A little bit about me I am 22 years old and have always been interested in the medical field. I worked as an EMT for a year and liked it a lot so gradually I set my head into getting a nursing degree. I have spent 2 years on the prereqs and even volunteered in the hospitals in Africa on my semester off school and finally applied to nursing schools beginning of this year. I got into a couple and I am currently in my first week of nursing school...so now what's the problem? Well I am not sure if nursing is my love and passion and it's a terrifying feeling to have going into nursing school.
I have always loved and wanted to pursue a career in writing and working in the film industry. Both my parents are involved in it and I grew up loving the environment but I also know how competitive it is to be successful in it so I looked into working in a healthcare setting. I found nursing solely on that people tell me it's a good degree, with a stable job, and salary. Im not much of a nurturing person, but I'm great at tolerating blood and other body fluids most people feel uncomfortable with so I thought I would give nursing a shot.
We had 3 days of orientation and bootcamp to prep for nursing school and I have felt so sick to my stomach about whether or not nursing is right for me. I don't hate nursing but I don't love it either and becoming a nurse is something you should feel really passionate about because the best nurses are the ones that love their jobs.
Im stuck in this weird situation because I have worked so hard in my prereqs and getting into nursing school for the past 2 years and now that I'm finally in the program I'm really scared that I'll be questioning my decision and in the long run it'll just be a good job and not something I love doing. A lot of people (including my therapist) are telling me to stick with it and earn my nursing degree to have a degree and a stable "back up plan" and work on pursuing my real dreams after I finish school but is that really the case? In the real world do people really get nursing degrees as a "back up plan"? To me that just sounds insane.
So here I am asking in tears and doubt, should I listen to my second guessing? Or Am I just psyching myself out before I really get into the program? Again I don't hate nursing but I don't love it and I'm scared it's a job that I'll lose interest in along the line. I'm also scared that if I don't pursue nursing after working so hard to get into it that I will be looked at and feel like a failure.
Sorry for the novels but I have lost so much sleep because my mind is running a million miles a minute over this. Any advice will be appreciative! Thank you so much.
A little bit about me I am 22 years old and "have always" been interested in the medical field. I worked as an EMT for a year and liked it a lot so gradually I set my head into getting a nursing degree. I have spent 2 years on the prereqs and even volunteered in the hospitals in Africa on my semester off school and finally applied to nursing schools beginning of this year. I got into a couple and I am currently in my first week of nursing school...so now what's the problem? Well I am not sure if nursing is my love and passion and it's a terrifying feeling to have going into nursing school.
I "have always" loved and wanted to pursue a career in writing and working in the film industry. Both my parents are involved in it and I grew up loving the environment but I also know how competitive it is to be successful in it so I looked into working in a healthcare setting. I found nursing solely on that people tell me it's a good degree, with a stable job, and salary. Im not much of a nurturing person, but I'm great at tolerating blood and other body fluids most people feel uncomfortable with so I thought I would give nursing a shot..
I think you might want to figure out exactly what it is that you want to do. Seems to me that you don't really want to commit to either one.
We had 3 days of orientation and bootcamp to prep for nursing school and I have felt so sick to my stomach about whether or not nursing is right for me. I don't hate nursing but I don't love it either and becoming a nurse is something you should feel really passionate about because the best nurses are the ones that love their jobs.
I do beg to differ with this statement! I am very good at what I do. As for loving it....hold on, wait a minute!!
A little bit about me I am 22 years old and have always been interested in the medical field. I worked as an EMT for a year and liked it a lot so gradually I set my head into getting a nursing degree. I have spent 2 years on the prereqs and even volunteered in the hospitals in Africa on my semester off school and finally applied to nursing schools beginning of this year. I got into a couple and I am currently in my first week of nursing school...so now what's the problem? Well I am not sure if nursing is my love and passion and it's a terrifying feeling to have going into nursing school.
I have always loved and wanted to pursue a career in writing and working in the film industry. Both my parents are involved in it and I grew up loving the environment but I also know how competitive it is to be successful in it so I looked into working in a healthcare setting. I found nursing solely on that people tell me it's a good degree, with a stable job, and salary. Im not much of a nurturing person, but I'm great at tolerating blood and other body fluids most people feel uncomfortable with so I thought I would give nursing a shot.
We had 3 days of orientation and bootcamp to prep for nursing school and I have felt so sick to my stomach about whether or not nursing is right for me. I don't hate nursing but I don't love it either and becoming a nurse is something you should feel really passionate about because the best nurses are the ones that love their jobs.
