How to answer the question "Do I want to be a nurse?"

I am currently a third semester (out of 4) BSN student. I have gone through a period this semester where I questioned whether or not I was making the right choice. Once I sat and thought about it, it was the school stuff (instructors, busy work, homework, etc.) that was getting to me. I really love the hospital part and that's whats keeping me in.

So I guess I have to ask, is school making you question your decision or is it nursing in general?

-HSN

Definitely school stuff has a large influence in how I'm feeling...but I don't know if that's all or not.

I switched from teaching to nursing. After NCLB came into the educational arena, teaching became mostly busy work and teaching to the state test. In high school, many students do not want to be there and the hope I had of "inspiring young minds to stretch themselves and reach new heights in learning" were way off base from the reality of teaching. In reality, you have two-three students per class that really want to be there and don't give a good gosh darn about learning and doing well in your class. Then you have about 2-3 that don't care one way or the other whether they come or not and if they do come they won't bring books and certainly won't participate. They are usually too busy talking or acting out to be bothered with what is going on in the classroom. If you can get them to calm themselves and let you teach, it is a good day. The other 14-20 students fall somewhere in the middle. Some try intermittently, some try but just don't get it, some try in class, but won't do their homework...it's a big mish mash of what you will get from year to year. And throughout it all is the pressure hanging over your head that somehow you have to make sure these hormonally challenged, distracted, and apathetic children/teens get enough of the content drilled into their heads that they can pass the standardized test the state gives to measure whether or not they are making adequate yearly progress. And guess what? If you have a large number of students who aren't making sufficient progress, you lose your job. And now they are starting to tie tenure to whether or not you can get the kids to pay attention enough to pass the tests.

That is fine, I am all for holding teachers accountable and making sure that they are doing their job. The only problem is that they get little help from the state, administration or parents. And if you live in an area that has a history of lower socioeconomic statuses then the kids most likely started school behind to begin with. And the state is not willing, in many cases, to put into place adequate head start programs to give these behind 5yr olds the background needed to be prepared for first grade. Then you start a vicious cycle of constantly being behind and it just continues from year to year, widening the gap between what is expected and what they actually can or will do.

I don't mean to rag on teaching, it's just that I really had this dream of making a difference. And perhaps if I had given it more time, I could have learned how to make a difference within the system I found myself. However, there are many negative things to teaching, as with any career.

I think the previous poster was right in asking you to identify just what you are unhappy with concerning nursing school. Is it just the requirements of actually being a student, or is it the actual act of delivering patient care? I think if you can answer that question, you will be well on your way to making your decision.

And if you do decide to go into teaching--great. I hope you enjoy it and I'm sure you will do well at it--especially if you are on the ball enough to do well in nursing school. Just a word of caution: go into with your eyes open, recognizing that there are drawbacks. Be ready to work the system and think of it as triage...take the students as you find them and help the ones that want your help. That's where you can really make a difference.

Candis Renee

The biggest part of what draws me to each of the fields is that it is going into and assessing the needs of a population then doing something about it. I'm all about helping people and always have been, and I can't imagine myself outside of a helping profession.

I loved my nursing clinicals. I hated the bookwork that went with them, but the actual time on the floors? Loved it. It proved to me that I don't want to be a floor nurse, but there's so much to learn and do on a med/surg floor that for clinicals I wa fine. The biggest problem is that I had a hard time imagining myself as a nurse. I don't know how else to explain it, so I'll just leave it at that.

There's a big part of me that says I want to be a nurse because no way would I have done so well doing something I shouldn't. I'm one of those people where you can tell if I like something or not by how much effort I put into it...and you don't get Bs and higher in nursing school if you aren't putting forth A LOT of effort!