If not a nurse, then what?

[monsuun]

Short background, I'm a 35-yr old prior cop who has gone through a period of total disability. Now that I'm (mostly) over that, I've decided to go to college and get a degree for something that pays better and is less dangerous. I love the idea of being in the medical field, but honestly feel that med school is a bit beyond me. Nursing was my second choice, and I thought I had a great career plan. I'm almost done with my pre-reqs, I'm working at a hospital that pays tuition reimbursement (they say I have to work there for at least a year when I'm done, but I look at that as a guaranteed job, rather than a bad thing!). I thought I would continue working there part-time as a patient aide until I had my Rn Associates, then work part-time as a nurse and work my way up to NP. Sounded good to me.

I've started seeing more and more threads lately about there being too many nurses in the market now, though. My area is definitely seeing no shortage, as there are three big nursing schools pumping them out as fast as they can. I've seen threads with nurses begging people not to go nursing as it's bringing down the demand, thus killing the pay. So... before I go through the trouble of getting accepted into nursing school, what are some good alternatives? I would prefer to stay in the hospital setting, as I like the feeling of doing something good with my life, but since I have a growing family to feed, the pay needs to be decent too.

I know about what careers are in the medical field, I'm just wondering what would be better to go into than nursing, I suppose. I had one friend suggest PT, but then I had a PT guy tell me that it's even harder to find a PT job than a nursing job! (Course, I guess right now it's hard to find any jobs!) Basically (and I don't mean this to sound rude) You keep telling us nurse wannabe's to go somewhere else, be more specific and tell us where to go! (and no, I don't mean )!

[llg, PhD, RN]

Perhaps a career counselor at a local community counselor could help you identify where your aptitude is and what careers would be the best fit for you.

But ... I wouldn't totally rule out nursing if that is where your heart is. You already have your foot in the door and a good chance of getting a nursing job when you graduate. By the time you are "on your own" to find a 2nd nursing job, the employment situation may have changed -- AND you will be entering the job market as an experienced nurse, not as a new grad. Especially if you could continue with that same employer as you get your BSN. By then, you would have had 3 or 4 years of nursing under your belt that would help you get a job (though nothing would be guaranteed of course.)

[CrunchRN, ADN, RN]

Really it comes down to the fact that it is all a crap shoot at this point. Nobody can predict what jobs will be robust in 2 to 5 years even if they think they can.

So do what you think will be best for you.