is nursing right for me

[samantha7]

Hi everyone. I am going into my senior year of nursing school (BSN), and I am still not liking the profession as I hoped. I enjoyed pediatrics, but have not liked any of my other clinicals so far.. Starting to think nursing is no longer for me, but feel its too late to turn back now. Any ideas of jobs with a BSN degree other than bedside??? I do enjoy the health care field and the doctors office setting but would not want to sacrifice the pay cut! Any ideas/advice would be great!!

[Sour Lemon]

There are jobs away from the bedside, but they usually require experience. The ones that don't require experience, as you suspect, don't usually pay well.

You're going to have to decide what you can live with and what you can't. We'd all love "easy" jobs at top pay, but that's not realistic- especially for a new graduate.

[verene, MSN]

If you enjoyed your peds rotation then consider getting a peds job when you graduate - that way you can get some experience under your belt. There are a lot of non-bedside jobs out there but they usually require at least a couple of years of RN experience before you can move into them. Or you might consider community health / clinic nursing if those areas interest you. The pay isn't quite as a high as the in-patient setting, but the job satisfaction may be higher.

[MiladyMalarkey, ASN, BSN]

Perhaps you could consider being a public health RN in your local community/county? Pay may not be as high as hospital pay but they usually have good benefits/retirement pensions. Many, if not most (at least in my area) do work at doctor offices/clinics. It would be away from bedside. And often you'd work with children or under served communities. Just an area you could perhaps investigate, experience may be required but that is something you could look into. Good luck.

[TessLJ]

I'd be interested to know what made you choose nursing for your degree. Also, what was it that you didn't like about your other clinicals? And what was it you liked about your pediatric one? Nursing school is hard as h3ll, and I don't really recall enjoying ~any~ of my clinicals, but I learned a lot back then, and my 25 year career has been very rewarding.