I am 37 years old and working on my nursing prereq's. I am hoping to actually start the BSN program in the fall. This is a complete career change for me (I currently only have an AAS degree). I picked nursing for several reasons; helping people, having a field that has a lot of possibilities, job security, interesting/learning something new, using my mind, having a skill, marketable, feeling of bettering someone life, etc... After being on this site, now I am doubting some of those reasons. So my question is if you had to do it all over again would you still pick nursing? Why, why not? What would you pick if answer was no...
I would not. I would have looked into becoming a Physical Therapist instead. There is a lot less B.S, better hours and twice the pay and similar career opportunities. Plus, there is the added benefit of helping people to get better, and many of the other things I love about nursing like, teaching, assessing, care planning, etc. A lot of what I don't like about nursing is chronic medical conditions that only get worse and worse. I like to feel effective and see people improve. Of course I echo what so many other people have said on the negative. Mostly I really feel for the work we do we are worth so much more in compensation than we generally get.
YES. ONLY because it's a stepping stone to SO MANY other things, the cost of education is low compared to some other fields, and YOU ARE GUARANTEED EMPLOYMENT FOR LIFE. I worked bedside for 4 years and already had an exit strategy - Health Informatics. Having the RN degree creates job security and can be very lucrative in other professional areas where knowledge of healthcare process is required - law, IT, Informatics, Consulting, etc.
I found bedside nursing frustrating and sad. Bottom line, the nursing profession does not have the power and respect other medical disciplines have such as physicians, pharmacists and OT/PT. Education requirements are too low, nurses don't professionally represent themselves well as an overall group to expand their power base, and nursing is not consistently recognized as a "profession" by other medical disciplines. We just don't have the respect that we should command. As a result, we get dumped on by administration, patients, doctors, etc. And this creates nurses who are miserable and subsequently take it out on their own. Thus the "nurses eat their young" attitude.
Be a nurse but don't plan on staying at the bedside for the long-term or you will most likely be miserable.
Specializes in burn ICU, SICU, ER, Trauma Rapid Response.
Wow, the responses have been mixed at best. I am currently in law enforcement so I have a good idea of shift work, just o.k pay. I think the one idea I have found on reading AN is it is a JOB. There is great things and there is horrible things about nursing. Which is true of every profession. Cops also never get a real break, always eating between calls, putting your life in danger for people who are ungrateful and uncaring. Always getting the donut jokes, and writing tickets to people on their way to work, etc...but there were great times at my job as well. I am ready to move onto another phase of my life. The job shadowing I have done at an area hospital have been great. The nurses tell me the good and bad, but mostly good. I love the constant learning and all the interesting things and procedures going on. I can really appreciate both the good and bad and I appreciate everyone taking the time to tell my THEIR nursing story. It is always great to hear all aspects and perspectives of nursing. I am unsure of my decision at this time. I am moving forward with working on my prereq's right now and hopeful that things come together for me. Thanks for all the comments they have been insightful to say the least.
*** Law enforcement is one of the fields I wish I had got into rather than nursing. Had I done so I would be retiring next year. Maybe not with enought money to do nothing, but with a pension that would allow me to only do the type of work I enjoy. Instead as a nurse I am looking at yet another 25-30 years of work before I get anything. The ability to receive a pension after 20-22 years is HUGE to me and there is nothing comparable in nursing, unless one is a military nurse. I wish somebody had pointed that out to me when I got out of the army.
Specializes in burn ICU, SICU, ER, Trauma Rapid Response.
YES. ONLY because it's a stepping stone to SO MANY other things, the cost of education is low compared to some other fields, and YOU ARE GUARANTEED EMPLOYMENT FOR LIFE.
*** LOL! Becareful some of those new tot he field might think you are being serious.
Well, after having a couple of days to think it over, I'd vote no. I came into this profession late in life. And by late, I mean I predate some plant species. I guess I fell into Erickson's trap of wanting to give something back in my later years, whatever that stage is called. Previously, I've worked in business and owned business. I miss the ability to run my own life. When I worked for myself, if a customer or vendor got rude with me or expected me to do more than it was worth I could tell them (politely) NO. And when I worked for other people I knew that my decisions would be backed up from the higher-ups because the people I worked for knew that I would make the correct call. I can't do that in the hospital. I get to lock my lips on everyone's posterior. From the patient to the pharmacy to the lab to the doctors to the families to other units to administration. I am at the beck and call of every living thing inside those walls. I miss having time to get things done.
