will give you a crash course in how much of a luxury sleep is in nursing.

#4 You can live anywhere (exotic place, whatever)

Each state has different licensing requirements as well as different "needs" for nurses. California right now, many graduates cannot find work. If you had the dream of moving to California after nursing school, it is not likely to happen because many hospitals are refusing to even look at candidates who are not locals, because they are even turning many locals away for jobs.

Also, if you planned on moving to another country, different countries have licensing requirements, and many of their nurses come here because the salary/cost of living ratio is better in many states.

#5 Nursing is a safe job

It is, if you work at an office job. You can get a back injury from lifting heavy patients (yes nurses lift their patients!) An injury from a patient, whether intentional or accidental. I have had a patient grab an insulin syringe from me and attempt to stab me with it. There are many precautions you can take to make the job safer, but the risks are still present.

I'm sure there are more myths out there, this is just a few of the one's that I see all the time. I actually believed them at one point too. Anyway, good luck to those of you out there who really want to be nurses!

[njitalgirl]

thank you farmlady - everything you said is so true. i was definitely immature back when i graduated hs - my goal at the time was to be a housewife and have someone take care of me, lol. then a few years later i became a major workaholic. i can't stand not working - see how things change as you get older :-)???

[afineparadigm]

Wow....maybe I read into that wrong, but that wasn't encouraging at all...

[AZ_LPN_8_26_13]

Njitalgirl,

Don't be discouraged by age. I am 46. Got my LPN at 41 after trying to make a living cleaning houses and cooking at below minimum wage at times. I was a CNA in the 80's and gave my best, but felt it was too much for me. Never wanted to go back because of the heavy politics and horrible staffing. I loved my patients in all their imperfection. Well, after almost 20 years trying to make enough money to build my house and not getting near, I had to go back. But I remember a "nursing shortage" in the 80's too. And I remember the average age of nurses then was also 43-45. So things have not changed much statistically. I haven't found any studies on why, but I suspect more of the 20 somethings just can't handle the hardships of nursing and drop out quickly. I know about a third of my class did so, some even right before graduation, the last month. I think also, a person in her 40's has already learned to deal with the grosser things of life if she has had any kids at all and is just better equipped to deal with things. She's also learned to be more accepting- nobody is perfect and she is better able to deal with that. No situation is perfect and she has given up some unrealistic ideals.

I will second that. I've finished all my pre-reqs, and taking the few co-reqs I've got left. Put in my app and am on the waiting list to be placed. I'm pretty much assured of a spot - just a matter of when and what local community college. So now it's mostly a waiting game. I am 55 years old. I've got a lot of life experience and hard knocks so to speak, and have seen plenty of what you would call "the darker side of life". Sometimes I think that all of that was preparation for me to become a nurse, although I didn't realize it at the time. I tend to be more accepting of things that aren't perfect now - sometimes we just have to soldier on as best we can with what we have. I've always had a natural inclination to help people when they need it, even if it causes me personal discomfort or sets me up somehow to be taken advantage of by others. I figure that nursing is a profession that's actually a better fit for the "inner me" - my personality and values. I am a "he" BTW, which also puts me in a different category here as well as the age...... Wanting to be a nurse is still even in this day and age not considered to be a "guy thing" that guys are supposed to want to do. They do have a male nursing forum here though which helps give support and which I participate in. Getting off track here (easy for me to do LOL) but will just say that life is funny sometimes - maybe some of us weren't always aware that we wanted to be nurses from the very beginning, but life has just gently guided us to this point as if to say "Let go of all that other stuff you've done, this is actually what you were really meant to do all along." Yes, learn from it all your life's lessons, but it was all just preparation for this......

[njitalgirl]

I will second that. I've finished all my pre-reqs, and taking the few co-reqs I've got left. Put in my app and am on the waiting list to be placed. I'm pretty much assured of a spot - just a matter of when and what local community college. So now it's mostly a waiting game. I am 55 years old. I've got a lot of life experience and hard knocks so to speak, and have seen plenty of what you would call "the darker side of life". Sometimes I think that all of that was preparation for me to become a nurse, although I didn't realize it at the time. I tend to be more accepting of things that aren't perfect now - sometimes we just have to soldier on as best we can with what we have. I've always had a natural inclination to help people when they need it, even if it causes me personal discomfort or sets me up somehow to be taken advantage of by others. I figure that nursing is a profession that's actually a better fit for the "inner me" - my personality and values. I am a "he" BTW, which also puts me in a different category here as well as the age...... Wanting to be a nurse is still even in this day and age not considered to be a "guy thing" that guys are supposed to want to do. They do have a male nursing forum here though which helps give support and which I participate in. Getting off track here (easy for me to do LOL) but will just say that life is funny sometimes - maybe some of us weren't always aware that we wanted to be nurses from the very beginning, but life has just gently guided us to this point as if to say "Let go of all that other stuff you've done, this is actually what you were really meant to do all along." Yes, learn from it all your life's lessons, but it was all just preparation for this......

