I am feeling very conflicted about making a decision in the near future about this, and I would appreciate reliable and honest advice. I am finishing a very difficult 5 year degree, and have wanted a job in healthcare for a long time. I still want to pursue a career part time in what i am studying, which is to be a band and music teacher, and am considering going to nursing school part time during the year and taking summer courses while i teach. I think nursing would be a very rewarding profession, and I think that I would be very happy to be a nurse. I do feel a calling toward a job in the medical field, and I am still young, I am 23 years old, and I feel that if I am going to devote so much more energy, time, and money into a second career I need to decide now.
With everything going on in the United States ( I live in Canada), I am extremely concerned about whether I would actually be able to work as a nurse by the time I graduate or not. I am unapollogetically pro-life, and would never have anything to do with abortion whatsoever. This to me even includes post abortion care. How much trouble will I have? It seems that every hospital that is not a Catholic hospital runs into this situation. I have friends in nursing that tell me that you would jsut work in a different branch of the hospital but then I hear stories about nurses still having to walk away from certain situations having to do with abortion. I would actually really like to work in Cosmetic surgery, but I am not sure how the job market is out there for that. I feel something telling me I should go ahead with it because this is something that I feel I really may be meant to do in my life,, but I will NOT participate in anything to do with abortion ever. My husband has a good career here in Canada, so the chacnes of us moving to another country are slimto none until retirement,
I do not want to start up a debate, I am just an exhausted student who is trying to make a really big decision and is increadibly overwhelmed at what i should do. I really appreciate your responses!
I had a very much wanted pregnancy that turned inviable(heartbeat absent @ 13weeks). I choose to have a D/C performed rather than go home to abort. I am thankful that my nurses were compassionate to me. It's was emotionally a devastating time. Nursing does not need narrow minded nurses who refuse pt care based upon their religious beliefs. The floor nurses only knew I was a post op D/C, they did not know the pregnancy ended without my consent. For the sake of others who choose a D/C for whatever reason, stick with teaching.
i do not think many pro-lifers, including you from what you have written, are 100% prolife. somewhat pro-life but not 100% pro-life. for example, killing off abortion clinic doctors to the pro-life movement is ok, death penalty is ok with them, and allowing women who have abortions to die from complications is ok too... of course it is your choice where you work as a rn, but it does not mean that you are 100% pro-life.
please don't slander us. a fraction of a percent of anti-abortionists are in favor of murdering abortion doctors (a terrorist abruption of the political process) and they are very largely condemned by the pro-life movement. nor do we want women to die from complications. many of do us favor the death penalty, and so do many people who are pro-choice on abortion.
i prefer the terms anti-abortion and pro-abortion (or pro-legal abortion or pro-abortion rights if you insist.) keeps it specific to the issue, and doesn't wrap an emotional propaganda cloak around things.
Please don't slander us. A fraction of a percent of anti-abortionists are in favor of murdering abortion doctors (a terrorist abruption of the political process) and they are very largely condemned by the pro-life movement. Nor do we want women to die from complications. Many of do us favor the death penalty, and so do many people who are pro-choice on abortion.
I prefer the terms anti-abortion and pro-abortion (or pro-legal abortion or pro-abortion rights if you insist.) Keeps it specific to the issue, and doesn't wrap an emotional propaganda cloak around things.
Thank you. For what it's worth, I prefer the terms "antiabortion" and "pro choice." Why? Because antiabortion is specific, whereas "pro life" is a political slogan coined to evoke the notion that anyone who opposes that point of view is "anti life." The issue simply isn't black and white. Am I antiabortion? Yes, I would not choose to have one myself. Do I support the right of others to make that choice for themselves? Yes. That doesn't make me pro abortion.
The OP won't necessarily avoid this issue at a Catholic institution, either. The Catholic hospital that employs me provides therapeutic abortions and contraception. It does not judge the decisions made by a patient and her health care provider.
am considering going to nursing school part time during the year and taking summer courses while i teach.....
....I would actually really like to work in Cosmetic surgery
Ok, ignoring the title of your post, and keeping in mind that I'm not a nurse, but a prenursing student....
I wouldn't become a nurse. I'm guessing you went to university and got a bachelor's either straight out of high school or with only a year or two delay. Did you ever have to work full time and go to school? I've been doing full time work/three quarter time school and it's hard (what social life?), and I'm not even in nursing school (extra hard). Are you planning on only going to school during the summer? Is that even an option at schools in your area? The schools in my area don't even offer part-time programs, though I've seen some colleges that do.
Then you'll be working two jobs? Are you planning on working nights, or weekends, or only during breaks? Why do you want another job? It seems that if you need the money, it would be better to get a second job that doesn't require a degree or uses your current degree so that you won't have more tuition bills.
I'll have to rely on experienced nurses for the second part, but are nurses even used much in Cosmetic Surgery? I would imagine that it would mostly be in the OR, and to be specialized you would need some general experience first, and I've heard that OR nursing can be tough to break into. But, I'm not a nurse, this is just what I hear through the grapevine.
Honestly, if you want to be a nurse just to help people, I would look into volunteer work instead. Help at a women's shelter. Organize a food drive for your local food bank. Build houses with Habit for Humanity. These opportunities will require much less expense, time, and committment from you.
