Nursing as Second Career

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Just curious, I would love to hear from any nurses/nursing students/etc.

Is nursing a second career for you? If so what did you do before, when and why did you decide to go into nursing?

I will be working toward a BSN starting January, and also plan to become a CNA or SNA while I am getting my degree. For the past 6 years I have worked in marketing for an ice-cream company. Marketing, I have found no matter how fun the product, is not fulfilling to me. My mom is an NP and I have always had so much respect for what she does, her knowledge and her usefulness to society. I can't wait to start down that path!

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Specializes in ICU, CCU, Trauma, neuro, Geriatrics.

Good luck to you! I entered nursing as a career after 15 years of being a self employed Farrier(horseshoer/ horse podiatrist). I also trained and bred horses. I went into nursing after finding a lot of satisfaction in pre-hospital medicine as a paramedic. I was also contemplating a divorce and had 2 kids at the time and got pregnant with a 3rd during school. Prior to attending nursing school I told my ex that if he didn't clean up his act and be a better husband and father I was going to get a good paying job and leave when I finished nursing school. He had some time to think about this and work on the issues and yes I put us into counceling too. All I got out of that was one more kid to support. I have been a nurse for 12 years now and don't regret one minute of it.

I have held a number of jobs during my life that were medicine related. I worked as a nurse aid for a year when I finished farrier school to help pay for the expenses of starting a business. I worked as a unit clerk in a busy ER saturday and sunday nights for a little over a year while I attended pre-req classes during the day for nursing. I worked a 24 hour shift 6am saturday to 6am sunday as a paramedic while I attended nursing school.

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I was a grade 7-12 English teacher. Once I taught in a TINY school district with a volunteer ambulance run by a fellow teacher. He basically shoved the EMT book at me and said "Class starts tonight at 7:00." I was a volunteer EMT for two years. I worked part time as an Aide at the local hospital, and I finally got up the nerve to quit a relatively well-paying job a year ago, and I'm now in a BSN program. I am SOOO glad I quit teaching. So far I'm having a lot of fun in nursing school! It's weird to go from a respected worker to a grunt student with squat, but I like it anyway :rolleyes:

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There is a terrific thread going on right now about just this. It is called, Anyone start their career late in life-you can find it under success stories in nursing. Krisssy

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Hi Tencat- I had the same career switch- school nurse teacher-elementary teacher 25 years-refresher course in nursing-starting graduate school to become psych nurse. I loved teaching but got burnt out and had had enough of all those papers to mark and lesson plans to do. When I took the refresher course, it did feel strange to go from knowing my profession so well to starting from scratch. But , like you I just loved it. Good luck! krisssy

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There is a terrific thread going on right now about just this. It is called, Anyone start their career late in life-you can find it under success stories in nursing. Krisssy

Hi Krissy -

Thanks for the suggestion, I will check that out. Although I guess I wouldn't consider 30 years old "late in life" :-)

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