Im stuck in this weird situation because I have worked so hard in my prereqs and getting into nursing school for the past 2 years and now that I'm finally in the program I'm really scared that I'll be questioning my decision and in the long run it'll just be a good job and not something I love doing. A lot of people (including my therapist) are telling me to stick with it and earn my nursing degree to have a degree and a stable "back up plan" and work on pursuing my real dreams after I finish school but is that really the case? In the real world do people really get nursing degrees as a "back up plan"? To me that just sounds insane.
So here I am asking in tears and doubt, should I listen to my second guessing? Or Am I just psyching myself out before I really get into the program? Again I don't hate nursing but I don't love it and I'm scared it's a job that I'll lose interest in along the line. I'm also scared that if I don't pursue nursing after working so hard to get into it that I will be looked at and feel like a failure.
Sorry for the novels but I have lost so much sleep because my mind is running a million miles a minute over this. Any advice will be appreciative! Thank you so much.
I hear your hesitation and self doubt but you say you have always been interested in the medical field. That puts you ahead of the game somewhat. Just know that getting your nursing degree can be a stepping stone to other areas in the medical field. The thing I love about nursing is that it can be very dynamic. You can get your degree and go on to pursue a more specialized type of nursing or venture elsewhere in the medical field because a lot of the classes may overlap. You never have to stay where you're at. I hope this helps!
I'm nervous and somewhat unsure as well, but my experience from a EMT made me reazlie how much I loved patient care. Stick to it and get into the profession first. Even if you love film / so forth. Invest in that hobby on your off time when you have the time to spare. I have tons of hobbies that could become somewhat of a 'profession' but its a hobby that requires lots of time and effort. Right now our focus is to get through school! Keep at it bro
Specializes in Case mgmt., rehab, (CRRN), LTC & psych.
Nobody can be completely certain that nursing is truly for them until they have worked a few years as a nurse.
Personally, I have never been passionate about nursing. It is a practical means to an end. It provides me with a comfortable standard of living, and for that I am thankful. However, I have never loved the profession and never will...
My honest feedback: I think that orientation has psyched you out and now you're really overwhelmed and doubting your career choice because you spent three days listening to people come up to a podium and tell you one thousand and one ways that you'll fail out of the program or kill somebody.
Give it time. You haven't been doing it long enough to know that you hate nursing school, and nursing school is nothing like the nursing profession. There are so many directions you can go in nursing that it nearly made my head spin learning about it.
Im 24 and I've had plenty of "Are you REALLY sure that this is what you want to do...because you're too old to turn back now without a game plan" days. I have noticed that on those days, I'm lacking sleep, I'm under stress, or usually a combo of both. I never let myself make important decisions when I'm temporarily upset, so in the morning once I sleep on it I always wake up with a different outlook on it. Make sure that you aren't just in a state of panic. Some of the most impressive nurses I know...went into it for the financial security it brought them, not because of some deep-down passion or burning desire to nurture.
Like several of the other people who have replied, I was a paramedic before I was an RN. I had no particular interest in nursing itself, but I saw it as more stable career with greater transferability, promotion, and salary potential than working in EMS. I also thought it would be an opportunity to increase my scope of practice, and feel like I had a bigger impact on people's lives. I was wrong, and going into nursing was, for me personally, a mistake. I have worked with several other medics who feel the same way and would NOT recommend the change in career.
For the record, I work in a very high acuity ICU that does all manner of mechanical cardiac support devices, ECMO, temporary VADs, etc (sometimes all in the same patient!) I'm interested in the pathophysiology behind the patients far more than the human aspect.
I don't think of myself as a particularly emotional or caring person, and I don't get the same joy my coworkers do from connecting with people on a personal level, dealing with their minute to minute struggles, calming down a family who is overwhelmed, or watching them finally relax after giving them pain meds and adjusting their pillows just right. Rather, what I liked about working in EMS was the satisfaction of knowing I was making the best possible decision in a bad situation both operationally and medically, regardless of whether or not the patient, ED staff of anybody else would notice or not.
It's very easy for nurses and non-nurses alike to list the things about nursing that are miserable, after you work as a nurse, you'll be able to list even more. That being said, this is a job and what matters more is whether there are enough good things to balance out the bad. If the things I listed above don't sound like perks to you, nursing is probably not for you.
You said "What I liked about being an EMT was I treated my patients to my scope of practice and then handed them over to the nurse and moved onto the next patient. I didn't have a desire to stay with my patients for a long period of time."
