life decision

When you become a nurse working part time or full time ,your HEART has to be in it full time!Ever heard of a part time mother? No such thing! That is how it is in nursing! If you are going to make it you need to put your whole self into it. The best advice I could give you is don't concern yourself with your earning potential;people who go into nursing for a pay check burn out really quickly!

I worked part time for years as an LPn and then I have been working for a year full time as an RN.So many things are open to you in nursing.Explore your options and decide to do what you like.I couldn't imagine being anything else but a nurse! Think carefully and work hard to make your dreams come true!

I work part-time on a Med/Surg floor of a hospital. I ~COULD~ work full-time, but I'd rather have more time and sanity and have settled for less material things. I was a full-time commercial artist before I became a nurse and I never made as much money doing that full-time as I do working part-time as an RN.

You posted, "I do want a job that I care about and that I can see my impact. I have looked over this website at the Q&A's, and I am a little discouraged. I would like to here something positive from someone who is a nurse part time only?"

I don't handle the stresses of nursing as well as I'd like, and Med/Surg is full of them as are other hospital areas, but I basically like the variety found in Med/Surg and can't picture working elsewhere. (I have worked long term care right out of nursing school and can imagine possibly doing that again some day.) But as you research this board, you will find potentially less stressful areas in which to nurse and also, try to remember that this is a place for nurses to come to VENT, so you may read a lot more negatives than positives about our profession at times. Many of the nurses I work with are part-time or "casual" status who have families, and they seem very satisfied with their jobs. Many take advantage of high weekend pool pay and work night shift when their spouses can care for the children.

You have to WANT to be a nurse; nursing *IS* a job where you CAN care about your job and see an impact, but again, when you read the posts on this board, you will learn a lot about the harsh realities, too. Is there any way you could work or even volunteer at a hospital or LTC facility in your area to get more of a feel for nursing? Also, please feel free to PM me any time.

RN-PA is right on so many points. You do have to WANT to be a nurse--for caring for the people more than for getting a paycheck. It does take a certain type of person to be a nurse, not everyone is able to do it. There are, in my opinion, more demands than rewards; but the rewards are SO uplifting. These rewards, no matter how small, make the tough times easier to get through somehow.

As far as the current debt-free situation: you will be able to work yourself back out of debt again. Your son is quite young, so you should still have plenty of time to continue some sort of savings account for him.

Bottom line: if your heart is truly in wanting to be a nurse, go for it. If you do, it won't take long until you're on this site to vent along with the rest of us :)

Good luck with whatever you decide