Nursing

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Hello Nurses,

I am almost ready to apply to a dental hygiene program, but now that I have finished my pre-reqs and have been around many pre-nursing people I am starting to change my mind. I have worked in dental for four years and find working for a small business very taxing at times. I was also recently diagnosed with general anxiety disorder which I find is pretty well controlled with paxil. Is nursing so stressful that I should not even consider it? Any other dental people switch to medicine? Any nurses dealing with GAD?

Thank you for your time!

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Specializes in Med Surg, ER, OR.

Nursing is a very stressful profession. Yes as in any profession, you will deal with people who are not interested/satisfied with your business. I have no experience working in the dental field, but as an RN who has his teeth regularly cleaned, I would say go with dental. There is money to be made, and the benefit is that you only have one pt you focus on at a time. When there time is up, they leave. Not like in nursing. If there is a pt that w/I don't particularly care for, I still have another 11 hours to spend with them.

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I'd suggest shadowing a couple of times to get an idea of what it is like and if you would find it stressful.

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Specializes in Case mgmt., rehab, (CRRN), LTC & psych.

When you say GAD, are you referring to generalized anxiety disorder? If so, I'd get that addressed before pursuing any type of nursing career. Nursing will expose you to high stress levels, and you will not be able to be there for others if you are constantly feeling anxious or panicky.

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Specializes in LTC.

Stick with dental...Nursing is stressful....but like they said, try to shadow or something.

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