Hello There!!

[bonelady]

I need to know if anyone is in the same/similar "boat" as me. It would be nice to help each other on the possible road to nursing.

About me: I'm old! 39 years-old to be exact. I am currently working in an office and am a single mom of a 16 year-old. I have a BA in anthropology and am fascinated with forensic/medical anthropology. I did really well in school and had hopes of going on to graduate school.

So what's the problem? Reality set in shortly after I graduated (I graduated last summer.) Graduate school is expensive and the odds of me obtaining a position actually doing forensic/medical anthro - even if I did manage to get through the decade of school - would be pretty slim. However, the thought of working in an office the rest of my life makes me want to stick a fork in my eye.

So, I got to doing some research on the internet and began to consider nursing. I have always been drawn to it due to the job security, flexibility and cameraderie nurses seem to have. I also began reading about transcultural nursing and got very excited about the possibility of "doing" anthropology, but also making a decent living! The added benefit of course would be helping people while I'm at it!

The one draw back is I'm a bit of a hypochondriac (I think that's how you spell it.) My biggest hesitation would be the idea of getting a killer case of "intern syndrome" once in nursing school. I've talked to a few people I know in the medical profession and they said that many people suffer from intern syndrome initially, but that it fades in time.

I have a long road ahead of me if I make the decision to go to nursing school. I would have to take all prereqs...and there are a lot.

So, anyone else out there in my shoes? Any 2nd career seekers trying to find their niche?

Let me know--I want to hear your story!

[Daytonite, BSN, RN]

hi, bonelady! hard being an old fogey, is it? take a glance over at my credentials!

every time something hurts i start thinking of all the possibilities from the worst cases to the, well, i never get to the easy stuff. found a lump and went running to the doctor. turned out to be nothing. however, i do have a history of having cancer twice that was found very early and cured, so i feel i am justified.

i guess the funniest (?) was when a whole bunch of nurses where i was working started itching and scratching. someone went to a dermatologist and found they had scabies! well, you come by this through contact and the most likely was probably through one of our indigent patients. you can't see these little critters as they are microscopic, but we were all trying real hard! nurses were staring at their hands and arms trying to get a glimpse of these little varmints! pretty soon everyone was going to their doctors and coming back with positive skin tests for scabies. then, i started really getting itchy. sure enough. it took two applications of elimite to get rid of it and a complete laundering of all my bed linens and clothing. now, every time, the least little itch and i'm just holding my breath and waiting to see what is going to happen.

we had a patient another time who came in with lice. lice you can see. none of us ever got it, but it's amazing how your psyche turns on you and makes you itch when you really don't have a reason to itch.

want another example? c-diff colitis. it's contagious. causes rank smelling diarrhea and abdominal cramps that go on and on until it gets treated with the proper antibiotics. mostly saw it happening in the nursing homes after patients came back from many days in the acute hospital on all kind antibiotics that knocked their immune systems out so the c-diff could take hold. now, when you have a couple of patients having this c-diff diarrhea that you're cleaning up multiple times a shift and you start to have abdominal cramping yourself that goes on for a few days and then start getting some loose stools yourself, what are you supposed to think? my doctor laughed his a** off when i bothered him about this. my abdominal cramping miraculously stopped the next day.

at least you get medical insurance as part of the benefits of your job as an rn, or should.

wellcome to allnurses! :welcome: