Please help me! Not sure what to do!

[juligo26]

**Everyone's opinion or thoughts are welcomed. The more the merrier.**

So I just graduated with my AA to become a teacher and now i am going for my BA at a CUNY 4 year college to become an elementary education teacher (grades 1-6). I love working with kids and I want to be apart of their education and having an influence in these young minds. But I also love helping and caring for people, and someone mentioned to be if I ever thought of becoming a nurse. I use to when i was younger but the problem is, blood makes me uncomfortable, so I always thought I cant become a nurse if i cant look at blood. :/ Plus in my college they don't have a nursing program so i cant even speak to anyone about my interest. I've also checked on websites that does medical assistant training, but I wonder is that the easy way out? Instead of getting your BS or getting your RN licensed? Please guys help me or give me your thoughts; i would so appreciate it.

Thank you!!

[NicoleLynch, ADN, BSN, RN]

It's wonderful that you are great with children and you already have one of your degrees to be a teacher. And good teachers who love what they do help people mentally and intellectually, if not physically. Truthfully, if blood bothers you bad enough, nursing may not be your best bet. You will see every bodily fluid that you can think of that a person has and some you might not even know about. If you think you can get past the blood issue and you feel like nursing is for you, maybe try being a CNA or medical assistant first before spending hard-earned time and money on getting your RN or BSN. You'll have to take a certification course, but it would definitely give you some perspective on whether you want to be a nurse or not. CNA's see it all. Good luck!

[NurseGirl525, ASN, RN]

There are ways to get over the aversion to blood. I just did a paper in my Psych class on hemophobia. I read an interesting paper on a girl who wanted to be a nurse but the smell of blood made her vomit and pass out. They did a therapy on her and she overcame it. The question is, is it all bodily fluids that will make you sick? If so, nursing might not be for you as you will come into contact with lots of fluids and smelly stuff. It's a job full of gross stuff. There are lots of ways to help people. Medical assisting is a lot of paperwork and it sounds like you want to deal directly with people. I would either continue on your teaching career (I do not have the patience to do it and I applaud anyone that can) or I would look into seeing if you can deal with blood. Maybe volunteer at a hospital or shadow a nurse for a day and see if you can hack it.