Need advices before changing career to nurse

cardiac.cure03 · Jul 30, 2008

I would assume an electrical engineer makes pretty decent money and required a bit of education to get. So what made you think about changing careers? What about nursing got you interested?

There's waaaaaay too much to give you ALL of the info needed, so do you have any general or specific questions we can answer?

jonathanknbo · Jul 30, 2008

Hi adidasgirl0699,

Thank you for replying.

First of all, I heard that nurse field is stable through any condition of economy, so I think that I should change to nurse to take less pressure, stable job. But, i concern about my age, gender. :rolleyes:

I also heard that with MSN degree, I can work in office, not direct relate to patient. Am I right or I heard too much :confused:

Thank you for any advice or instruction.

P/S: yeas, EE can make some money, but nurse can make up the difference by overtime :up:

locolorenzo22, BSN, RN · Jul 30, 2008

Hi adidasgirl0699,
Thank you for replying.
First of all, I heard that nurse field is stable through any condition of economy, so I think that I should change to nurse to take less pressure, stable job. But, i concern about my age, gender.
I also heard that with MSN degree, I can work in office, not direct relate to patient. Am I right or I heard too much
Thank you for any advice or instruction.
P/S: yeas, EE can make some money, but nurse can make up the difference by overtime

Ok...It's possible...but with a MSN..you may need some exp with patient care...and really, nursing is ALL about caring for patients. Are you concerned with the bedside aspects, or what is it that concerns you? I would caution any nurse to be careful about NOT expecting patient care...it is what the calling of being a nurse is...Also, low pressure? Not likely.

jonathanknbo · Jul 31, 2008

Then how is a real nurse look like after going through a lot of pressure from classes, testes like TEAS, NCLEX?

Any idea?

thanks

ceecel.dee, MSN, RN · Jul 31, 2008

OK...married to an engineer. I don't think there is any person more polor opposite in occupations than a nurse and an engineer.

Why nursing?

BelleKat, BSN, RN · Jul 31, 2008

If you're thinking of going into Nursing for the money........don't.

2011NursingStudent · Jul 31, 2008

I am an IT Director switching careers to nursing. I think with any career, it is easy to get burned out. If you need the change, go for it. With an RN you could do a lot, you could even teach (well if you got your masters you could teach nursing, but rns can teach cnas...). My boyfriend's dad is also an electrical engineer for the chicago tribune & he is facing the same job security issue. This market is rough right now, and it would be nice to have the security of the healthcare field. Does the school you want to go to have a CNA program? It was a prereq @ mine, so I got to see what nursing was like. It was a lot different than I thought, way harder, but I am sticking with it. G/L to you.

RhodyGirl, RN · Jul 31, 2008

I'm also married to an engineer. He makes an excellent salary and has a fairly low stress job. I'm not sure why you want to make this switch....I saw how difficult it was for him to obtain an engineering degree. But, if that's what you really want, go for it!

whodatnurse · Jul 31, 2008

You sound as if you're drawn to nursing primarily because it's one of the professions with greater job security. You are quite right about that.

I've left a long-term IT career and will be starting a nursing program in 3 1/2 weeks. IT is a field from which growing numbers of electrical engineers, computer engineers, and software engineers are fleeing. There's quite a bit of stress because many jobs require you to be at their beckon call 24x7x365 and also want you to travel all over the place (and the hours going back and forth are all 'your' unpaid time). In addition, the majority of positions are now staffed on a contract basis, so your job security is really only for the duration of a project. To add insult to injury, when they're staffing a new project, even if you have a stellar track record, they're reluctant to put you on it if they think 'you make too much money' when they can fill the position with someone straight out of college or a foreigner with a work visa who's satisfied to work for significantly less that the usual going rate. I completely understand that kind of stress.

You really need to consider whether you think you'll find long-term satisfication in the nursing profession. Otherwise you're going to go through a lot of education only to be back in the same position you are now in a few years time. I had been thinking about going into nursing ever since I started in IT because the one thing I never liked about it was that it wasn't people-oriented enough for me.

Pretty much all of the computer science PhD's I worked with happiest working alone so they could focus their creative energies on developing innovative solutions to complex problems using computer technologies. I just don't see nursing being a good fit for those who would find having to work a great deal with people particulary draining.

Good luck to you in whatever you decide to pursue!

Riseupandnurse · Jul 31, 2008

Just from what little you've said, I would have concerns that nursing is actually what you want. Almost all nurses start out really drawn to patient care and rather high pressure situations. It's not at all easy to get a paperwork job in nursing until you've had experience at the bedside, even with an MSN. If what you are really looking for is job security, you may want to think about a different profession that might offer that. If you are envisioning paperwork and an office, also please reconsider.

jadt · Jul 31, 2008

If you want to do it for the money, then become a nurse practitioner, they can make $100,000 a year and have less stress than a doctor.