Not Sure About Nursing

iNurs5, CNA · May 12, 2022

Don't do it if you don't want to. Life is too short to do something you see as meaningless.

Hope21 · May 12, 2022

Have you shadowed both jobs to see what the day to day life is like? If not, I would recommend doing that for some clarity.

Freckledkorican, MSN, APRN · May 16, 2022

Well, you said you always thought about law school. Plus, this makes me think you'd be happier pursuing law.

On 5/12/2022 at 3:29 PM, HadNar323 said:

The admiration due to the prestige that they get when people find out that they are doing law is astonishing.

Good luck!

kbrn2002, ADN, RN · May 16, 2022

If money is a consideration in your decision I'd lean toward law, and when is money ever not a factor in job/career choices? Lifetime career earnings will definitely be better in law. A law career likely doesn't start out with huge earnings but there is much more potential for wage growth in law than there is in nursing.

Getting an MSN won't earn you any more money or at most a very small advantage in wages as a bedside nurse than an BSN or even an ADN. While an MSN opens more doors for career advancement it's not necessarily worth the additional cost of the more advanced degree unless you have a firm career goal in mind where that MSN is required. You'll likely find any career path requiring at least an MSN will also have you back in school for the PhD to really open up options.

Not to mention if you are really undecided if nursing is path for you I can't recommend it. Just a quick read around here will have you convinced how dissatisfied in their jobs a lot of nurses are about now. Stagnant wages, lousy benefits, chronic understaffing leading to chronic overworking are just the tip of the iceberg. Most career advancement opportunities that get you away from the daily grind of bedside nursing will require a fair amount of experience in the trenches before moving up the ladder is even possible and no guarantee that move results in more job satisfaction after climbing the career ladder.

**CommunityRNBSN, BSN, RN** · May 21, 2022

On 5/12/2022 at 3:29 PM, HadNar323 said:

I come from a non-nursing background and was recently admitted to a great entry-level MSN program with the plan to start this fall. The only problem is that I am having second thoughts about nursing as a career. I am a pretty indecisive person in general and I feel like every week I come to a new conclusion regarding nursing. One week I'm proud that I was accepted into my top school of choice with a GREAT MSN program, and the next week I want to withdraw my registration and do something else. I have always dreamed of nursing but I didn't really think I could become one. I don't know if that is due to self-doubt, or actually not wanted to do nursing in general. I've also always thought about law school. At the beginning of last year I had an epiphany and decided that I NEEDED to go back to school. I've been out of school for about 5 years and have been working in a non-clinical role at a hospital ever since. I began to think about going back to school and I was between law and nursing. Some people told me to do nursing, some people told me to do law school, in the end, I was confident that I wanted to do nursing school. I completed all of my pre-reqs, I took classes over the Summer & fall while continuing to work full time and I was able to apply to two programs at the end of the year. I was recently accepted into my #1 choice and accepted the offer, but now I am second-guessing myself and the career in general. I've been doing some research and I've been reading things about nursing that have thrown me off. COVID hasn't really helped the situation either, reading about burn-out, feeling unappreciated and being thrown in the front lines doesn't sit well with me. I also read up on the cases of the nurses who were criminally charged for something they did at work and the whole hospital environment is just off-putting to me. Sorry for this really long post, I just want to add as much information as I can. I've been trying to research what kind of nursing career I would like to have, and I can't find anything that stands out to me. My boyfriend is currently in law school and his sister is a lawyer. The admiration due to the prestige that they get when people find out that they are doing law is astonishing.

I need help!

My husband is an attorney. He does corporate litigation for a nationally-known firm. I have a few thoughts:

1) He has been incredibly lucky to land here. He went to a top-10 law school, and even so, some of his classmates never landed decent jobs, and ended up in other fields. Some others are lawyers, but in smaller firms or public service and can barely play the rent. The stats are much, much worse if you go to a lower-tier school. Unlike doctors, there isn't a cap on the number of law schools in this country. There are way, way too many people with law degrees for the number of job that exist.

3) He earns a ton, which is great. He works a TON. A ton. We cancel vacations. He likes his job, and he enjoys working hard, so I'm not saying he shouldn't have become a lawyer, but it isn't like nursing where you clock out and go home. He's responsible for his cases 7 days a week, 24 hours a day.

4) Being a lawyer is prestigious, but honestly, since the pandemic started I get a lot more compliments on my job than he does.

The world needs both nurses and lawyers, so you need to do whichever thing you think you'd be happiest doing. I just wanted to provide my context, since most of this site is people bitching about how much they hate nursing, LOL. With nursing, you are more or less guaranteed to always be able to find a job doing nursing. They will tell you up front what you earn per hour, and you will earn that for however many hours you clock in. Then you will give report and leave and go home and your patients become someone else's problem.

Guest1144461 · Jun 13, 2022

Medicine is prestigious still. Law is meh. Just like MBA schools it depends on the school you go to. For many schools, all you need is a pulse and a degree. Still fascinates the layperson though, as historically law was a prestigious profession.