I got what everyone wanted and now, I'm unsure that "I" want it.

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I got into Nursing school today. I honestly never expected to get in.

I started college with no direction, never knowing what I wanted to 'do'. I tried to give myself some direction by picking something 'practical', 'challenging' and 'competitive'. I picked Nursing. As it turned out...I found my love for science while taking my nursing pre-req's, which was great.

I got into the program at my current community college so this would be for a 2 year ADN (although I already have enough credits for an associates in general studies). I would only need to take nursing courses and have done all co-req's.

I figured I wouldn't get in, I 'winged' my TEAs because I was so busy this semester, and somehow by the grace of god did phenomenal on it anyway.

I had applied also to the 4 year school I always wanted to go to as a back up school for an entirely different major- Natural Resource Conservation. I got into that and have been in the mind set that I would go there, b/c i would not get into the 'competitive' nursing program. I have been looking up classes, visited the campus for 3 days, and have been e-mailing potential roommates ever since. As of today my world has changed. Did I ever really want to be a nurse?

How do you know you want to be a nurse when you've never been one? I've never been a CNA even. I am a delicate person, and from reading these forums I'm starting to think I don't have the rough and tough attitude to deal with catty nurses, rude patients, death, emergency situations, feces, vomit and mucous daily. Not to say that I am squeemish at all but these are things I'm not sure I'd be able to deal with for years upon years.

Another thing is that I have a rare sleeping disorder which basically makes me a night person. This is one of those rare, well paid career situations where I could most certainly find a job working nights. Whereas, ecology and resource conservation is more of a day-job thing. Even if I switched my major to a more lab-focused science, it seems that those are also mainly day jobs.

I have also too heard about how the nursing shortage is a lie, how what is promised about job opportunity after graduation is really quite far from the reality. However, this may be, there are really very few jobs in any career field at this time. But at least there is a permanent need for nurses, and I can't say the same for science. Science loses plenty of funding the second a republican president steps into office especially 'green' careers. The other thing is that, as much as there may not be a 'shortage' there is still a higher employment rate for nursing than there is for many other careers and majors in college.

I feel guilty almost. Because I know many of the students I've been conversing with on this forum really wanted to get into the program more than anything. And here I am, almost annoyed that I got in because now I have to make a decision that I didn't think I'd have to make. Everyone in my family is trying to pull me in different directions. My parents want me to go to the 4 year school and so does my boyfriend and my best friend. My LPN aunt tells me horror stories about new graduates at her work place, how they don't get jobs..etc. She also wants me to go to the 4 year school. The rest of my friends/family think I should go onto nursing. That it would accommodate my 'disability' well (i also got into the evening program), it is a respectable field, would help me pay off my loans (i owe a lot already...don't even ask how!), and there is more job security in this field than a lot of other choices.

For me, going to nursing school would make me feel really good about myself I think. To be able to say I'm training to be an RN while everyone is still so disillusioned about the fact that it doesn't have as many job openings as the media acts like it does. I feel like I could definitely handle the course work, its just the real world I'm worried about quite frankly. The nursing students are the most respected group in the college I've looked at them in awe sometimes. I've also stared dreamily looking into the brand new clinical class rooms, with their robot patients thinking how I would love to 'play' with them.

But also, going to nursing school means staying with my current college for two years. A college that I honestly, do not really like. It is very unorganized and frustrating, it is also very racially and ethnically segregated. I have not made any friends in the 4 years I have been there. But I do realize that being in the nursing 'group' is like being part of something else entirely, I will be with a small group of about 29 students for 2 years and am bound to make friends. It also means I will be giving up on having a traditional 'college experience', which was a big factor in choosing to apply to the 4 year school I wanted to go to. I wanted to finally be able to have what all my friends had right out of high school, but that I never got. But at the same time...I already may be too old for that. There was just something that drew me to the idea of so many different opportunities and things to get involved in on a new campus, with 30,000+ other people that don't yet know you. I had hoped going to a big college like this, two hours away from all of my friends and family would give me the ability to challenge myself in a new surrounding. To learn to be more social and independent, and emotionally mature...as I feel like I am currently a pretty co-dependent person. It would also allow me to really cut out and distance myself from a lot of the negative people in my life, especially in my family. Whereas if I did nursing, it seems I would have to live mostly at home again which is really not necessarily a healthy in environment.

