How satisfied are you with your nurse educator or APRN career?

[elephantlover, BSN, RN]

Hello,

Background:

I graduated 1 year ago with a B.S. in psychology and biomedical science. I loved my areas of study. I graduated with highest honors. My strong GPA provides a good base to go a number of different directions with my career.

I have always been indecisive about what I wanted to do with my degree. I have considered social work, clinical psychology, medicine, pharmacy, OT, PT PA, and nursing (with hopes of obtaining a graduate degree in the field).

I continue to be drawn to nursing for a number of reasons. I love that nursing offers many opportunities for advancement. I need new challenges. Ideally, I would love to do a mixture of things if I pursue nursing:

First, I would put in a few years as a bedside nurse to learn as much as I can. I want to master assessment skills and basic nursing practice before considering advancing my career. My dream ultimate dream is to earn a PhD or a DNP and teach at a university and potentially practicing as an APRN. Obviously, this is subject to change. There are many things I need to experience and accomplish in order to achieve this goal.

I also love that in nursing you build upon your previous experience. I have been a CNA for four years and I cannot imagine going to nursing school without that prior experience.

Recently I was accepted into a BSN program that will take me 15 months to complete. I am fortunate that I will be receiving a scholarship that will cover 2/3 of the program's cost. I will also be living with my parents during this time to save money.

My Concerns:

I am mostly excited about nursing. Other times, I have this nagging feeling that I might be making the wrong choice.

Nursing sounds good in theory to me, but maybe that isn't the lived experience of actual RN's. I hear very mixed things from real RNs.

Furthermore, medicine keeps popping into my head. It would be at least 2 years before I could potentially get accepted into a MD program. I have not taken the MCAT and I am missing a few prerequisites. On the other hand, I could have a 1 or 2 years of RN experience under my belt by that point.

My Question:

The biggest driving factor for me is the end goal. I want to be able to teach and practice. My impression is that there are more opportunities for educators in nursing than with medicine or other related disciplines. I am willing to put in a lot of hard work to get to that point.

If you are an APRN or nurse educator. How satisfied are you with your job? Would you do it all over again? If not what would you do? What is your advice to future nurses?

Obviously I need to make my own decision, but I would love some input from professionals in the field. Thank you!