Going Into Nursing?

[angelsteps51]

First of all...I am a mom of 3 with a B.S. in Communications. Now I *hated* working in an office and it feels like a prison to me. I am such a people person. I just want to get to know people and develop friendships 100% of the time. Because of this, I have decided to take Anatomy and apply for nursing school if my grades are good enough. I LOVE school and the more challenging, the better.

My husband thinks I would do well. But others in my family are saying I'm crazy. One even said, "You want to mess with blood, p*ss, and p**p all day???" I was offended. My best friend said, "When we were little you couldn't stand the sight of blood." Yes, but now I have 3 boys and I am used to the blood.

I feel I have so much love and compassion, and with a digestive illness myself, I know what it is like to be in the hospital. I feel I have so much to offer these patients. In my mind, I would get used to the bodily fluids? Should I let that one thing stop me? I am pretty excited about it but nervous because if I don't see it through I will let down myself and my husband.

Thanks for any and all advice. As you can see, I love to talk, LOL!

[HealthyRN]

I've known lots of other people who had a strong dislike of bodily fluids (really who does like it?), but were able to overcome it and become successful nurses. Nursing is much more than that and you do become used to it, although I'm not really sure that anyone enjoys dealing with it. I have a non-clinical job that involves no patient care, so I never deal with bodily fluids. I will caution you that you are probably not going to land a job like this right out of school though.

I think it's great that you like working with people, and that is important in nursing, but your decision to become a nurse should be based on much more than that. Also, the perspective from the other side of the bed can be a lot different than the reality. Before you go further, I recommend doing a lot of shadowing to make sure that this is a good fit for you. I'm not trying to discourage you, but I only recommend nursing to people who can't imagine doing anything else and being happy. Good luck!

[Babs0512]

If this is something you want to do, then I think you should go for it. Nursing is about more than cleaning up bodily fluids. It's about assessment, patient advocacy, interventions, evaluating your patients to see if they've met their goals.

My favorite part of nursing is assessing my patient, and figuring out what's wrong before the physician. I assess their labs, and other tests. It's like a puzzle and I'm the detective.

Just know it is a very hard curriculum, and a very exhausting profession, you'll have a lot of responsibility and we're getting more autonomy all the time. You'll love it some days, and hate it others. You'll see people at their best and the worst.

Good luck to you, keep us informed of your decision.