I sometimes look at the maintenance staff repairing or building something in the hospital and silently long for the days when I could have that kind of freedom and creativity. Maybe that's what I miss about my previous incarnations. I miss the ability to create and feel as though I'd accomplished something at the end of the day. I miss the ability to see something through from start to finish. I miss coming home after fourteen or sixteen hours at work, bone tired but, in a good way, a having-accomplished-something way. Now, I just come home beaten.
Of the other jobs I've held, the closest I can relate to nursing is when I had a factory job so many years ago. As it was then, it is now, an assembly line. Only now, I am responsible, it seems, for every step of the process. If I screw up it's my head, if someone else screws up I should have caught it. All this and more for $21.25 an hour.
As I've stated before, I don't want to dissuade anyone from their dreams and maybe it's just the environment I exist in, maybe it's trying to learn something that is totally foreign to me but, as a newbie, this job can seem like a boot camp whose only reason for existence is to crush the spirit of those in it.
Ok, maybe my next post will be more light hearted.
Well, after having a couple of days to think it over, I'd vote no. I came into this profession late in life. And by late, I mean I predate some plant species. I guess I fell into Erickson's trap of wanting to give something back in my later years, whatever that stage is called. Previously, I've worked in business and owned business. I miss the ability to run my own life. When I worked for myself, if a customer or vendor got rude with me or expected me to do more than it was worth I could tell them (politely) NO. And when I worked for other people I knew that my decisions would be backed up from the higher-ups because the people I worked for knew that I would make the correct call. I can't do that in the hospital. I get to lock my lips on everyone's posterior. From the patient to the pharmacy to the lab to the doctors to the families to other units to administration. I am at the beck and call of every living thing inside those walls. I miss having time to get things done.
I sometimes look at the maintenance staff repairing or building something in the hospital and silently long for the days when I could have that kind of freedom and creativity. Maybe that's what I miss about my previous incarnations. I miss the ability to create and feel as though I'd accomplished something at the end of the day. I miss the ability to see something through from start to finish. I miss coming home after fourteen or sixteen hours at work, bone tired but, in a good way, a having-accomplished-something way. Now, I just come home beaten.
Of the other jobs I've held, the closest I can relate to nursing is when I had a factory job so many years ago. As it was then, it is now, an assembly line. Only now, I am responsible, it seems, for every step of the process. If I screw up it's my head, if someone else screws up I should have caught it. All this and more for $21.25 an hour.
As I've stated before, I don't want to dissuade anyone from their dreams and maybe it's just the environment I exist in, maybe it's trying to learn something that is totally foreign to me but, as a newbie, this job can seem like a boot camp whose only reason for existence is to crush the spirit of those in it.
Ok, maybe my next post will be more light hearted.
Wow, your insights are really good and it didn't even take you years and years to garnish them! One of the most frustrating things about nursing these days is the lack of autonomy that we have. They almost don't give us credit for knowing anything. I'm really starting to think that we're part of some kind of Orwellian conditioning experiments??? They chip away more and more of me it seems like everytime I go to work. Just when I think there's not one more thing they can do to us or take away from us, darn if they don't come up with something else. There's no end to it. Thus, we are being conditioned, that we are just clay in their hands and we will do their bidding without question (because we sure as heck aren't allowed to challenge them, I mean that would mean we were autonomous, thinking beings and it seems that's what they're trying to do away with, slowly but surely?). I'm wondering why they even bother making us get an education at all (I have BSN)? Why not just train us on the job?
I guess I would since it was just a stepping stone on my way to medicine. But if I wasn't going to do medicine then no way would I stay in nursing! So many others have stated what I would say now but I just wanted to add my vote to the 'hell no' corner. Do something where you can work for yourself, or at least set your own hours!
" i just wanted to add my vote to the 'hell no' corner. do something where you can work for yourself, or at least set your own hours!"
ummm, i am an rn and i do those things. i am in a conference right now with a whole lot of them. there are thousands-- yes, thousands-- of certified nurse life care planners, legal nurse consultants, elder care case managers, and other independent nursing specialty group members who own their own businesses, set their own hours, and enjoy a high level of professionality as registered nurses doing it. and that's not even counting the nurse practitioners and certified nurse midwives (yes, many of them are in independent practice).
Wow. I've been thinking about doing nursing for so long. I have a good career right now doing something totally unrelated to nursing. Recently, I shadowed at 3 units and really loved the experience. However, reading these negative posts is making me question my decision. Plus, my family is trying to discourage me
JourneyRN
25 Posts
One of my nursing instructors went from law enforcement>nurse and he's an awesome nurse.
I feel I am called to be a nurse and despite some things, I am still being led in that direction.
I didn't choose nursing, it seems to have chosen me and so I am working with it instead of against it now. :-)