If you could go back, start-over, change majors, what would you do and why?

AlpacaTraveLlamaDNP · Oct 29, 2023

No Doubt, I'd be an Alpaca and Llama Farmer in Argentina or Chile, and have a Rural Clinic in the Andes Mountains.

BeatsPerMinute, BSN, RN · Nov 2, 2023

So many mixed feelings. On one hand, I am better with animals. I could see myself becoming a vet. On the other hand, despite how rough nursing can be, I appreciate what I have learned.

*I've gone backpacking with friends and helped a dude out after he got drunk in the middle of the night. He decided that was prime time for bouldering. He messed up his leg real good after falling off the cliff. I patched him up.

*I've helped a friend of a friend when he suddenly collapsed and went head first down 15 steps that were made of metal. Blood was just leaking out onto the side walk from this guy's head, like a slow stream. Everyone at that party was freaking out. I held pressure and demanded that 911 was called immediately. Ultimately he got stitched up and is fine now.

*Just the other day my roommate's volleyball teammate got knocked down after taking a direct hit to the outside of his right knee cap. He's gonna be outta the game for awhile. While miss HR person was focused on the fact that the employee had signed a waiver, I focused on the person. I checked the site and it was fine. I helped get him up to the nearest bench, elevated leg, borrowed someones jacket to keep his head and upper body warm until help arrived.

More than anything, I like knowing what to do to help family members and friends when something happens. I do not like nursing in general mostly because of this whole patient satisfaction thing that's been going on for awhile. To put it onto nurses to "make someone happy" is a joke. No one can make anybody happy. Yet, here we are.

So, IDK what the answer is. Still figuring that bit out.

GrumpyRN, NP · Nov 8, 2023

The biggest problem would be all those young women around. I know what to do and I know how to do it and I even know the right things to say and do to make it happen but my mom says I have to be home by 9 o'clock.

As this is in the Nursing Humour section I thought I would be a bit facetious.???

No Stars In My Eyes · Feb 15

There are a lot of irritating things about the field of nursing, and every job or place of employment has them. However, I have to say I feel like I am one of the few people who really enjoyed MOST of all the different nursing jobs I've held. I can honestly say I wouldn't change any of it; wouldn't want to go back through any of it though, either. A lot of times I made fun of the idiocy I encountered, by making a cartoon or re-writing a song so it would apply to it. I am surprised I didn't get fired for some of those things I did, but so many people thought I was being funny and laughed at them. Well, I was being funny by pointing out how ridiculously stupid some things were, but I don't believe anyone was insulted by it. I was only "spoken to" about something one time, and I can't even remember now what it was over. So, I squeaked by, and now I am retired, so you couldn't pay me enough to take anything on again! Nursing was way different when I graduated, and I would not be a nurse now for ....all the tea in China!

I do admire the nurses who work now, though. I think it is a much more convoluted experience these days, than I had, so I'm glad I did it in the past when I did go through school and it worked out fine in the end!

GrumpyRN, NP · Feb 21

No Stars In My Eyes said:

There are a lot of irritating things about the field of nursing, and every job or place of employment has them. However, I have to say I feel like I am one of the few people who really enjoyed MOST of all the different nursing jobs I've held. I can honestly say I wouldn't change any of it; wouldn't want to go back through any of it though, either. A lot of times I made fun of the idiocy I encountered, by making a cartoon or re-writing a song so it would apply to it. I am surprised I didn't get fired for some of those things I did, but so many people thought I was being funny and laughed at them. Well, I was being funny by pointing out how ridiculously stupid some things were, but I don't believe anyone was insulted by it. I was only "spoken to" about something one time, and I can't even remember now what it was over. So, I squeaked by, and now I am retired, so you couldn't pay me enough to take anything on again! Nursing was way different when I graduated, and I would not be a nurse now for ....all the tea in China!

I do admire the nurses who work now, though. I think it is a much more convoluted experience these days, than I had, so I'm glad I did it in the past when I did go through school and it worked out fine in the end!

