Nurses Insight?

[Panther2014]

Hi there. I am 20 years old, female, and have recently decided that nursing may be a good route to go (BSN). However before making such a large decision and looking into nursing schools I would love the opportunity to talk to some nurses about their careers. If anyone could talk to me it would be appreciated. I have some basic medical background phlebotomy certificate, EMT training and firefighting training.

[TheCommuter, BSN, RN]

What is a typical day being an RN?

No day is typical. For instance, I no longer perform direct patient care. I work from home as a case manager for a major insurance company.

Why did you decide to become a registered nurse?

After having spent my childhood years in a household that struggled financially, I wanted a solid middle income job with room for advancement. Yes, I shamelessly became a nurse for the money.

What advice would you give to a person wanting to pursue this career in your field?

Like all jobs, nursing has its benefits as well as several drawbacks. Only you can decide if the positives outweigh the negatives.

What is nursing school and the NCLEX like?

Some people will think nursing school and NCLEX are the hardest feats to accomplish, whereas others will think they're easy. To me, nursing school entailed a bunch of time-consuming busy work, but was not extremely difficult.

Did you attend nursing school full time or part time?

I attended full-time in a stair-step progression. I started as an LVN, then completed an LPN-to-ASN bridge program, then completed an online BSN program, and now I am enrolled in an online MSN program.

[DaniB77, LPN, EMT-B]

I've been an EMT for 4 years and am working on going into nursing school. I've never been interested in the fire side of things and thankfully for my area I could do EMT and not worry about having to do FF. I have been lucky that where I am a volunteer it's about 50/50 male to female ration for the EMT's and Paramedics. I'm hoping once I get my RN that I could still do some ride time on the ambulance as a PHRN (pre-hospital registered nurse) or even EMT (I am certified in 2 states and one doesn't have same levels as the other for providers.)

I'm sorry that you had to deal with a medical diagnosis where you couldn't do the fire side that you wanted to, but as I like to look at things, everything happens for a reason.

[BeachsideRN, ASN]

After having spent my childhood years in a household that struggled financially, I wanted a solid middle income job with room for advancement. Yes, I shamelessly became a nurse for the money.

yes. I was the same. Stability and opportunities for lifelong learning.

Also, I have ever evolving interests and like variety. With nursing I am finding it's a great career to allow you to move in and out of different specialties/hospitals/niches and that is really important for me. I tend to "burn out" every few years and and want to do something kinda new but not have to go back and start from scratch.