making that decision...

[nurse2bjen7]

Hi all,

I'm a high school student (graduating this May) considering a career in nursing. I'm working on my CNA certification right now and am LOVING it!. :) I would like to pursue nursing as an RN; however, I'm also split in some aspects of nursing as a career.

I'm an avid outdoorsgal who loves fishing, hiking, singing, spending time with family & friends, and learning about the world around me. One of my teachers told me I was one to "gulp life." I also have the hopes of having a family of my own and I want to be there for my kids and husband as much as possible. I do know as we get older sacrifices have to be made however. I've come from an old fashioned family where my mom stayed at home and my father worked an outside job... I grew up on a farm... was homeschooled... etc. I'll be the first in my family to pursue college, work in the medical field, and work as a woman with an outside-of-home job. I have a great go-get em' attitude when it comes to tackling new challenges like I described and have been inspired by tons of nurses that I've known. I also have a deep passion for helping others and the world of medicine is extremely interesting to me.

But, this is the catch - Somedays when I think about being a nurse, I'm totally confident and exuberant. Other days, I really wonder if I'm nurse material or not. People ask me what I'm going to study, and I tell them nursing. The more I say this, the more confident I am. However, when I'm alone and start to think about the whole thing, I get down and wonder if it's really for me. I feel like what's causing this is the collision between your love for your work, and your love for your family and personal life. What comes first? How do you manage?

Is there anyone here that can relate to this? How did you make your decision to, or not to, go into nursing? What is it like on your days off? Is your shift so draining that you only have time to recoop, or are you able to spend time with family and do the things you love? If you could re-do anything, what would you do? I know there are so many questions in this post... just trying to get some general thought going. Thank you for any input at all no matter what it be, it is extremely appreciated!

-Jen

[Pangea Reunited, ASN, RN]

Working as a CNA might help you further make up your mind. In the meantime, you should not be calling yourself "nursejen7" until you actually graduate from nursing school. For now, you are "jen7" and soon to be "CNAJen7".

Good luck to you!

[SnowShoeRN]

I was completely ambivalent when I entered nursing school. I literally had the attitude of "Enh. We'll see where this goes for a while." I never I had a calling, I never had family in the field, I never had 1 experience that solidified dreams of being a nurse. My primary reasons for entering nursing school were the money and the portability of the career - because I really wanted to travel and be able to up and leave to go somewhere else and be reasonably certain I could find a job if I did so. At the time I figured I was still relatively young and if I absolutely hated it, I would quit and pursue something else. I realize not everyone has that luxury going into it.

I ended up having some absolutely stellar experiences during clinical which made me kinda fall in love with nursing. Or, of not fall in love, realize that there is a heck of lot more to the profession than meets the eye, I can truly helps others and that as well as their gratitude is personally extremely rewarding for me, and maybe I would be happy doing this for a long time.

But the hook for me was that oftentimes my schedule did allow for decent chunks of time off at a time. Shifts can be exhausting and yes you usually need at least a day to be sluggy in order to recuperate (or a couple on either end of time off if you're switching between night and day sleep cycles), but I loved working as a RN because I was frequently able to work 3 days in a row, schedule one week for Sun, Mon, Tues and the next week for Thurs, Fri, Sat and routinely get 8 days off at a time.

At the beginning of my career I didn't have a husband or kids so I took off a lot. I went on many small side trips and pursued a lot of other interests when I wasn't at work. I kept this up for about 5 years before I went back to school to get my MSN.

I know my story is just 1 of many, but I hope it helps you a little. :) You can always try it out for a while, save up some money, have some adventures, and go part time or stop doing it when you want to stay home and do the stay-at-home mom thing.

Best of luck in your decision.

[klone, MSN, RN]

At the age of 17 or 18, I would be more concerned if you did NOT have doubts about what you want to be when you grow up. I think we do a disservice to youth by expecting them to go to college immediately after high school and be expected to figure out what you want to do for the rest of your life by the ripe age of 20.

As far as family - many many nurses are able to successfully juggle career and family. Nursing is quite flexible in that regard - you can choose to go down to 1 or 2 shifts a week, or work just weekends or opposite shifts from your partner if you want to avoid using outside childcare.