I'm 24 years old and still can't decide what path to take.

I am really just at the point where I have no idea what is the best decision for me...and although I know this is very long I would appreciate any advice since I can't seem to think for myself or convey these feelings to the other people in my life--who all seem to have their own motives.

Thank you.

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Mallory

I am not going to sugar coat it.. it is hard.. I am in a 2year program .. back to school again after a long absence .. I should be sleeping right now but something pulled me to this site tonight and in particular your post.. I TOTALLY GET WHAT YOU ARE SAYING!.. not caps for shouting but for emphasis.. i am barely passing this semester.. but I will press on..

YOU CAN DO THIS!!! I say this for your benefit as well as my own and anyone who may read this

We have got to stick together..

if I can be of any help, support feel free to look me up here.. I gotta get some sleep for clinical tomorrow

He who called you will see you through to the end.. you are more than a conqueror!

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You need to do what's in your heart. If you're annoyed by the fact that you were accepted into nursing school maybe it's not for you. You can't let your friends and family make the choice for you. Where do you want to be in 10 years?

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Specializes in School Nursing.

I know how you feel. I was pretty convinced that I wouldn't be accepted into nursing school either, and I had picked (and was excited about) laboratory sciences (a 4 year degree too) as my back up. I loved microbiology- and that seemed like a natural extension of that without a decade of school to become an actual microbiologist. When I got accepted into NS (mine a 4 year program, but like you, first 2 years out of the way) I was shocked. I was so excited to be accepted but I also had the lab sciences in my head and had really become excited about that path. Needless to say, I accepted the nursing school offer and am about to finish my first semester. I'll tell you, there were LOTS of times when I daydreamed about running away and doing my other 'path'.. heck, even now it's there, but once I got into clinical I really started enjoying this path and my resolve to become a nurse got stronger.

If I had to guess what route you are going to take from your post, I'd say you've already made up your mind to go the 'Green' route.. that seems to me to be where your heart is. I think it's as respectable a career as nursing... you're trying to preserve the planet for future generations... that's amazing! I'm not sure what the job market is for that right now- but if that's what's in your heart, go for it!

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Specializes in Infectious Disease, Neuro, Research.

I see a few key points you mention. "The college experience", frankly, is first grade for people over 18. I'm not sure exactly what that phrase encompasses for you, personally, but in general terms, it isn't anything positive on Erickson's Stages.;)

If you search carefully, you could make a very rewarding, reasonably compensating career as an RN in the Wildlife/Resource Mgmt. area.

Search "Wilderness Medical" in your region, call your local Sheriff's Dept., check with your local branch of the Forest Service, and see what opportunities are available for RNs.

NRC can be a good field- assuming you start with a BS. Without that, advancement and real responsibility will be very limited in the Federal system.

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@ justbreathe

the thing is..I'm not annoyed that i got in per-say... its more like i'm annoyed that i have to choose between two things i wanted. i figured if i did not get in, yes i would have been sad, but at least my decision would've been made for me and it would've been 'out of my control'. basically, i wanted fate to chose me not to chose my own fate...as pathetic as that sounds

@ Rob

lol erickson's stages. i'm probably stuck in stage 5....as i clearly have no idea who i am!

basically when i say 'college experience' i just mean i want to be around other people around my age --being in a specified major (so a lot of the same interests) with the same sort of lifestyle going on. i am unmarried, childless, 24 and do not want to or have to work f/t to support a family while i am in school. i'm kind of looking to be around and make friends with people at similar places in their lives. i know at a community college yes if i am in the nursing program i am bound to fit a few close friends in a group of 30 people that are together for 2 years. but at the same time, its not like the socioeconomic dynamic of the college will have changed. a lot of people who go to community colleges, esp those that do night programs work a 9-5 job f/t, could be married, or have kids and be over 30. this is just the way it kind of is at community college, its purpose is to make education accessible to someone who isn't a 'traditional' college student.

i am in a sense a traditional college student ---i.e this is my job...to go to school and to get good grades. its very difficult to start new friendships with people who have opposite lifestyles. i barely see my existing friends who are married or have kids, because they are in different points of their lives...you see what i mean?

anyway thanks everyone for responding! i really appreciate it! i applaud you for even reading all that!

