Hello everyone, i am a 16 year old male interested in Nursing. I am currently doing my high schooling online, which allows me plenty free time to research careers and what not that i may be interested in doing after high school. I was interested in Neurosurgery for quite a bit, but felt as though i was more into it for the money and not the job itself. Plus, have you SEEN how much debt medical school students end up in? No thanks LOL. I would like to go to college for Nursing because i feel the job will suit me better. More time spent with patients, flexible schedule, the benefits of travel nursing, as well as good pay. I would much rather spend 2-4 years in college learning to do a job i'll enjoy and still get paid well, then go to school for 14 years, doing a job i only got into for the money, as well as ending up in tons of student debt. Also i have a question. How flexible is the nursing schedule exactly? Is it true that you can work three 12 hour shifts a week or are you always on call? I love the idea of over time as well. If i felt the need to work more, that option is always there for me. Also Nurses have more flexible specialties and what not. Do you love your job? What is your work schedule like? If you could go back in time and become a doctor, would you?
I don't want to become a Nurse and be treated differently and feel like I'm at the bottom of the barrel and what not because I'm not an MD or something lol.
I am also interested in perhaps shadowing a nurse during the summer, so i can get more of a feel of what goes on and what not. I feel like it'll really benefit me.
Please do your best to expose my young mind to the career of Nursing as much as possible, It will really help me with deciding my career after these two years of high school are up, although I'm still pretty set on nursing.
Thank you for your time (:
P.S. i know i still have plenty of time to decide my career but i see no harm in researching what career i want to do after high school, and learning as much about it as i can now, then in two years. I like to know what i want to do right off the bat, instead of winging things. Plus, since i'm doing high school online, i have plenty of time to conduct research. I would just like to hear from the Nurses themselves. Thank you, i hope to be a Nurse one day!
Nursing school. Would i go there for 2-4 years instead of college or something? How does Nursing school differ from regular college? I realize that i could find these answers out by searching google, but their answers are usually not always very clear and leave me wondering more.
"Nursing school" is college. It is just a declared major. You can go to a 2 year college and achieve an associates degree in nursing, or go to a 4 year college and get a bachelors degree in nursing. Both take the same licensing exam, but my recommendation is to get a bachelors degree. You will likely be required to get a bachelors at some point any way (as you can see by my credentials- that's what I had to do as well). Both types of degrees have competitive programs that will require you to have good grades in high school, and good scores on required testing for applications.
Thank you. I had no idea being a CNA at 16 was possible. I'll certainly look into doing it once summer starts, and hopefully get to continue doing it even when school starts back up. I need as much exposure as possible lol.
There can be days where it's rough being a nurse, low staff, high number of patients...there can be days where there are angry patients...but, the alternate is true as well, there are days that are great, you help a certain patient and it reminds you why you are doing this job. With that said, there are ups and downs, pros/cons in any career field, find the one the makes you happy. I don't think I've ever felt like I was quite at the bottom of the barrel, but I work in the emergency department and each area can be different.
As for scheduling, working 12hr shifts are nice, 3 days a week, with 4 days off. Allows you to pick up a day and still have days off vs. working 8's and picking up a day and only having one day off.
As another commented nursing school is competitive, grades and placement tests are looked at as you enter college and the classes you are initially enrolled in. Getting the basics sciences down as a foundation will help you as you progress. Additionally nursing school is no joke, I have had friends who were rolled back because they didn't spend enough time studying, and thats can put them 6 months behind anticipated grad date. Stay dedicated, make a plan and follow it and you'll be fine.
I have done a variety of other "jobs" before I found myself in this career and haven't regretted it. Research what classes you need for pre-reqs for the program your potentially looking at, most are similar, and go for it.
Thank you. I had no idea being a CNA at 16 was possible. I'll certainly look into doing it once summer starts, and hopefully get to continue doing it even when school starts back up. I need as much exposure as possible lol.
You will need to check at what age you can legally work as a CNA in your state.
Says i need to be 18. But other links say i can get my license at 16 but certain employers may not hire until i'm 16.
I guess it just depends. All though, i'll be perfectly fine with doing some basic job like Mcdonald's or something until I'm 18, then jump on over to doing CNA and college lol
I will write this from a perspective of what I would have wished my 16 year old self knew when I was still trying to figure out my life. I'm 30 and just finishing nursing school in a few very short months. I have a BA in psychology because of many stupid reasons, mainly I thought I wanted to be a sex therapist, then an O/I psychologist, then this, then that, then blah blah blah. I always wanted to get into medicine. I thought being a doctor would be a great thing for me. But, I lacked the ability to network, to find people to shadow and to really figure out how I could even make such a thing a reality for me. It sounds like you are more than capable of making use of these resources, however.
You have a great sense of life direction -- that is certain. You understand that it is important to be happy in your job but I think a lot of the things you are looking at are a superficial understanding of nursing. A 3-day a week work schedule means nothing. You are still practically on the hook for 5 days. The day before you start working, you're having to be careful to be ready to work the next day. The day after, you're recovering from your day. If you don't work 3 days in a row (few people do because it is generally brutal), then you are losing even more time. You like working with people. People are generally jerks who don't want to do right for themselves. It can cause someone to become very cynical if they aren't prepared to deal with people coming at you in all different negative directions. Then there are the myriad of things that will get in the way of doing a decent job. These things will eventually reveal themselves to you when you actually start working - no amount of job shadowing or clinical could adequately prepare you for the experience.
