Nursing vs. Engineering

Nurses Career Support

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So I am debating on whether or not to choose engineering or nursing as my major. I have done much much research on both professions, I have also shadowed a nurse that I know during her job to get an idea of what nursing is about. I have interest in both engineering and nursing, those are the only two things that I would want to go to college for (aside from maybe political science, but I wont go there:lol2:). I believe I am competent enough for either path, I am fairly good and both enjoy math, and love science and philosophy/theories. So my general question is, have any of you or anyone that you know had a career in nursing that went to engineering, or vice versa? How about have any of you studied engineering and went to nursing, or vice versa. If you were an engineer or a nurse and changed, what made you? I realize that this forum is mainly towards nursing (there really isn't any engineering forums like this one, and if there are I would love to visit it), but do you enjoy your work. I figured if I wanted to be a nurse I would want to work in critical care or ER, mainly because I'm a guy and feel that as more "manly" (corny, I know), and if I was to choose engineering I would most likely choose mechanical engineering. Thank you for your responses.

Also I'd like to make a note of some of my far-future, personal goals I have for myself. I would like sometime in the future to get into politics, so my general question is being on a nursing forum, how easy is it for nurses to get into politics and can they find success in that detestable area of human ventures :p?

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Specializes in ICU.

How about biomechanical engineer?

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Run.. from nursing. If you have a chance in engineering.. there is no question.:cool:

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Specializes in ICU.

I am a nurse, my cousin and friends are all engineers. Neither understands what exactly the other ones do:)

I am jealous of the engineers, they make almost twice as much as I, barely work at work, and get 2 hour lunch breaks, and play a lot on the computer. Making much, much money.

2 different skill sets from what I understand. I don't know if I could be an engineer, and my engineering friends said they couldn't be nruses.

Except the engineer I worked with who went decided to become a nurse. he wanted a 3 day work week. I kid you not. And he got very, very luck to get into the ICU right away, and is now an HD nurse.

But keep in mind, these days even the nursing economy is rough. Nurses are having grand aspirations of getting into critical/care, ER and it's hard enough to get a job. You used to be get in fairly quickly, but these days it takes a lot longer in most instances.

Good luck in what you decide.

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MomRn, why did the engineer decide to become a nurse in the first place? Was it only because of the 3 day work week?

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Specializes in ICU.

The flexible 3 day work week flexible schedule was a big part of it.

He also said he felt engineering was boring to him.

Due to his culture, a good portion of the people he knew were nurses, so he decided to give it a try.

It did work out well for him, because he is where he wanted to be in nursing right now.

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Been there,done that said:
Run.. from nursing. If you have a chance in engineering.. there is no question.:cool:

Can I ask you, why you feel the way you feel?

I apologize to the OP in advance if this information is too vague. My brother completed his 1st year in nursing, but he has dropped out and has applied for engineering. He most likely will get admitted to the college, though I am not sure how well he will fare out for his aim of becoming a civil engineer.

But I will say this: for him, personally, he really ended up not liking nursing at all. He was unhappy there, found clinicals to be too demanding. Didn't like the fact that he'll be cleaning up people's fecal matter, bathing people and found the schooling to be unreasonable. So while he is not studying engineering, this is part of his perspective in nursing.

Having said that... it is really hard to say, what the turnout will be. And how much you would like a profession, until you've at least tried it out (at least the schooling). Have you shadowed any engineers? It might be worth looking into.

My sister and I did a really funny thing for kicks, once. We went to a career fair at our university. We pretended to be engineering majors, and said that we were close to graduation. We had quite a few business cards given to us, and were recommended to apply for their positions.

It was fun, we got a lot of pens and pads that day.

I guess what I am saying is: Engineering is in demand, and I don't think you will deal with people being angry at you nearly as much as you will have to in nursing. Sick people will scream and yell at you, even though it is not your fault. With engineering, the hours are more typical.

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I'm in nursing school and my boyfriend is a mechanical engineer. I understand why you are drawn to both fields since both are such technical degrees. I think that your job as an engineer would be easier and you would make more money but, you most likley will be sitting in a cube all day.

I think you need to ask yourself (a) would rather have a job where you are moving about and always on your feet or would rather work on a computer and always be sitting. (b) Do you like interacting with people? As a nurse you will work with people on a daily basis, as an engineer you will mostly work independently. They are two drastically different work enviornments.

I saw someone elses comment on here, I think working as a biomedical engineer would be awesome, or even a mechanical enginner in a medical setting.

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Nursestudent2354 said:
I'm in nursing school and my boyfriend is a mechanical engineer. I understand why you are drawn to both fields since both are such technical degrees. I think that your job as an engineer would be easier and you would make more money but, you most likley will be sitting in a cube all day.

I think you need to ask yourself (a) would rather have a job where you are moving about and always on your feet or would rather work on a computer and always be sitting. (b) Do you like interacting with people? As a nurse you will work with people on a daily basis, as an engineer you will mostly work independently. They are two drastically different work enviornments.

I saw someone elses comment on here, I think working as a biomedical engineer would be awesome, or even a mechanical enginner in a medical setting.

That's a thing I had in mind. I DON'T want a job where I am confined to a cubicle for most of the day. I DO want a job where I am interacting with people on a daily basis. However I sometimes think that although engineering may have more of my current interest, I don't want to be sitting in a desk all day designing toasters or developing new scents of soap. Then on the other side of the spectrum, I don't want to put the time into nursing and discover the only thing my degree entails is that I'm a professional *** wiper who ocassionaly gets to stick somebody with a needle.

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My husband studied engineering but even when the economy was good, engineering jobs were hard to come by so he never actually was an engineer. I know a civil engineer who is successful but his jobs vary by location and he can have a hellish commute for months at a time.

I went into IT and decided I hate sitting in an office everyday. So I'm switching to nursing. the pay is good but I just can't do it any more.

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leenak said:
My husband studied engineering but even when the economy was good, engineering jobs were hard to come by so he never actually was an engineer. I know a civil engineer who is successful but his jobs vary by location and he can have a hellish commute for months at a time.

I went into IT and decided I hate sitting in an office everyday. So I'm switching to nursing. the pay is good but I just can't do it any more.

Good luck to you! I hope you can find something that can fulfil your needs.

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Has anyone studied engineering and chosen to go back to school for nursing?

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