I think Nursing is not for me :( :( :(

[Ooji]

Hi, i need advice, please, or suggestions or just an ear to 'listen' maybe. I'm so lost. I finish in 5 more courses (mainly clinical placements) but with my 2nd placement , I've realised that I made a decision based on my emotional and psychological side of my personality when I decided to study Nursing( for example, I only considered my love for helping others, my compassion, and how I naturally care about helping and giving). Yet, I didn't really think of my own personal satisfaction in terms of career development and big achievements. I did not consider whether or not nursing is what I want to spend my life doing to feel satisfied with my education level and intellectualism level. It turned out I want something that challenges me harder. I love books and research and experimenting with new theories to validate new hypotheses...etc and this type of work that requires more intellectual skills than hands on skills. My GPA is really high, but then everyone talks about how grades mean nothing in real nursing practice. Well for sure grades do not make you a good or a bad nurse after all, which is very true. I believe Nursing is great and is the backbone of the health care system. Nurses deserve even much better than what they get. However, I'm not so much into this anymore. I already have a BS in Biology and was hoping to do post-grad and maybe PhD and become a professor or a researcher or both, but then I decided to study Nursing, and now when I'm almost there, I feel that it's not what I want to spend my life doing. Thank you for reading. Thanks beforehand for any help or suggestions. :)

[llg, PhD, RN]

If you have something else you would like to do (e.g. biology), then it's OK to do that. However, you still seem to care about nursing. Perhaps you should consider getting a PhD in nursing. You could do the type of work you love in support of the nursing discipline of nursing -- adding to its developing scholarship and helping it to further it's intellectual aspects. Be a leader of the profession and help it reach new heights. Join the ranks of nursing who do scholarly work rather than direct patient care.

[ORGANICS]

I agree with llg, the person who commented above.

I would say continue your nursing course and finish it since you are almost there :)

There are so many fields in nursing, it is so broad you could even be a private nurse and take care of your patient passionately and lovingly.

I think we need more people like you to actually love to care for patients. A few (not all) study nursing but with little passion and care for clients.

[la_chica_suerte85, BSN, RN]

You're nearly done and it still has not occured to you the kind of critical thinking skills required of you in order to practice safely and competently as a new grad?

That's great that you're smart and all. I am, too. I like research, I love biology, I love pathophysiology -- I'm a major nerd. I know that nursing actually will satisfy my desires to apply myself intellectually. I fully expect that my scientific leanings and my desire to serve others will merge completely and that the results are going to be so fulfilling. There are tons of things you can do as a nurse that require extremely high levels of intellectual ability and will lead to major achievements. But, you have to pay your dues to get the chance to get to these places. However, that intellectual curiosity and desire to achieve great things means you have the privilege to be an agent of change in evidence-based practice. There is SO much you can do.

Research a little bit about advanced practice nursing and what they get to do and how vast the field of research and how great the need is for people to do it and you'll see you're right where you should be. Or not, since you're at this point and have completely missed all the great things that nurses are capable of doing outside of compassionate bedside care.

Sorry if that's snarky, but seriously. SERIOUSLY. Humble brag, much?

[Ooji]

Thank you IIg. Your words are positive and inspirational.

[Ooji]

Thank you, aoriola. Your positive comments are giving me positive energy.

[Ooji]

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[pixiestudent2]

I know what you mean, I love nursing and I'm almost done. But my personality would probably be a more perfect fit for something like research.

You don't have to stop at being an RN. There are many advanced nursing degrees that will allow you to do research.. Like all those evidence based articles we have to site

You may also find your niche, I think I found mine is psychiatric nursing.

You might find something you absolutely love too, I say stick with it since you are almost done.

Good luck!

[Ooji]

Thank you, I feel much more motivated after seeing that others have similar thoughts too.

[IHeartPeds87]

Also, I must say there are lots of reasons to leave nursing but "wanting a challenge" and "wanting to use critically thinking" and "wanting to d something educated and intellectual" are actually reasons to stay, not reasons to leave!! In fact, I always found nursing challenging because not only do you have to have that knowledge you also have to have the ability to APPLY it and to use it for the better to help people....and keep it in mind when people are pulling you in ten million different directions!! Lots of reasons to leave nursing.....not challenging enough? Please give the profession time. It humbled me.

There are lots of different areas of nursing, and many different types of nurses.

[pixiestudent2]

I know what you mean, I love nursing and I'm almost done. But my personality would probably be a more perfect fit for something like research.

You don't have to stop at being an RN. There are many advanced nursing degrees that will allow you to do research.. Like all those evidence based articles we have to site

You may also find your niche, I think I found mine is psychiatric nursing.

You might find something you absolutely love too, I say stick with it since you are almost done.

Good luck!

It's too late to edit... But I meant to put cite... That made me cringe.

[JoseQuinones]

Based on what you have said, it seems to me you have most, if not all, of the prereqs to attend medical school. Did you ever consider being a hospitalist or a diagnostician? How about an ME? These fields involve intense intellectual work and seeing patterns in data, but not so much direct hands-on care.