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Hello nurses!

I am a nursing student in my second year, and I have come to the conclusion that nursing is not for me. I think I love the idea of being a nurse, but that's all. Since you all work closely with a variety of health care professionals, I'm just wondering what other kinds of interesting jobs there are out there in the healthcare field that still involve working with patients. Maybe a job that you would have considered pursuing if you had known about it before nursing. I was thinking about a Medical Imaging specialist or whatever they call the people who take x-rays and MRIs. Any thoughts?

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Occupational or Physical Therapy. Nursing was one of the hot jobs for the last 5-10+ years. Realistically though, there are too many people with nursing degrees that have no jobs or are underemployed compared to the number of nurses who are fully and currently employed.

Even nurses who have tons of experience are still losing their jobs. Quite sad. To be quite honest, we ALL have to make a living right? So, there is nothing wrong with wanting to get paid for one's time and service. We all have to eat right? There are other medical fields besides nursing. In nursing, everyone starts out from direct patient care and from there, nursing opens up new doors/concentrations (after a awhile). But, it is almost impossible nowadays to even start at the bottom. Then, really -- how realistic is it to even think of practicing advanced nursing of any kind in the future?

Most of the new grad nurses who are getting the jobs are already in the medical field themselves, BEFORE they graduated from nursing schools! How unfair is this? This is the reality in nursing now. So, even if one has dreams of practicing advanced nursing in whatever form -- well, if one can't even start from the bottom -- it really is time for change!

Sure, the job prospects for nursing will eventuallly improve but, no one knows when. It maybe five, ten+ years! In the meantime, I could be doing something else (a decent career, fair wage, life, etc., etc.) and by the time, nursing improves -- I'd probably looking at retirement already!

Of course, many people still believe that nursing is still a good choice.

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Specializes in LTC.

I think the first thing we need to know what is it about nursing your don't like and what do you like?

If had to go back to school for something other than nursing I'd go to be a lab nerd. Either get a degree in medical technology or microbiology.

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You could try going for Licensed Practical Nurse or Registered Nurse. Here is some information you were looking for, from the source..

Licensed practical nurses (LPNs) are also known as licensed vocational nurses (LVNs) in California and Texas and as registered practical nurses (RPNs) in Ontario, Canada. They are called enrolled nurses (ENs) in Australia and New Zealand and as state enrolled nurses (SENs) in the United Kingdom. Licensed practical nurses care for the sick, injured, disabled or convalescent. They bring their caring, sympathetic natures to hospitals, home health care services, nursing care facilities, physicians' offices and other health care providers and agencies.

read more here..

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Specializes in Health Information Management.

Could you be a little more specific about your interests and what led you to change your mind about nursing? For instance, are you having difficulty with some aspect of the nursing curriculum? You mentioned wanting information about positions that still involve working with patients. Is working with patients an absolute must for you to be satisfied by your work or could you be just as happy in a position without patient contact if the specific duties of the job interested you?

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My recommendation is to stick with your schooling if you're a second year persuing an AA or AS. You're already so close to completion, and you never know what having your RN license may help you with in the future. If you're a BSN student, then you have some wiggle room to make those basics work toward your interest in imaging and drop nursing.

Something to consider with using your RN in imaging would be Cath Lab nurse. Nurses in our cath lab have do have a bit hands-on nursing care, while assisting the cardiologists with heart diagnostics and interventions, but it is completely different from working on the 'floor'.

If you haven't had the opportunity to have a clinical or any experience with Cath Lab yet, you may find it's a perfect fit for you.

I am that 'lab nerd' mentioned above. First degree is lab, second is nursing. While in nursing school, I kinda' 'discovered' that hands-on nursing wasn't for me, either. I figured I could go back to lab or tough it out until I got my BSN and went administrative. Quite by accident (luck, God, holding my mouth just right?) I fell into a Point of Care job soon almost as soon as I graduated with my nursing degree. I am responsible for making sure that our hospital nursing staff complies with rules and regulations (all those competencies!) which keep our nursing CLIA license valid. Without that, our nurses would be unable to do any bedside testing, including glucometer readings, activated clotting time in our cath lab and ICU, amnio pH in maternity, etc. And we're looking at putting ABG's bedside in the not-so-distant future.

What a ramble... I just wanted to share that having RN behind your name may help you in your pursuit of the 'perfect job' even if you choose another medical field to specialize in.

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Specializes in ICU-CCRN, CVICU, SRNA.

speech pathology. Wish I had done that instead.

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