All in all, though to you it may not sound like it, I love nursing. I am lucky to be in a place that I love and working with the best patient population anyone could ask for. But, these are things that worked themselves out. No amount of planning and preparation could have made any of this possible. It was just a life path and the right choices at the right time (no matter how terrifying they were) that put me here and I couldn't be more grateful or satisfied. But, the things you think are great about nursing are not the reason why I am grateful or satisfied. I love nursing because of the actual work - the hard stuff, the easy stuff, the weird stuff, the horrible, soul-crushing stuff, all of it.
Do I wish I had pressed on and worked at becoming a doctor? Some days yes, some days no. If I had known at 16 what I know now, I would have kept pushing for it (there are ways of dealing with debt, there are ways of dealing with working 36-hour shifts, there are ways of getting through the hardest times of medical school). My brain just works better that way and nursing has taken me to the extreme ends outside of my comfort zone. But, I am good where I am at and that's what matters.
Thank you for your reply! I have many reasons for wanting to go into nursing, my main reason isn't necessarily the three days a week, flexible work schedule. As i said above, knowing myself, i would most likely end up doing tons of over time anyway just because nursing seems like a job i will really enjoy. I like to keep myself busy. I've also wanted to be a therapist at one point but ended up changing my mind because it didn't seem like an occupation I'd really enjoy. It was as if there wasn't much to therapy but sitting and helping people solve their problems all day. Nursing is a much more hands on type of job, a perfect fit for me because I'll get to be on my toes a lot, work in different departments such as ICU, or pediatrics, or ER, there's just so many more aspects to nursing that I enjoy. If it's a job i love, i wouldn't care what my work schedule looked like. I really appreciate your reply, thanks for explaining all of this to me (: I love to learn and have already learned so much today since joining this wonderful site. My next question is. Where do i go from here? How do i, a home schooled kid, learn more about the nursing career. Like where should i start with my research? I was thinking about ordering some nursing books and reading them, but i don't want to make any rash decisions. I just do not know where to start with all of this. I most likely won't be able to shadow any nurses until summer, if even that. I may just be working a basic job like McDonald's or something lol. So i would like to start furthering my knowledge here on out, so i can already know quite a bit about nursing once i finish high school and wont be ignorant to the whole career. Let's just say... I'm making it easier on my future self haha (:
Sounds like a job i would really love! Working three days a week, flexible schedule, paid well, dealing with people on a daily basis and helping them. I'm pretty sure nursing is the career for me lol
You typically most work every other weekend as a nurse, also holidays. Many novice nurses must work the less desirable shifts, like nights.
Plan on spending at least a couple of years in MedSurg once you become a nurse. You might get those 12-hour day shifts, 3 times/week, but maybe that won't be available. Very likely, you will have to start out on nights. Figure on working at least some weekends, and half the holidays. People need nurses then, too.
Who knows? You might find that you like nights. When I worked nights in the hospital, my favorite time was the middle of the shift, around 2-3am. That's when frightened patients who couldn't sleep wanted to talk. They usually just needed someone to listen, but I did a fair amount of teaching, too.
After those first couple of years, cementing your knowledge and adding to it, then you can think about specializing.
What I'm saying is, don't expect lots of flexibility and specializing at first.
You may want to see what your states minimum age is for EMT training. EMT basic is a good light A&P course and teaches some good assessments. If you volunteer with a service than you will get practice taking about a million vitals and a good preceptor can help you grip the most common disease processes you will see. It was great experience for me, and I still work as an EMT from time to time for fun.
Specializes in Family Medicine, Tele/Cardiac, Camp.
You may want to see what your states minimum age is for EMT training. EMT basic is a good light A&P course and teaches some good assessments. If you volunteer with a service than you will get practice taking about a million vitals and a good preceptor can help you grip the most common disease processes you will see. It was great experience for me, and I still work as an EMT from time to time for fun.
I 2nd this. I was older than you, but before I went to nursing school I became an EMT and also worked at an emergency call center. I also spent a few summers volunteering for music festival's medical services. They were great experiences and certainly looked good a resume when I was trying to get into nursing school and get my first nursing job.
There are lots of good ways you can get some medical experience while you are still 16.
Best of luck to you. I get that you don't want to wade through the 100's of pages of other similar stories (and I don't blame you) but just pick a couple. There are MANY asipring nurses who come onto this forum and ask the same questions as you. I'm sure you'll get a lot more answers from a lot more people if you do some digging. :) Have fun.
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Rhody34
128 Posts
"Nursing school" is college. It is just a declared major. You can go to a 2 year college and achieve an associates degree in nursing, or go to a 4 year college and get a bachelors degree in nursing. Both take the same licensing exam, but my recommendation is to get a bachelors degree. You will likely be required to get a bachelors at some point any way (as you can see by my credentials- that's what I had to do as well). Both types of degrees have competitive programs that will require you to have good grades in high school, and good scores on required testing for applications.