Congrats to you!!! That is so awesome - makes me feel so much better. I don't believe in it just being a "she" thing either. I would love it if one of my boys would become a nurse but they are still too young to realize a male nurse is perfectly normal!!! You are absolutely right, I've always been the type to lend a hand too - sometimes spreading myself way too thin but that's what I do. After being behind a desk for the past 28 years and working for a dentist part time doing bookkeeping, I was told that I don't belong behind a desk I belong with patients. So I was offered free dental assisting class at the office - not for me. Nursing is where I'm supposed to be :-)

Thanks again and best of luck to you!!! Kim

[AZ_LPN_8_26_13]

Yea my dad and his brothers and sisters were raised in Deadwood and Lead, Spearfish was really pretty as well. Especially the canyon. I plan on visiting again so my husband can see since it is only 5 hours from where I live. When we planned on moving from WA I really wanted AZ in the Phoenix area, like outside in the burbs. or Scottsdale. My husband would not go for it. He wanted Colorado, but man I was finding such beautiful houses in gated communities for such good prices, well good for what we were used to paying. I guess it worked out though, I can barely handle the heat here so I have no idea how I would have survived in AZ LOL

Want to take my wife (who's from overseas) for a drive through Spearfish Canyon someday - yes, it is beautiful. Went to college for a year at Black Hills State in Spearfish right out of high school. IMO, Colorado is great, but again the winters there are long and hard - I don't know if I'd ever want to go back to that now that I've lived for almost ten years here in the Southwest. Plus houses here are getting lower priced every day, they are actually auctioning them off because no one is buying right now, may even be able to buy a house after I'm out of school and this economic mess is a little less worse than now. So all things considered, we'll probably stay here.

[farmlady]

Sorry afineparadigm, Just reality. I think we all can deal better with reality than a false ideal. If I had known what I was going to up against 20 years ago, I would have gone straight to RN school and gotten it out of the way then. There are no ideal jobs, but if we have to deal with hardship jobs, might as well get paid for it.

My problem then was my ideal of thinking I could do it (live and build my house) without making money. I accepted too late that I couldn't.

[BeBe6470]

Come to Texas...hospitals are being built on every other corner and nurses are being paid big sign on bonuses to come here from all over.

I will say this...and I'm not even in a nursing program yet but 7 of the closest people in my life are nurses...if you are going into nursing because you want to make big money for easy work...you are entering the wrong field! Every nurse that works hard and chooses to do what it takes can make big money whether that is working 3 12 hr shifts and then agency or travel or whatever. However, the work is not easy work...its hard, its gross, its dirty, its frustrating, its not always appreciated but it can be the most rewarding.

Statistics have shown that in the current economy there are only two industries that are still highering in large numbers and that is nursing and the government. With the babyboomers getting older, there will always be a place for nursing. The great thing about nursing is the career diversity and the fact that if you find you have to relocate, you CAN move and have a greater chance of getting a job than if you are a secretary for someone. I quit a career making what I will most likely start out making as a nurse but I worked 60 hour weeks and many weekends anyway so working 12 hr shifts and weekends will not be a big deal. For me, my youngest child will be 15 when I am done with nursing school and 3 yrs after that will go away to college. When that happens I can go anywhere in the world to work as a nurse and I am so excited about that.

I wish everyone the very best!

[~Mi Vida Loca~RN, ASN, RN]

Want to take my wife (who's from overseas) for a drive through Spearfish Canyon someday - yes, it is beautiful. Went to college for a year at Black Hills State in Spearfish right out of high school. IMO, Colorado is great, but again the winters there are long and hard - I don't know if I'd ever want to go back to that now that I've lived for almost ten years here in the Southwest. Plus houses here are getting lower priced every day, they are actually auctioning them off because no one is buying right now, may even be able to buy a house after I'm out of school and this economic mess is a little less worse than now. So all things considered, we'll probably stay here.

Shoot not this winter. It has been very very mild. Amazingly, summer was pretty mild as well. My first winter here was 06/07 that is when we had like 5 blizzards in 4 weeks and DIA was shut down, I am told that isn't common for my area which is about an hour north of Denver. though, but that it does happen about every 4/5 years. This week it's in the 70's, just in time for Spring Break!

When I left SD I left going through Spearfish Canyon, it reminded me so much of Washington, just so beautiful!

Where is your wife from?

[farmlady]

Anyone who learned English in the "Old School" remembers that there was no awkward "he/she" concerns. It was usually "he" which used to be inclusive of "she" but the feminists were offended by this. (Take a semester of Spanish and realize it's just a grammar thing). In the case of nurses, I didn't mean to offend, but it's still a female dominated field. So "she " seemed natural. However, most male nurses I have worked with are awesome and more thoughtful than regular men. (Men in "masculine" fields.) There were three men in my class of 30, and one was an EMT (which is a great prep by the way) and one other was in the reserves (Army), seemed very macho, but he was just a doll with the old folks. They just loved him. (Most patients in any setting are going to be older, even in acute.)

[dreamon]

I feel the same way; It's hard enough (at times) staying super-optimistic now with the economy and the competition. I too was in the military and then UPS for many years and I am completely used to/at peace with starting at the bottom in the needed areas on the needed shifts.

Cool, I worked for UPS and the military a while back. I remember when I told my mom I was going into nursing she warned me that I wouldn't get any respect working as a nurse. I laughed and told her being in the military unit I was in, I'm very well used to that type of enviornment. It was full of back-stabbing and sabotage like what some nurses describe on here. Of course, I hope that I will eventually find a place where those behaviors are at a minimum. But at least I had some experience in that role. UPS to me wasn't as disrespectful as it was non stop back breaking work (to me, you may have done something else). I wanted to quit everyday but my body got accustomed to it. I'm a few years older now and I will begin to take better care of myself since I am older and will have to do such hard work.

Anyway good luck on your HESI and hopefully I'll be joining the ranks right behind you!

Also thanks to the OP for starting this thread. I too get discouraged a bit when reading all the negatives on this wonderful site (to be fair, it is a bit more balanced here- I've been to other sites where the experiences were awful) but I am happy to see there are others who are still staying on course with their dreams. It's very inspiring.

[njitalgirl]

Bebe - my youngest will be 15 too and I am thinking along the same lines as you. In the meantime, before I start school, I am working on the paperwork to volunteer at my local hospital. I figured it would help to see first hand what it will be like in school. I'm so excited. Good luck to you!!!

Kim in PA

[2bRN4BABES21]

that is not true for all cases. here in califorina there are so many jobs available..there are bonuses etc.