If you could redo it....would you choose nursing?

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  1. If you redo your career choice...

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Would you redo choosing nursing or the medical profession?

Curious to the feelings of others

Specializes in ICU/ER/Med-Surg/Case Management/Manageme.

If I had answered this question 15 years ago - or even 10 years ago - my answer would have been ABSOLUTELY NOT! NO WAY! Then I "retired," worked a couple of silly, low paying jobs to buy my dogs food. Not long ago, I went back to work as the only RN in a low-pressure senior clinic environment and love it. It's only about 20-24 hours a week, but after 35 years, that's all I need or want. Could I make more $$'s with a couple of hospital shifts? You bet! Do I care? Nope.

I think we put too much pressure on ourselves in our early career days. Most of us want to work the fast-paced, stressful ER'S and ICU's. We work the overtime shifts. Hospital admin, doctors, patients and their families are hard enough on us but we tend to add our own stressors. We are bullied by some of our peers and some of us are the bullies. Think of it...those of you with 10-15 years under your belt. When was the last time you reached out to sincerely help the less experienced nurse? Or those of you with less experience and maybe struggling or feeling insecure in a particular area...have you ever reached out to a nurse whose skills you respect and admire and asked for help? For mentoring?

I really think we could more easily love our chosen profession if we loved and respected ourselves and each other just a tad more.

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I haven't had a Thanksgiving, Christmas, or Christmas Eve off in 13 years. I end up working every single holiday. I haven't had a raise in 4 years due to a wage freeze. I am getting more and more depressed about this, but it is the same thing at every hospital around here. We don't have unions in the deep south, and I live in one of those "right to work" states. It has nothing to do with my patients. When I first became an RN, in 1987, the Registered Nurse was highly respected, and considered "right under the doctor." Boy, have things changed. If I had it to do over again, I wouldn't choose nursing. Here in this state, school teachers make about the same as RN's, but they get a whole lot more benefits, time off, retirement, etc., that nurses in this state really don't have. My school teacher friends have all retired, with state insurance and retirement pay.

What state are you in?

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Specializes in Psychiatry, Community, Nurse Manager, hospice.
If I had answered this question 15 years ago - or even 10 years ago - my answer would have been ABSOLUTELY NOT! NO WAY! Then I "retired," worked a couple of silly, low paying jobs to buy my dogs food. Not long ago, I went back to work as the only RN in a low-pressure senior clinic environment and love it. It's only about 20-24 hours a week, but after 35 years, that's all I need or want. Could I make more $$'s with a couple of hospital shifts? You bet! Do I care? Nope.

I think we put too much pressure on ourselves in our early career days. Most of us want to work the fast-paced, stressful ER'S and ICU's. We work the overtime shifts. Hospital admin, doctors, patients and their families are hard enough on us but we tend to add our own stressors. We are bullied by some of our peers and some of us are the bullies. Think of it...those of you with 10-15 years under your belt. When was the last time you reached out to sincerely help the less experienced nurse? Or those of you with less experience and maybe struggling or feeling insecure in a particular area...have you ever reached out to a nurse whose skills you respect and admire and asked for help? For mentoring?

I really think we could more easily love our chosen profession if we loved and respected ourselves and each other just a tad more.

So beautifully said. Thank you.

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Specializes in Critical Care.
If I had answered this question 15 years ago - or even 10 years ago - my answer would have been ABSOLUTELY NOT! NO WAY! Then I "retired," worked a couple of silly, low paying jobs to buy my dogs food. Not long ago, I went back to work as the only RN in a low-pressure senior clinic environment and love it. It's only about 20-24 hours a week, but after 35 years, that's all I need or want. Could I make more $$'s with a couple of hospital shifts? You bet! Do I care? Nope.

I think we put too much pressure on ourselves in our early career days. Most of us want to work the fast-paced, stressful ER'S and ICU's. We work the overtime shifts. Hospital admin, doctors, patients and their families are hard enough on us but we tend to add our own stressors. We are bullied by some of our peers and some of us are the bullies. Think of it...those of you with 10-15 years under your belt. When was the last time you reached out to sincerely help the less experienced nurse? Or those of you with less experience and maybe struggling or feeling insecure in a particular area...have you ever reached out to a nurse whose skills you respect and admire and asked for help? For mentoring?

I really think we could more easily love our chosen profession if we loved and respected ourselves and each other just a tad more.