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First off if you don't want to be an RN, then don't. But not beacues people tell you to be or not to be a nurse, but because you don't want to. If caring for other people is what you want to do, then become an RN. However, before you make a desition as your self the real reason you had been drawn to this profession, do you genually care for people or was it the pay check. If its the pay check then this might not be the right profession for you. My sugestion is to at least go the first semester to NS and try it out for a while, in clinicals you will get a better feel what nursing is all about. Sure there are a lot of bodly fluids involved and not every paitent is a saint, but if you really care about people what your patients give you will be more then what you will ever get from a pay check. And if you don't like it, then go to the 4 year school.

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You could start the nursing program, do a semester, and see if it really is for you? Defer your admittance into the other program until then? I like Rob72's idea about incorporating both fields. Nursing really does have so many different avenues besides bedside nursing.

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Specializes in Med/Surg.

I wish there were a chat/IM option on this thing, I'd love to talk to you real-time because there is so much that you wrote that resonates with me - change some details and I could have written a lot of what you did back in the day. I'm on the other end. After graduating top of my 4-year nursing class and working as a nurse for 1.5 years, I hate most of it. Yeah there are perks, but my heart isn't in it, and in many ways I think I picked the wrong field, but now I'm trapped because nothing else I do can pay my loans and support my family until my husband finishes his degree and gets going in his field. I have no doubts that you can do the coursework, I was a great student and despite the challenging times I got all A's in my program. It's not a matter of can you do it, but a question of whether your heart is in it, and from the sounds of it, it isn't. Don't sell yourself short.

