Is Nursing right for me?

[bu_jonathan]

I'm a 29 year old with a background in engineering. My bachelor's is in Mechanical Engineering, and I have had a successful career as an engineer working in automotive and aerospace. However, despite moving up quickly, I've never felt much passion or fulfillment by my career as an engineer.

Earlier this year, I started volunteering at a pediatric hospital in the rehabilitation and neuroscience units helping hospital staff with patient activities. I felt more more satisfaction after 2 hours of volunteering a week than I did at 50+ hours of working at my day job!

I originally became involved with hospital volunteering because I was born with a condition called Ehlers-Danlos Syndome (EDS). Its a connective-tissue hyper-mobility syndrome. As a kid, the local pediatric hospital system made a big on impact on me. After I started volunteering, I realized that health care would be a career that I'd be very passionate about, given my personal background.

I would love to work in an area like Rehabilitation or Orthopedics, with patients that have had life-changing diagnoses, and work with those patients on improving their function and outlook.

But, I'm wondering if nursing would be the best fit for me, given my EDS? I consider myself a normal adult. But i do know that heavy-lifting/manual labor, and repetitive tasks are not for me. Can anyone comment on what the physical demands of a nurse are?

[Nhenry2B]

Have you looked into OT or PT? When I read your post, those two fields immediately jumped out at me as perhaps more fitting. But of course, only you would know best! Do your research and hopefully all else will fall into place. Good luck!