Need advice and insight

[youknowhowwedoit77]

Quick Background: 35 yo male. My wife is an OR nurse and has been her whole career. I have been reading the posts on this forum for a while and wanted to see if anyone would share their views. I have been accepted to Law School and am not sure the 60-hour weeks away from my family are acceptable but I would love the autonomy the work provides. The person I was before I started the journey of becoming a Lawyer is much different today. Money was the end all, to be all. Now I am leaning more towards what I can give, than what I can get. Because of this shift in thought and my wonderful wife I have been considering becoming an RN.

The first thing people usually say is that being an attorney or being an RN are so different how can I even consider the two. I contend that both professions exist to help people in their time of need. They both demand that you give of yourself and your compassion. But I think that you have to have a killer instinct in one of them. I will let you decide which.

Let me get to the issue at hand. I seem to hear everywhere that there is a nursing shortage and that hospitals are clamoring for nurses. Just this morning my wife calls me upset that yet again the hospital in a moment of genius has decided to take something else away from the nurses in the OR. The nurses have always had a morning break of about 15 minutes in the morning usually around 9 to take care of bathroom breaks and maybe a cup of coffee. The Docs complained to the hospital and the powers that be have decided, "No more morning breaks." Now I only share this story because to me it has been the same story I have heard from her and the other RN's I have known. It seems the hospitals value the RN's so very little and yet the RN's are the backbone of the institution. In other words I have never received a call or been told by another nurse, "Hey guess what the hospital gave us." But I have had many, many phone calls and conversations about what the hospital has decided to take away.

Even in the information sessions given by the local nursing colleges that I have attended there is an undercurrent of disdain for the prospective students. When I consider this together with the knowledge I have gleamed from current RN's it seems that the valuation of nurses is far below what it should be. My concern is that we all know s*** rolls down hill but it seems an unseemly amount lands on the nurses.

Is my perspective skewed? Am I seeing something that is not there? Am I not seeing something that is there? All of this information is from the females in my life, could that be coloring my perception? I just want to do something that at the end of the day I am proud of. I have went on long enough I really look forward to your responses.

[RN1989]

Unless you go to school for further degrees, like an NP, it is unlikely that you will have the autonomy that you crave. I've only worked in a few hospitals that had the policies and protocols set up for the nurses to practice somewhat autonomously. Most of the other facilities had a history of nurses screwing up too badly and so the little bit of autonomy they had was taken away. Nurses must have a physician's order for most things so there is not a lot of autonomy anyway.

There are no guarantees when it comes to finding a job that you will be able to live with as an adult male who has already lived a life before deciding to go into nursing.

My husband considered nursing as a possibility after the military. He is much happier having decided against nursing. That autonomy was an issue for him. As well as being lumped in overall with nurses that get treated poorly. The fact that we went into great debt to get him where he is now was worth it. He loves his job and what he loves about his job is not available in nursing.

I noticed that one poster said that getting respect was pretty much up to you. For interpersonal relationships with other nurses, that is probably true. You might even be able to pull that respect thing off with a few docs if you become friendlier than most nurses get with them.

But overall......in the end you are just a nurse and will be lumped in with everyone else when the docs get mad at "stupid nurses" and start a tirade. You'll still be lumped in when everyone gets screwed by management for the third time in 2 days.

It's great to think that if you act like you're worth something that people will treat you with respect. In nursing it doesn't work that way. With so many people in the profession who are unwilling to fight for good working conditions, your one voice will have a hard time being heard above the crowd. You'd have to work extra hard to try to get that respect on a more widespread level. I don't think that it is worth it these days, unless you love nursing with your whole being and can't imagine being anything but a nurse.

[nads786]

just wanted to know OP, what is ur current profession?

[youknowhowwedoit77]

To answer your question: I have been many things from real estate investor to computer programmer. I have been really lucky in the way I have always landed in different positions that were interesting and very flexible. The Lord has blessed me with many opportunities. We lost our child to cancer 2 years ago and my life has spun out of control so as of now I would consider myself a suffering professional student.

Hopefully this helps you to ascertain my position and reasoning. Look forward to your insights.

[nads786]

Have you been a CNA yet? or volunteered?

personally IMO being a CNA will prob make you not want to be a nurse, bc of the back breaking work as well as the non-technical aspects of the job

but maybe your experience will be different, this is a tuff decision to make

have you been to a job that was on your feet for hours at a time?

does that matter?

very interested in your final decision, if i can be of many more help ask away!

[RNDave]

So sorry to hear about your loss. It must be difficult to say the least. From your questions and comments I think you'd be a fine RN.

You mentioned whether we male RN's feel respected as professionals. For the most part I would say yes. I think professionalism is mainly a product of self conduct and self respect. With regard to having to 'look busy' for management, that is not an issue for me. I am busy! The issue really is how well do you use your time and resources to keep on top of things.

Cheers and good luck!

Dave

[Music in My Heart]

I only ask because personally I need some autonomy...

From half way through my second semester of nursing school, after many years as an engineer, there appears to be a real dearth of autonomy for nurses.

[Music in My Heart]

We lost our child to cancer 2 years ago and my life has spun out of control...

I'm really sorry that you and your wife had to go through that awful experience. I must say, though, that such tragedy provides you with resources that most nurses do not have.

Part of my motivation to leave engineering for nursing (nearly everybody shakes their head when I tell them what I did) are several experiences with major health problems for my little girl. Having seen the good and the bad of nurses' behavior and attitude from a patient's perspective has provided a lot of motivation to be one of the good nurses.