I agree Stars, looking back I think I got the best of the health service.

Years ago when a complaint was made it went into the "Complaints Book" and really not very much happened unless it was something serious. Not long before I retired I received a complaint that, I kid you not; apparently I said the patient "looked well". Considering this was in the context of alleged large blood loss and I was handing over to a colleague I thought it was a reasonable observation. But obviously I didn't validate the patient.

Talking to friends still in nursing I'm like you - I would not like to do it now.

allnurses Guide · Feb 22

We were just having this conversation yesterday. I can honestly say that Nursing in General has been good to me. When I went to school back in 2000 I was embarking on a journey to get far from my past. It worked mostley. So What woud I do differently? Well a grew up in a small city in Southern Cali that was agricultural and I would love to have a small farm.

JerDJ, BSN · Mar 14

Sometimes it's hard not to think about what I could have done instead of nursing. I've been a nurse for 10 years and I feel like maybe I should have picked something else. I didn't enjoy bedside as much as the other nurses that I know. Some of them have been working much longer than I have and they are still full of energy. Nonetheless, I did leave bedside nursing. I can say I am happier now. There are so many things we can do with nursing.

**CalicoKitty, BSN, MSN, RN** · Mar 15

My different roads eventaully led to nursing. In my early adulthood days, I did restaurant work. Not a good waitress, but OK in the back of the house. I knew I did not want to be a nurse because of the experiences of my grandmother (psychiatric nurse in the days of state mental hospitals) and my aunt (dialysis nurse). Both seemed to hate nursing. I certainly had no interest. So, I went to community college, after about 60 credits I decided I should pick a major to graduate. I decided I could study blood for 2 years (perhaps I was "goth"?). And from there I went to biology and research. But, when my grandmother (who went back to school and became a school psychologist and was happy), was dying, I was introduced to hospice nursing. So, about a year later, I decided to embark on my journey to become a hospice nurse. A 2nd degree BSN, 8+ years med-surg nursing. I'm now a wound care nurse (3+ years).. My current regret is going for my FNP when I realized I probalby would have been happier with AGNP. But, I should graduate in a few weeks, so my current path is set. I do wonder if I'll ever get into hospice, though. No regrets with nursing (or restaurants, or research). Life is a journey. I'll retire when I wanna grow up.

GrumpyRN, NP · Mar 16

CalicoKitty said:

I'll retire when I wanna grow up.

I've been retired for 7 years and I still have not grown up.😂🤣🤣😂

Originally I went into nursing because I needed a job and I had seen male nurses around (very rare in the early 1980's) and had done some work in hospitals so went in with the idea I would do it until I found something "better". 35 years later I was still looking for something "better" but felt it was time to go.

DavidFR, BSN, MSN, RN · Apr 2

Would like to have done something creative like being a writer. Never got near my dream apart from once coming third in a poetry competition. I did have a novel rejected by publishers - righly so, it was awful. There's the funny ha ha bit, that I thought it might actually get published!

I very much echo what people say above about a golden age having been lost. I did try something else. I did a TEFL course (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) and taught English for 2 years when I first came to France. Loved it , great fun, but paid peanuts - language schools are a very exploitative business and they get away with poor pay as they'll employ totally unqualified gap year students and call them "English teachers" - a real insult to those of us who actually possessed the TEFL qualification.

I came back to nursing for the money (there's my second funny ha ha!) but glad I did. The real difference is this: in most other jobs nobody dies. If I messed up in TEFL the worst thing that happened was that some French businessman didn't understand the present perfect tense. In nursing your actions REALLY matter.

I also think your location counts. Nursing in France is very old style, like it was in the UK years ago. I absolutely couldn't work in the British NHS, or private sector, ever again. From what I read on this forum, I'm pretty sure I'd hate nursing in the US too. That said I can't wait to retire, but I have no intention of growing up. That would be too silly.