Help! I can't decide!

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I'm a new grad and one thing I know for sure is that floor nursing is NOT for me. It's not beneath me, but I'm not good at it.. can't do it.. don't wanna do it. I have two offered options: OR internship (circulator), and working in a laser hair removal facility doing the laser hair removal. Which one would you pick? Pros and cons? Thanks!

Remember everybody ...you are all hopefully adults with bills to pay. Nursing is not the stuff of "little girl dreams". Nursing is a job that you do to get paid so that you can afford to live your life. If you end up loving it, then great. Please don't let your mind go nutty and believe you are any different than the next guy who went to college and goes to work each day. You are no more deserving to be a nurse than the next guy. If you have all sorts of dreams of "helping people", etc, etc. and believe it's a "calling", then pack your bags and go to Africa, or Haiti, or Japan, or the like and serve as a nurse for free, then we'll all know you are not just "all talk".

And yes there ARE those that are not just all talk, and DO walk the walk. Not many though.

Growing up, I always had dreams of joining the Peace Corps. I currently support two children in a mission that is close to my heart. One child is in Bolivia, the other in India. One day I hope to be able to volunteer in some capacity on a mission. I think that would be rewarding and fun! Whether or not that is feasibly possible is another thing. But I feel good that I help those kiddos out in some way.

But you are right, nurses need to get paid just as with any other occupation. Most people go into a line of work with salary as at least somewhat part of the deciding factor, especially when you have a family to support!

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Wow, what an insensitive comment. Makes sense though. I was curious if you were a troll so I read back through some of your posts. You are just offended that nobody on this site thinks YOU should become a nurse! You are an x-ray tech thinking of going back to school to become a nurse only for the MONEY and admitted you have no people skills. At least I know that I went into nursing for the right reasons and I care about people. I only mentioned the other job making more money because sometimes that is a deciding factor, especially when you are the sole bread winner for your family. But numbers bore me. Maybe you should go into accounting.

are you kidding???? Im GLAD im not a nurse. OFFENDED??? Are you joking? Im very grateful i never became a nurse now. Read my posts? I think i have a total of 15. Im glad your easter sunday was entertained by my posts. If you are so thin skinned to jump to conclusions and being offended then um..... yeah go be an accountant lol

As far as bein a breadwinner, this is my point exactly. Regardless of how rewarding and warm and fuzzy you feel, when you have a mortgage, car payments, kids in college, etc MONEY DOES matter.

I also went back to all my wonderful posts you read....... from 2008 lol..... good one. 3 years later almost to the day and im GLAD i did (or did not do) what i did.

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Specializes in Home Health.

Hopfrogger, I wondered what you ended up doing? I am in the same position as you- new grad who is not sure about working in a hospital setting and I have potential offer for a laser hair removal place. There are not many new grad opportunities and the laser place seems like a nice environment. I wondered if you had any feedback?

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Hopfrogger - I am curious what you ended up doing too. I too am in a similar situation. I graduated, but ended up staying in the job I was currently in for almost 2 years as a pharm tech. I decided this summer I wanted/needed to get into the nursing profession. All through college I absolutely knew I didn't want to be a floor nurse, but unfortunately that was all I could get. I took a position on a med-surge floor, but I dread going every to work everyday. I work nights and have up to 9 patients to take care of. I love working with the patient's, but dislike that I have no time to spend with the patients and I'm stressed out every night. I have cried almost every day and have so much anxiety. I am now deciding whether to quit and see if I can get a different job, or if I should just change my career all together. I would love to stay in nursing, as I enjoy working with patients, I am very caring, and have worked hard to get my degree, but I know floor nursing isn't for me.

I could use any advise right now.

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Follow your heart !!!!!!!!

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Well to be completely honest, I am a new grad with embarrassingly a month of hospital nursing experience. It was a med-surg cardiac floor and I was completely panic-stricken, overwhelmed, depressed... you name it. I had anxiety at clinicals in school and knew that I had to find a different special little pocket in this field because med-surg was not going to be it. People say give it a year. Well, I know ME and I suffer from anxiety anyway and I just knew from that moment forward that I didn't have what it takes to be a floor nurse. Just don't. I'm a great listener, counselor, problem solver.. even thought about going into psych nursing at one point. But OR nursing appealed to me because of the one patient at a time aspect... I know its stressful as well but a different kind I think. The laser hair removal appeals to me because I know it would be less stress, more money.. but would it look as good on a resume?

Lasar hair removal doesn't necessarily require a nurse. If you're going to continue on in nursing, you need some sort of nursing experience, as soon as you can ;) Being overwhelmed is absolutely normal....but if you like OR, and have the opportunity, what the heck? :up:

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Specializes in Education.
I dunno. Seen circulating and don't want to do that. Very mundane as your job is a computer checkout one. Really, what would circulating lead to... circulating. If you went the other route, and worked well with a plastics guy/gal at some point, got famliar with more procedures, got your esthetician stuff, you could make some $. Sure not what you thought nursing would be, but neither is circulating (and neither is nursing in general).

Circulating is far from mundane! And we do way more than computer paperwork! I learn something new everyday, continually learning new technology. We have lots of hands on patient care, "nursing stuff", like inserting Foley's, safely positioning patients, pre-op teaching, medications, dealing with families. And circulating doesn't just lead to circulating, there are plenty of ways to move up in the O.R. Or, it can be valuable experience to move into another field of nursing.

That being said, for original poster, if you have an opportunity to do the O.R. internship, I say go for it, it will be a great learning experience.

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Specializes in Education.
Most jobs I have seen, whether in home health or other places, have required one year acute care experience. I would imagine most places want nurses to have at least a year in the hospital to get their skills down. If OR appeals to you I would go with the internship, but it is very hard on your body to stand in one place for so long if you are going to be assisting with surgeries so just be prepared for that. Good luck to you!

In most hospitals the Surgical Tech assist with the surgery. The Circulator circulates the room, charts, gathers equipment, positions the patient, opens supplies to the sterile field and much more, so there is not really any standing in one place.

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Specializes in med/surg tele, postpartum, mother baby.

I've been a floor nurse for years and I'm still not good at it! JK :p

Only you can decide which to pick, they are two very different jobs... I would think the laser job would be less stressful than OR, and OR usually requires you to be on call, lots of things to consider. I do know there are a LOT of people who would LOVE to get into an OR position, myself included. It all depends on where you ultimately want to end up.

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