[RNDave]

I'm not sure what you mean by autonomy. As RN's we have a lot of independent patient care decisions to make. If clinical indicators suggest that a patient needs a certain med or lab study it's up to the RN to contact the MD to have that ordered. We have autonomy as patient advocates and to some extent as delegators. I only have a year under my belt, but, from what little I know, certain specialties have more autonomy than others, e.g., ER and ICU.

[youknowhowwedoit77]

rndave

when i speak of autonomy it is very much related to self delegation. i will compare it to what i know.

when i was a programmer i would be given a task. write program x for this project. they would tell me it needs to be done on a certain date. it was completely up to me when, how, where and at what pace i completed the project. middle of the night on a tuesday or while i have a beer on the beach.

from the information i have gathered from my friends that are attorneys it seems very comparable to that. here is an excerpt from a friend

i work about 6 days a week however this job gives me the flexibility to take long lunches or go home early when i want to or even come in late if i don't feel like getting up. one thing that you will get used to quickly, which they don't teach in law school, is calendar deadlines. everything has a date certain when it is due it is your job to get it finished correctly and filed. the partners don't really care how or when its done so long as it is done right and on time.

when i speak of autonomy this is what i am talking about. being given a task and being able to use my own expertise and knowledge to complete the task. in the basic sense not having someone monitoring my every move. i hope this makes more sense now.

[RNDave]

rndave

when i speak of autonomy it is very much related to self delegation. i will compare it to what i know.

when i was a programmer i would be given a task. write program x for this project. they would tell me it needs to be done on a certain date. it was completely up to me when, how, where and at what pace i completed the project. middle of the night on a tuesday or while i have a beer on the beach.

from the information i have gathered from my friends that are attorneys it seems very comparable to that. here is an excerpt from a friend

i work about 6 days a week however this job gives me the flexibility to take long lunches or go home early when i want to or even come in late if i don't feel like getting up. one thing that you will get used to quickly, which they don't teach in law school, is calendar deadlines. everything has a date certain when it is due it is your job to get it finished correctly and filed. the partners don't really care how or when its done so long as it is done right and on time.

when i speak of autonomy this is what i am talking about. being given a task and being able to use my own expertise and knowledge to complete the task. in the basic sense not having someone monitoring my every move. i hope this makes more sense now.

an an rn you won't be monitored closely, except during your preceptorship. you are the one providing treatment and signing progress notes and mar's. you will have the authority to use your expertise and knowledge to complete things when it best fits your schedule. of course these will be patient centered tasks that need to be done sometime during your shift or passed on to the next shift. and then there are times when things get put on hold or delegated to other rn's because you have a patient who needs more attention, e.g., codes, respiratory/cardiac distress, change in condition. it's a job with some independence and a lot of teamwork thrown in, if that makes sense.

dave

[RN1989]

The autonomy with nurses is much different. Although we generally don't have a manager breathing down are necks all day, we are governed by state and federal regulations, third party guidelines, and professional assoiation standards along with doctor's orders in EVERYTHING that we do. There is some small bit of autonomy in the way that we perform those tasks but overall, you aren't given a job and told "here it is, don't care how you do it, just get the end result done". Most tasks have a right and a wrong way to perform them, allowing the nurse little deviation from the standard way of doing things.

We do not get to choose how soon to perform most tasks. If we did get to make such choices - we'd all be fired for being disorganized and not "getting it all done" in our shift. We don't get the luxury of procrastinating. Many nurses barely get a pee break, much less a lunch break.

We are expected to do more with less in less time without the tools needed to succeed. Other professions have similar issues but none to the extreme extent that nursing does. Nurses daily lack the tools needed to perform their duties, whether those tools are education, meds, enough staff, fresh linen. No matter the lack of tools, we are expected to carry on as if we had all the time and supplies in the world, with the threat of termination or losing your license if you mess up constantly looming over us.

The autonomy that the OP speaks of is not available in nursing unless perhaps you are an NP working in a doc's office with little supervision and plenty of staff and supplies.

[nads786]

The autonomy with nurses is much different. Although we generally don't have a manager breathing down are necks all day, we are governed by state and federal regulations, third party guidelines, and professional assoiation standards along with doctor's orders in EVERYTHING that we do. There is some small bit of autonomy in the way that we perform those tasks but overall, you aren't given a job and told "here it is, don't care how you do it, just get the end result done". Most tasks have a right and a wrong way to perform them, allowing the nurse little deviation from the standard way of doing things.

We do not get to choose how soon to perform most tasks. If we did get to make such choices - we'd all be fired for being disorganized and not "getting it all done" in our shift. We don't get the luxury of procrastinating. Many nurses barely get a pee break, much less a lunch break.

We are expected to do more with less in less time without the tools needed to succeed. Other professions have similar issues but none to the extreme extent that nursing does. Nurses daily lack the tools needed to perform their duties, whether those tools are education, meds, enough staff, fresh linen. No matter the lack of tools, we are expected to carry on as if we had all the time and supplies in the world, with the threat of termination or losing your license if you mess up constantly looming over us.

The autonomy that the OP speaks of is not available in nursing unless perhaps you are an NP working in a doc's office with little supervision and plenty of staff and supplies.

I am just a student,

but i was wondering how come u cant get a bathroom break?

when i worked as a CNA some of the other cnas chose not to take em bc it was really busy, but i took them anwyz ( it didnt win me any friends) but i felt like i really needed them,

is this the same way in nursing, or is it even harder because of the greater responsilibty of a nurse