You haven't really seen the nursing side of things yet, but it doesn't sound to me like you're overwhelmed by the boot camp. It sounds like you have similar feelings to me about what parts of your job you like vs. dislike, and nursing is not aligning nicely. It's not too late to choose something else. There are literally dozens of other allied health fields that you might like better.
Solely based on what you've said thus far, have you looked into becoming a perfusionist, or Cardiovascular Technologist working in a cardiac cath or EP lab? In each of these fields, you would be part of a team, but have a very specific role, and would treat one patient at a time, then move on to the next one.
If you do decide to become a nurse, I would recommend the OR, cath/EP lab, or some type of procedural suite (IR, GI procedures, etc).
Don't want to worry about taking care of a patient for 12 hours? Go into ER, PACU, or OR. I've done all three and I don't know which I like more! Nursing is amazing in the fact that you can do so much! It's not all about bedside care. Once you get through school it's literally like waking up Christmas morning and you don't know which gift to open first.
I've never encountered anyone who has gotten a nursing degree as a back up plan†but have encountered many whom are going back for their ADN after receiving their Bachelor's (Accounting, Business, Psychology, Civil Engineering etc). There's a current dental hygienist and a retiree! She literally retired during our first semester to start her second career as a nurse. This should tell you something. You're worried about the time spent on pre reqs and the program, what about my classmates whom already have Bachelor's or the lady who retired? Basically, life happens. You're 22 and still very young. Your values will change as you gain life experiences and that will include career changes. This is ok. This is a part of life and growing.
I don't see how successful of a back up plan†it would be. Let's say you graduate and pass NCLEX. You take a few years off to pursue writing and film but it doesn't work out. You decide to get a job as a nurse. Employers will question and view the gap as a red flag not to mention the required continuing education to keep your license. It's a fact that most grad nurses have a difficult time getting hired due to lack of experience.
You could work part time as a nurse (you'd make enough) and pursue film too. And can't you write from anywhere? Have you even tried? Your parents are in the film industry and you are passionate about it… so what happened? Talk to your parents. How'd they get started? Do they have connections or can you get an internship? Now's the time to do it while you're young and (I'm assuming) don't have bills (mortgage payment, alimony etc) or kids. You're not tied down and can go where the work is. If you're not successful, you'll have no regrets and return to nursing or something else.
By the way, orientation/bootcamp is supposed to intimidate you. They want everyone to take it seriously. After all, someone's life could depend on you. You're worried about being stuck in a good paying job that you don't love, what if you don't even make it? ;-)
I don't think anyone can accuse you of failure if you stand by your decision. They'll respect your conviction. Your friends and family won't care because they want you to be happy. But whatever you decide, don't do it for others. Do it for yourself.
The beauty of nursing is that there are so many specialties. You get bored with one and need a change or challenge, you can pursue another field. How do you know you won't like it until you try? Nursing school and clinicals don't count. Commit to a decision and see it through. Whatever decision is the right one based on where you are at your life. All you can do is embrace the change and adapt accordingly. You'll be fine. Good luck.
Follow your heart and passion! Do what you love and are passionate about! I believe you will be more satisfied if you do what makes you happy. Also, not only will you benefit from it, but others around you will too. If you are not happy in a career, it can affect your overall mood towards yourself and others.. I think your happiness comes first in any decision you make regardless of your doubts and fears. I'm pretty sure you've already made your mind up so go for it! :) Goodluck!
I really love all the encouraging posts from PPs. Definitely evidence that nurses (at least this bunch) are nurturers.
But it seems that OP is stuck in an "either-or" cycle.... bedside nursing or writing in the film industry. There are a lot more choices on that continuum. Not all nurses work at the bedside. And there are a lot more career choices in the visual arts, including those that have much more stable jobs, such as the technical support areas (e.g., lighting & sound engineers, set decorators, costume designers, stage managers, etc.). As a genuine COB, I can assure everyone that the big questions in life are not true/false or even SATAs.... they're essays.
Something to also remember is that there is so much variety in nursing careers. Even if you find out the clinical aspect isn't for you, there are many things you could do that you may also love.
Hi I want to know what you decided to do. I am currently in your shoes and I am struggling to make a decision about staying in my nursing program. I am hoping you would let me know if you finished nursing school. I would greatly appreciate it.
thank you!
NotMyProblem MSN, ASN, BSN, MSN, LPN, RN
2,690 Posts
I think you might want to figure out exactly what it is that you want to do. Seems to me that you don't really want to commit to either one.
I do beg to differ with this statement! I am very good at what I do. As for loving it....hold on, wait a minute!!