Need Advice: Is Nursing For Me?

[PharmaRN]

Hello everybody. I'm hoping that you all will be able to give me some honest, thoughtful advice about some questions/concerns I'm having about nursing in general (and I apologize in advance if my post is a bit long-winded).

Here's a little background about me: I graduated from High School in 2004 and immediately entered college (but was not prepared or disciplined) and I was unsuccessful twice (2004 and 2005) in pursuing basic freshmen level courses and withdrew from college. After taking a few years away from it all, I returned in 2007 and have been extremely successful, maintaining a 4.0 GPA and having finished all my nursing prereqs as of Summer 2008. I applied to an accelerated nursing program (ADN) and was accepted - the program starts May, 2009 and runs for 14 months. I am now finishing my prereqs for the RN-to-BSN program, which I plan to pursue once I graduate. After that, my hope is to become a FNP.

OK, so here's where I need advice:

I have a background in healthcare (I spent three years managing a huge Long-Term Care pharmacy and am a certified pharmacy technician), but I've got no hands-on experience dealing with patient care. I chose the nursing field primarily because I enjoy helping people, because I wanted a career in healthcare, and because I wanted a career that would allow me to pursue my education in steps (prereqs, nursing school, RN-to-BSN, then grad school).

However, after reading hundreds of posts on this board, I'm starting to wonder if I really know what I'm getting myself into - I'm not sure that I truly understand what a nurse really does. I have this fear that I can't seem to get out of my head that, as an RN, my job is going to consist primarily of changing, bathing, and grooming patients, rather than primarily of assessing, caring for, and directing the care of patients. In other words, that I'll only be using my hands instead of my brain (by the way, part of this fear comes from the fact that I'm a male and have already received praise from the DON I interviewed with about how much a male like myself will be needed to lift heavy patients, etc.). Like some people on the forum, I'm squeamish about bodily fluids, so that doesn't help my fear.

I guess part of what I'm asking is: as nurses, do you all feel like you're able to really use your education? Do you feel like you've got any degree of autonomy in your job or do you feel strictly like you're taking orders? I sometimes wonder if I'm actually more interested in pursuing medical school, but I'm not in a position to pursue 10+ years of education and I don't think I want the lifestyle of an MD. This was one thing that drew me to being a nurse practitioner, but I think I picture myself in the role of FNP instead of where I'll be upon graduation, an RN. I hope that makes sense...

Please understand that my post is not meant to be demeaning or condescending in any way... I'm merely feeling a little bit lost and hoping that some of the fine people on this forum can help me approach this from a different angle.

Thank you, from the bottom of my heart, for your help and advice! :nuke:

[CuriousMe]

I don't have an answer for you, as I'm just a nursing student myself. I have have a question for you though....have you spent any time shadowing a nurse? Maybe shadow an RN in an acute care setting and maybe try and shadow an NP as well. I think that would be the best way to get the information you're looking for.

Peace,

CuriousMe

[NeoNurseTX, RN]

I definitely use my education at work (not things like history and English..) and I have a bit of autonomy. I recently took a new position that will give me a LOT of autonomy..or so I hear from the RNs that work on my new unit.

[dinah77, ADN]

Hey, I think these are totally legit questions :)

I should preface this by stating that I am NOT an RN yet, just a student so take it with a grain of salt

here is my understanding of what an RN does-

"promote wellness and health"

while an physician diagnoses illnesses, nurses diagnosis associated factors dealing with holistic health that affect the illness or place the person at risk for problems

for example

someone comes into the clinic/hospital- the physicians diagnoses them with anxiety- that is a medical diagnosis-

the nurse would asses the client who has anxiety and come with a nursing diagnosis related to anxiety that is the clients most pressing problem, based on who that client is because everyone is unique and there are different side effects of anxiety with varying degrees of severity depending on the person and their situation

So lets say this client says "I just want to sleep . If I could just get some sleep, I could focus on getting my life back in order and take better care of myself" This is very significant because the client is telling the nurse what they need- I may think that perhaps other behaviors are important, but they are telling us straight out what they need

So the RN would then write a nursing diagnosis, perhaps something like

"Sleep disturbance related to .........etc.......

A plan and outcomes would then be derived to help the client achieve rest, so that other treatments, prescribe by the physician, psychiatrist whoever can be effectively used.

Does that make sense? I've seen some of my classmates roll their eyes at the nursing diagnoses in class, like they are silly or trite- but their not- if you think about a client who can't sleep, how well are they functioning? Are they likely to benefit from talk therapy, for example, if they are so sleep deprived they can't even focus? So it is an important role.

For me it was a no brainer, once I learned the scope of what RN's do, to go to nursing school rather then med school. For me I would much rather be the person helping clients fix all the other things in their life that may prevent them from being healthy or engaging in health seeking behaviors, then be a physician simply diagnosing an illness and prescribing meds.

I know I have simplified greatly the roles and scope of practice of both nurses and physicians. My apologies to anyone I may have inadvertently offended. I just touched on a few key points that to me are the most significant.

[locolorenzo22, BSN, RN]

Speaking as a new RN, and someone who has spent the last 5.5 years in healthcare, let me tell you....patient care is primarily dealing with some hands-on tasks, but also using your brain to keep your patients safe. Customer service is a part of the job...I feel that people skills go a long way.

Do you have to change, groom, help people up and down, ease their fears, etc? Yes. But, I also have to know if a medication is going to harm them based on their vitals, if a doctor order is in the system or is contraindicated, using my professional judgement on what the patient needs.

You do have to do some hands-on care....but shame on that DON who praised you based on your muscles only. As a man, I bring a different prespective to the care and the dynamics of my unit. Some of the little old ladies like having a young man around...lol.

Body fluids take time to get used to..but as long as you use universal precautions, you're ok.

I use my education every single day....it takes the brainpower to know what I need to do when, and also how to best care for my patients.

I hope this helps, but feel free to PM me for any additonal concerns.