I would glady do a job like that once my mortgage if paid as long as there is health insurance. I went into nursing with both idealistic and pragmatic reasons. Its never been easy, in the early days my anxiety was sky high but now the problem is the corporate takeover which has cut staff etc. While I wish I had gone on to NP, which was so uncommon back in the day, it just wasn't hardly ever done; but the 3 day work week has allowed me to care for sick and dying loved ones probably better than if I had a 5 day work week. I'm glad I was able to be there to care for those I loved.

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Specializes in Pediatric Critical Care.
I probably would do a few things differently, but still become a nurse. Mostly, I would have double-majored in college or gotten more education in a different field (either history or statistics) to give me more options at an advanced level.

I grew up in a very small town and didn't realize all the possibilities to combine nursing with another field. So I didn't take advantage of college opportunities to double-major (just out of high school) and felt intimidated by suddenly jumping into another field in my 20's and 30's. Also, it was harder to go to school back then "just for fun" because online education didn't exist. It would have been very difficult to work rotating shifts as a staff nurse, get my MSN, and also take a few courses in mathematics or history having to go to campus for all classes. So I stuck with 100% at the graduate level, missing opportunities to get credentials in history or math to combine with my nursing career.

I would love to have become a nurse historian or a research statistician.

Ooooh what does a nurse historian do? It sounds interesting

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Specializes in Med-Surg, NICU.
I wish I had taken engineering like my family wanted. My brother, a chemical engineer, makes a ton of money, has lots of benefits, and is highly respected. Me, as a nurse, have a mediocre income in relation to what I do. Barely any benefits. No unions here. Respect? haha. I like nursing, but the pay is so poor, and it seems like it is constant turmoil. I'm not one to say I went into this "to help people," or "it was my dream..." I can help people regardless what profession I am in.

Haha. My brother just graduated with his engineering degree and his first job offer has him earning almost 30k more than me. What the heck...

But I just don't think I could handle the schooling.

As for the OP, I don't think I regret nursing...yet. I love having a three-day work week, flexibility and variety and I ADORE my little itty bitty babies. But from a financial standpoint, the pay sucks in relation to the responsibility and stress level.

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Specializes in ED.

If I could do it over again...I would have tried to get into vet school. My job is ok but the stress, expectations, and sheer risk of my job many days just makes me question my choice. Today in the parking lot of my hospital, a woman I had never seen before parked her car in the middle of the road so that she could run over to me and start demanding if I knew such and such, began ranting about a local psychiatric facility, straight jackets, was very aggressive, and made no sense. It was very frightening and is becoming more and more common in this day and age. I did not go into nursing just so I could be led to wonder if today is the day some random person is going to try to kill me.

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Specializes in Pediatrics, Pediatric Float, PICU, NICU.

Absolutely...Every. Single. Time.

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I'm headed back to school for a computer science degree in hopes of being a software developer, but I will still work PRN in the ICU and keep up my skills/license. I have always enjoyed nursing, but I'm 29 and I already have back and knee pain, and feel stressed out a lot. Also I would like a job where I actually have some semblance of respect, get to make more of my own decisions, and my employer doesn't act like they're doing me a favor by giving me a 25 cent/hour raise.

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Specializes in Education, Administration, Magnet.

No. Nursing has been good to me. But I would not want to go through all of it again. I got burned out on bedside nursing and I have been in nursing administration for the last 6 years. It is a thankless job and consist of no work-life balance. Hospitals have become a business and it is all about making a profit. The genuine connections with patients are tied to HCAHPS numbers. I have worked in variety of hospitals, rural and urban, profit and non for profit, magnet and non magnet....all are very similar in the way they make cuts at bedside first if budget is tight. If I could make a living with teaching at a nursing school, I would do that full time. I have always loved mentoring and seeing the spark in new nurses. Don't get me wrong, I love nursing for what it is, for the people at bedside, for the patients, and for the genuine compassionate experiences it gave me. But I would not recommend nursing to anyone right now.

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Specializes in ED, psych.

I wish I decided sooner ...

I love love love punching out and leaving work at work (used to be a teacher - teachers never leave work at work).

Every day I learn something new. How to change a dressing, how to change/care for foleys/peg feedings/etc, disease processes, therapeutic communication ... and how to duck (psych nurse).

I'll probably sing a slightly different tune around the holidays. Teachers don't work Christmas.

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Today in the parking lot of my hospital, a woman I had never seen before parked her car in the middle of the road so that she could run over to me and start demanding if I knew such and such, began ranting about a local psychiatric facility, straight jackets, was very aggressive, and made no sense.

Did she escape from that psych facility?

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