I am 26 and have a degree in English Lit. and have been thinking about going back to school for psychology. For some reason I can't shake the idea of going to nursing school. I talked myself out of it while I was an undergrad, because I am absolutely terrible at math. I have really severe math anxiety, I have only ever found one teacher that could make any kind of math make sense to me, which was my geometry teacher in high school. The one and only time I took anything resembling chemistry was, again, in high school. It was freshman year, and called "Physical Science" but it had a very heavy chemistry base, I did terrible in that class and barely passed. To be perfectly honest I never really applied myself in any of my science based courses in high school or college, just because I did well in English and it was easy for me so I tended to not really worry about science. In all my science classes in college I got at least a C as a cumulative grade without trying very hard. I was the person who studied REALLY hard two days before a test to pull in a C. I have a cousin who is an L&D nurse, when I told her I was terrible at math she waved off that idea and told me you don't use much math as a nurse. Which I don't think is true, since nurses have to do med. calculation. I am trying to be really honest with myself about my abilities. I think if I applied myself I could get As and Bs in A&P, Chem and Micro. as for med. calc, I don't know. I don't want to be the nurse that scraped by. I really don't want to be the person who makes a fatal medical mistake because I calculated a patients dosage incorrectly. That is my MAIN fear. I have been lurking around the internet looking for peoples perspectives on their nursing careers and realize, of course, that I don't have to work in med-surg but will likely have to start out there or more likely a nursing home. I think I would really like to be a psychiatric nurse, but that seems like a speciality that likely wouldn't be available to a new nurse. I also have tried to be honest about what nursing entails, ie I realize bodily fluid and body parts will be part of the job. I am not squeamish when it comes to blood, vomit, urine, bowel movements, wounds etc. I actually watch when people draw my blood. I have also worked in childcare for a number of years and have already been vomited, peed, pooped and snotted on. I'm not really sure what I am looking for here, honest opinions I guess. If its your inclination to say "hey maybe nursing is not for you" please do so. Like I said the main thing that is holding me back is the math issue, I don't want to be a nurse who barely passed something and risk injuring a patient. I am also very empathetic person, to the point that it may actually be a problem for me. For instance if I worked in hospice I don't think I could handle watching people die every other day and watching their relatives grieve. I think nurses who can do that are great, I think I would have a break down after even a month of it. As for why I want to be a nurse I do really want to help people, I also want to challenge myself for me it would a career not just a job and a paycheck. I think if I were just in it for the money I would burn out quickly. I realize I am nuts, no need to point it out. Any constructive comments/opinions would be greatly appreciated. Sorry for the obnoxiously long post.
