What do you guys think? I have been a hospice volunteer for three years, and I love it. I do; however, understand that my role as a volunteer is a world away from that of a nurse. Working with hospital admin scares me. I've been fired from a lot of jobs because I'm not a conformist, some people don't understand, don't want to hear my opinions, don't feel comfortable seeing someone who is different, offbeat, whatever, I stick out so I get quietly let go, especially if its a very institutional culture. I have an architecture degree and some of that experience, been a bicycle mechanic, a caterer, and many other jobs. I live in SF and went back to school for nursing for the challenge and because I want a real profession I can get excited about (not like catering). I went back and did my pre req courses and other courses for a total of 64 units with a 3.8 gpa. I was planning on applying to a master's program for nursing.
Enter my parents who are both dentists. When they saw my interest in the health professions, and noticed how well I did in two years of school full time plus work, they have extolled the virtues of dentistry, and have gone as far as to offer to pay for dental school if I do the extra school and have what it takes to get accepted. This is a challenge and opportunity. I have started shadowing dentists, and I agree its an awesome field, but also with the added work of running a practice.
I can't seem to shadow a nurse the same way, unfortunately. What do you guys think? I value the opinions of others in the field and I do realize they are just that and we are all different. I value you especially for your experience in the profession and the perspective you might be able to help me with. Either way I am caring for people, but as a nurse I get to do it in a different way and be able to move around easily. As a dentist I can work for myself, but I am tied to a practice. Unfortunately I fid both professions immensely challenging and interesting.
whew, all the time i thought i was the only one who feels the way you guys feel. Though not yet a nursing degree holder, but I'm on my last year of my schooling. Some people put me down, telling me all im gonna do is wipe other people's crap. It gets me annoyingly mad . I don't fire back cause i understand that they got tiny brains to comprehend that nurses do more than wiping other people's crap . One of my younger cousins ask me for advice about getting a nursing degree, i told him that he got to start liking books because he's gonna be reading a lot of it. I shared to him one thing that i learned from my internship that when you get into nursing, you'll see things that ordinary people don't see everyday. Ranging from unusual patient cases to trauma victims up to real life drama. One of those drama i learned from is the value of "hope", how one family loses their mind and burst into tears when a family member had a code blue and ends into a flat line, and another family who had the same thing but didn't burst into tears because they drew hope out of their religious belief (i hope i dont instigate any religious debate). I learned from my internship to practice restraint so as not to end up in court because i smack some patient or family members for being a**holes. But the best thing i learned after all the hardwork and sacrifices i have to do to get my nursing degree(wish me luck because im about to graduate next year) is that everytime i see my client/patient getting well especially when i see those pqrst waves running again, i know i did something for that person to be living again.
Today I looked after a Pt who was driving a car involved in a single vehicle rollover, her parents were also admitted to hospital and another family member was killed, as you can imagine the grief and guilt were pretty intense. During my shift my interactions with her started with basic "mental status checks"and developed into short conversations. Imagine the feeling when I went in to check on her she was laughing with friends about one of our conversations.
That is the feeling that makes all the bad stuff related to nursing pale in insignificance.
And to all those nurses who think that it is poor Pt care, telling a Pt to practice an ëxorcist" voice to match their beaten up face and go to peads to scare the kids. Hasn't tried it on the right Pt.
When I was alot younger I had problems getting along with management also. I thought it was because I was just not a "conformist". As I look back I now know it was because I had poor people skills and thought I knew everything better than my coworkers. If someone is not a conformist and gets fired alot for not being able to get along with others I would not recommed nursing. NO WAY - NO HOW! In my mind it raises some serious red flags.
Getting along with your supervisors, co-workers and butt head patient/family members is an absolutley ctitical skill for being a nurse. You cannot be a loner/non-conformist/do it your way person in nursing. If you cant bite your tounge, keep smiling and do your job in spite of what you think of your supervisors, don't waste your time going to nursing school.
I think as a Dentist you would have more autonomy and get to have things your way more often even though I believe you would find out you still work for someone else. (your customers/patients)
Go into nursing. If you decide to go into another MD/PhD program such as denistry, medicine or vet school a nursing degree well you have 4 years to think about it. Colleges do a disservice to students who are pre-med, pre-denistry etc. by pushing them into Biology b/c biology students are cheap to edcuate and therefore profitable. The problem is if you don't make it you are stuck with a Biology degree and what good is that going to do?
You'll get a better edcuation in medicine and even denistry by going into a 4 year health care field such as Nursing, medical technology, physician assistant etc.
joe_alfred73
3 Posts
whew, all the time i thought i was the only one who feels the way you guys feel. Though not yet a nursing degree holder, but I'm on my last year of my schooling. Some people put me down, telling me all im gonna do is wipe other people's crap. It gets me annoyingly mad
. I don't fire back cause i understand that they got tiny brains to comprehend that nurses do more than wiping other people's crap 
. One of my younger cousins ask me for advice about getting a nursing degree, i told him that he got to start liking books because he's gonna be reading a lot of it. I shared to him one thing that i learned from my internship that when you get into nursing, you'll see things that ordinary people don't see everyday. Ranging from unusual patient cases to trauma victims up to real life drama. One of those drama i learned from is the value of "hope", how one family loses their mind and burst into tears when a family member had a code blue and ends into a flat line, and another family who had the same thing but didn't burst into tears because they drew hope out of their religious belief (i hope i dont instigate any religious debate). I learned from my internship to practice restraint so as not to end up in court because i smack some patient or family members for being a**holes. But the best thing i learned after all the hardwork and sacrifices i have to do to get my nursing degree(wish me luck because im about to graduate next year) is that everytime i see my client/patient getting well especially when i see those pqrst waves running again, i know i did something for that person to be living again.