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I got into Nursing school today. I honestly never expected to get in. I started college with no direction, never knowing what I wanted to 'do'. I tried to give myself some direction by picking something 'practical', 'challenging' and 'competitive'. I picked Nursing. As it turned out...I found my love for science while taking my nursing pre-req's, which was great. I got into the program at my current community college so this would be for a 2 year ADN (although I already have enough credits for an associates in general studies). I would only need to take nursing courses and have done all co-req's. I figured I wouldn't get in, I 'winged' my TEAs because I was so busy this semester, and somehow by the grace of god did phenomenal on it anyway. I had applied also to the 4 year school I always wanted to go to as a back up school for an entirely different major- Natural Resource Conservation. I got into that and have been in the mind set that I would go there, b/c i would not get into the 'competitive' nursing program. I have been looking up classes, visited the campus for 3 days, and have been e-mailing potential roommates ever since. As of today my world has changed. Did I ever really want to be a nurse? How do you know you want to be a nurse when you've never been one? I've never been a CNA even. I am a delicate person, and from reading these forums I'm starting to think I don't have the rough and tough attitude to deal with catty nurses, rude patients, death, emergency situations, feces, vomit and mucous daily. Not to say that I am squeemish at all but these are things I'm not sure I'd be able to deal with for years upon years. Another thing is that I have a rare sleeping disorder which basically makes me a night person. This is one of those rare, well paid career situations where I could most certainly find a job working nights. Whereas, ecology and resource conservation is more of a day-job thing. Even if I switched my major to a more lab-focused science, it seems that those are also mainly day jobs. I have also too heard about how the nursing shortage is a lie, how what is promised about job opportunity after graduation is really quite far from the reality. However, this may be, there are really very few jobs in any career field at this time. But at least there is a permanent need for nurses, and I can't say the same for science. Science loses plenty of funding the second a republican president steps into office especially 'green' careers. The other thing is that, as much as there may not be a 'shortage' there is still a higher employment rate for nursing than there is for many other careers and majors in college. I feel guilty almost. Because I know many of the students I've been conversing with on this forum really wanted to get into the program more than anything. And here I am, almost annoyed that I got in because now I have to make a decision that I didn't think I'd have to make. Everyone in my family is trying to pull me in different directions. My parents want me to go to the 4 year school and so does my boyfriend and my best friend. My LPN aunt tells me horror stories about new graduates at her work place, how they don't get jobs..etc. She also wants me to go to the 4 year school. The rest of my friends/family think I should go onto nursing. That it would accommodate my 'disability' well (i also got into the evening program), it is a respectable field, would help me pay off my loans (i owe a lot already...don't even ask how!), and there is more job security in this field than a lot of other choices. For me, going to nursing school would make me feel really good about myself I think. To be able to say I'm training to be an RN while everyone is still so disillusioned about the fact that it doesn't have as many job openings as the media acts like it does. I feel like I could definitely handle the course work, its just the real world I'm worried about quite frankly. The nursing students are the most respected group in the college I've looked at them in awe sometimes. I've also stared dreamily looking into the brand new clinical class rooms, with their robot patients thinking how I would love to 'play' with them. But also, going to nursing school means staying with my current college for two years. A college that I honestly, do not really like. It is very unorganized and frustrating, it is also very racially and ethnically segregated. I have not made any friends in the 4 years I have been there. But I do realize that being in the nursing 'group' is like being part of something else entirely, I will be with a small group of about 29 students for 2 years and am bound to make friends. It also means I will be giving up on having a traditional 'college experience', which was a big factor in choosing to apply to the 4 year school I wanted to go to. I wanted to finally be able to have what all my friends had right out of high school, but that I never got. But at the same time...I already may be too old for that. There was just something that drew me to the idea of so many different opportunities and things to get involved in on a new campus, with 30,000+ other people that don't yet know you. I had hoped going to a big college like this, two hours away from all of my friends and family would give me the ability to challenge myself in a new surrounding. To learn to be more social and independent, and emotionally mature...as I feel like I am currently a pretty co-dependent person. It would also allow me to really cut out and distance myself from a lot of the negative people in my life, especially in my family. Whereas if I did nursing, it seems I would have to live mostly at home again which is really not necessarily a healthy in environment. I'm 24 years old and still can't decide what path to take. I am really just at the point where I have no idea what is the best decision for me...and although I know this is very long I would appreciate any advice since I can't seem to think for myself or convey these feelings to the other people in my life--who all seem to have their own motives. Thank you.
All I can say is don't go to nursing school if you don't want to be a nurse and never had the dream or desire and even passion for it. I've always wanted to be a nurse, I'm currently a LPN going to apply to RN program in Jan. Don't go in this field for the money because you will regret it for the rest of your life! I assure you you will wake up hating to go to work and your attitude and feelings will reflect on your work and especially your patients. I suggest you really think it through. Do what you have a passion for and nothing else. Best wishes and it would be nice if you let us know what you decided.?
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I did an excellerated LPN program 9 months of pretty much just school. Luckily it was a very good school that had high standards you had to get an 84% in each class or you couldn't go on. Very intense. There were 18 in our class. We lost one person due to family issues, one failed out the first semester and we lost 4 more during our second semester. It is a lot of focus. However, of the 13 of us that graduated in January 11 have taken boards and 10 passed first try while I don't know what the last one is waiting for. In either case it is April and 9 of us have jobs already. I think that is pretty good. I will be doing the bridge to my RN, the reason I didn't do it to start out with was two fold. One I wasn't sure I could do it, and two I wanted to start working. I live in North East Ohio. I think you have to realize that you may not get your dream job to start with, it most likely won't happen at first. Learn as much as you can. You will never like poop or body fluids (if you do you need to see someone about that :)) But I will tell you I am so glad I worked hard and look forward to all the experiences I can get. I do hear nurses eat their young, so far so good for me. If you want to do it....go for it ..... I waited a long time to pursue my dream.

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I don't really have any advice for you, because I am going through the exact same thing. I am currently in a nursing program, finishing up my first semester. I had many reasons for going into nursing, of which the paycheck did pay a part and still does. My main problem is that I LOVE making a difference, at clinicals it has made me so happy to help the residents, but I dont like anything about the science of nursing at all. I make solid Bs, so the course work isnt hard, but I dont like the nursing process, just the results. I'm terrified that wont be enough, and that to be happy and successful in the field I should at least enjoy some of the tasks. Finish my finals next wee, and taking summer to decide.

I think the best thing you can do is try to get some experience, shadow a nurse, or even start the program for a semester. Maybe you'll be left questioning, or maybe you'll know if it is or isnt for you. Seems like it would be worse not to explore it and be left wondering.

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