Im 24 years old and I don't know what I want to be!!

[LizMateo10]

Hi I'm Liz. I'm 24 years old and I'm currently working in the hospital. I am in school for Nursing but I'm doing the prerequisites right now. I am so indecisive of what I want to do as a career. I either want to be a Sonographer or a Nurse Anesthetist. I just don't know if I can smart enough to work as a Nurse Anesthetist. Am I too late to be either of one of these careers. Can someone tell me the pros and cons about the 2 positions? Is this normal to feel struck at 24 about what I really want as a career? I just don't want to study for something and not love what I'm doing! Please HELP!

[db2xs]

I'm neither a sonographer nor a CRNA but I can tell you that being 24 years old and not knowing what you want to do is actually pretty common. Many people may never find something they truly love to do, ever, and some may not figure it out until they're 54. People are fluid: Something they love today may be something they dislike tomorrow.

I don't know how it is in PR but on the mainland U.S., no one in nursing is forced into choosing and/or staying in a specialty.

[FlyMurse, BSN, RN]

I would say go to nursing school if you can. If you don't like bedside nursing you can literally do anything after a year of experience (it goes by fast. I'm on year 4 and it seems like I graduated yesterday). One of my classmates hated bedside and works at United Healthcare. A few went to NP school. Many working ICU or Tele. I think I'm the only one doing ED still. But if you can make it through school you can do anything. If you never want to touch a patient again you can go into informatics or chart auditing, legal consulting, or teaching. And if you love patient care you can do NP, CRNA or CNS.

[Icooka4u]

Re: Is this normal to feel struck at 24 about what I really want as a career?”

Hi Liz. Yes it's perfectly normal to not know what you want as a career at your age. I know people in their 40s & 50s hating their current job, but not knowing what they would prefer to be doing. That's why Liberal Arts is a wonderful thing. As you complete your prerequisites, you'll find yourself drawn to a particular(s) area: Sciences, Humanities, Psychology, Sociology, History, ect.

When you start taking your core courses (nursing) & start clinicals, you will be exposed to different areas of nursing. Again, afterwards you will probably find yourself drawn to an area or areas.

There are so many different specialties, areas (bedside, hospital, office, clinic, home care, dialysis, administravtive, research, informatics, education, medical missionary, ect), advance practice nursing; NP (Nurse Practitioner), CNS (Clinical Nurse Specialist), CRNA (Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist, DNP (Doctor of Nursing). And all of these areas have specialty areas that you can specialize in.

Re: I just don't know if I can smart enough to work as a Nurse Anesthetist”

Your not just taking courses, your growing, learning, and becoming a critical thinker. Colleges has oodles of FREE resources to help their students exceed. Your professors are experts in their area. Utilize them.

I have a girlfriend that is a FNP (Family Nurse Practitioner), teaches at a university & also works at a hospital specializing in health behaviors of Deaf Sign Language users and identifying ways to promote health and prevent or manage diseases among under-served populations... She has her Ph.D, MPA, & FNP.

If it turns out that nursing isn't for you, you can transfer all that knowledge into a career of Medical Coding & Billing. You would be amazed at how they take medical info from patients charts & transfer them into codes. And they have levels & specialties of certification as well that go to the Ph.D level.

Basically the sky's the limit. Good luck and enjoy your journey!