So what you are asking for is that your job as a RN comes with certain stipulations, made by yourself, on who you will and will not care for. While I respect your pro-life stance, I would not want to work on the same unit as you. I guess your coworkers are screwed if a lady partsl bleed s/p abortion comes into the ER. Do you just step aside while your TEAM tries to save this woman from bleeding to death? This career is about caring for others regardless of sex, race, religious denomination, planetary alliance, past medical history, etc. Please, stick with teaching instead.
Um....have a BIG problem with 'pro-death' as a label for those who think it's wrong to prolong life by hooking elderly people and terminally ill people up to machines....find out what palliative care is really about before making such a comment....
Back to OP: Chances are good you won't run into this issue unless you work OB or ER. But if you are going to get picky and refuse to care for someone based on the fact she had an abortion in the past, then you need to rethink your career goals. It depends on where you are going to draw the line.
Not intending to start a war here, but "pro-death" is a label that is in fact beginning to circulate as a response to all this health care reform talk. Perhaps you need to do a little reading yourself. I UNDERSTAND what palliative care is all about, in fact, I volunteer for hospice. I understood the choice of words (i.e. - pro-death), and I am aware of mine. You should also think of the context of the conversation before you make such a comment.
I am sorry that happened to you and I am very sorry about your miscarriage. I had a D & C after total fetal demise in a Catholic hospital and was treated very well. I had cramps and bleeding for several days but when the blood tests showed a sharp decline in the levels of hCG within five days, so the doc suggested a D & C.
Is it possible that the nurse who was inconsiderate and unable to get in your IV painlessly would have been just as bad no matter what procedure you'd had done? Maybe she just wasn't very good with starting IVs. (At least, that is my hope...)
This nurse was called upon specifically because of her IV skill. In fact, my assigned nurse (who tried to stick me twice) summoned her because she's the nurse who does the sticks on newborns. I was actually writhing in pain, and I have a decently high pain tolerance. I'm really not that hard of a stick, so I don't know what the problem was except I needed a decently large-bored IV for the upcoming procedure. However, it HURTS LIKE HELL being jabbed multiple times over my wrist bone. That was her selected site, and that's the site she finally got.
She could have at least picked a different site after her selected site failed after several times of digging and jabbing and I was expressing to her that I was in pain because of her actions. I guess her normal patients don't complain too much; they just cry like babies...
Where did the OP go? Everyone's talking except him/her.
I am very much pro-life, antiabortion or however you would like to label it. I would never choose to work in a place where elective abortions are the norm. i.e. planned parenthood. I work in a school. Obviously, no abortions being performed there, but I do take care of girls who have had abortions. I don't know how many in my school choose that option, I only know of the ones who tell me, but I can just about guarantee no one in high school or otherwise says to themselves, "I think I'll have unprotected sex, get pregnant and have an abortion."
The girls I spend time with are upset, even if they think they did the right thing and that abortion is not wrong, it was still a painful, emotional decision. Usually they are in a bad life situation, boyfriend left them, afraid to tell their parents, whatever. My job is to help them get their lives back on track, focus on their future and make decisions so they are not in a position to have to decide weather or not to have an abortion again.
Lets think of all the things I am "opposed" to: hmmm..abortion, drug use, 14 year olds having sex, stealing, lying, obscene tatoos, etc. Doesn't stop me from caring about these kids and giving them the best I can. The last thing they need is me telling them what they chose is wrong or refusing to care for them.
The girls I spend time with are upset, even if they think they did the right thing and that abortion is not wrong, it was still a painful, emotional decision. Usually they are in a bad life situation, boyfriend left them, afraid to tell their parents, whatever. My job is to help them get their lives back on track, focus on their future and make decisions so they are not in a position to have to decide weather or not to have an abortion again.
Lets think of all the things I am "opposed" to: hmmm..abortion, drug use, 14 year olds having sex, stealing, lying, obscene tatoos, etc. Doesn't stop me from caring about these kids and giving them the best I can. The last thing they need is me telling them what they chose is wrong or refusing to care for them.
I give you all...
luvschoolnursing
...an excellent example of what a nurse should be:heartbeat
If the OP is going to judge who is "deserving" of her care then I think she would be better off staying out of health care. Judging our pts is not what we are here for.
my opinion.... as a nurse you have to put your beliefs away...they have no place in work. There are a lot of things we see and disagree with but that is not our job...We are not to judge. I learned years ago while working mental health to not look at their history, only what i am to do for them....it makes it very hard to care for people that have killed people....so I do my job and leave my personal views at the door.
Judging people is different from judging an action, and the OP is talking about the latter. Are you out there, OP? You know somewhere between a quarter and a third of women will have had an abortion by the end of their reproductive years. They aren't aberrations.
I think everyone here would draw the line at something, even if it was legal, even if it was approved by the hospital. We don't really leave our morality home.
There are countries where clitoridectomies are done in hospitals - it's safer than doing it in a hut or apartment, right? But I sure hope nurses there can stand up and say "No, this is wrong."
of course it is your choice where you work as a rn, but it does not mean that you are 100% pro-life. 
.thumb.gif.bd59648159cce1b1d54711ce1ae578c4.gif){kind=avatar}
S.N. Visit, BSN, RN
1,233 Posts
I had a very much wanted pregnancy that turned inviable(heartbeat absent @ 13weeks). I choose to have a D/C performed rather than go home to abort. I am thankful that my nurses were compassionate to me. It's was emotionally a devastating time. Nursing does not need narrow minded nurses who refuse pt care based upon their religious beliefs. The floor nurses only knew I was a post op D/C, they did not know the pregnancy ended without my consent. For the sake of others who choose a D/C for whatever reason, stick with teaching.