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!
Well I may as well share, that i had cosmeticsurgery 4 weeks ago,, best decision i have ever made. And yes, the nurses were VERY busy working there. I think there were four of them, all very busy, and very knowledgeable. There were two nurses in the OR the entire time.
While some may not see the importance or significance of working in an area like this,, i do. I grew up being teased my whole life for having a very big nose. It was genetic, other members of my family had theirs fixed too. I had low self esteem for years, and it got to the point where i could no longer looks in the mirror other than to put on make up and wash my face. People told me i was pretty but it didnt matter, i was very unhappy. I am thrilled with the results of my nose job and i feel like a pretty woman for the first time in my life. I feel feminine and it was worth every penny.
I was so so thankful to the staff after the surgery, i felt no pain, they made me feel so comfortable and took really good care of me. I wake up in the morning, look in the mirror, and although i am the same person i have always been, I have so much more confidence in how i feel, i love it! and I am so thankful to them for helping me finally feel this happy about myself. Getting a nose job honestly made a really big difference in my life (so far, i know it has only been one month), and I see the importance of working in a place like this. If somebody has something that they are extremely unhappy about aesthetically, they should have the opportunity to change it. I am not saying anybody was replying against that or anything, i just wanted to share how i feel about it. I would love to help others feel as happy as i feel now!
Well I may as well share, that i had cosmeticsurgery 4 weeks ago,, best decision i have ever made. And yes, the nurses were VERY busy working there. I think there were four of them, all very busy, and very knowledgeable. There were two nurses in the OR the entire time.
While some may not see the importance or significance of working in an area like this,, i do. I grew up being teased my whole life for having a very big nose. It was genetic, other members of my family had theirs fixed too. I had low self esteem for years, and it got to the point where i could no longer looks in the mirror other than to put on make up and wash my face. People told me i was pretty but it didnt matter, i was very unhappy. I am thrilled with the results of my nose job and i feel like a pretty woman for the first time in my life. I feel feminine and it was worth every penny.
I was so so thankful to the staff after the surgery, i felt no pain, they made me feel so comfortable and took really good care of me. I wake up in the morning, look in the mirror, and although i am the same person i have always been, I have so much more confidence in how i feel, i love it! and I am so thankful to them for helping me finally feel this happy about myself. Getting a nose job honestly made a really big difference in my life (so far, i know it has only been one month), and I see the importance of working in a place like this. If somebody has something that they are extremely unhappy about aesthetically, they should have the opportunity to change it. I am not saying anybody was replying against that or anything, i just wanted to share how i feel about it. I would love to help others feel as happy as i feel now!
This is just an observation and OT, but I see too much of myself in this post and your first post (except that I am not against abortion), so I feel like putting it out there. I go with one idea with lots of excitement and fervor and take college classes, buy books online and at bookstores, spend hours online researching my ideas and new topic, and do this incredible hyperfocusing for hours on end without stopping to eat or do things I need to do. Then when I get to just about the finish line, I change directions completely and do the same thing over again with another topic or idea, with much energy and excitement. It only takes one little seed (like your surgery was maybe a seed for you, because it certainly could have been for me had I been in your situation) to send me on one of these tangents. Can you guess what I have?
This is just an observation and OT, but I see too much of myself in this post and your first post (except that I am not against abortion), so I feel like putting it out there. I go with one idea with lots of excitement and fervor and take college classes, buy books online and at bookstores, spend hours online researching my ideas and new topic, and do this incredible hyperfocusing for hours on end without stopping to eat or do things I need to do. Then when I get to just about the finish line, I change directions completely and do the same thing over again with another topic or idea, with much energy and excitement. It only takes one little seed (like your surgery was maybe a seed for you, because it certainly could have been for me had I been in your situation) to send me on one of these tangents. Can you guess what I have?
I'd guess that you have a renaissance soul (meaning that you have a huge variety of interests) or that you are a Gemini! :D
I'm a Gemini and sometimes live up to the stereotypical air-headedness, flakiness, and fickleness. It can be fun, and I have so many interests I will never do EVERYTHING before I die. :D
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!
Thank you so much,
OK... Personally I am pro-life. I think that it's unfortunate with all of the birth control methods available to women and also to men for birth control. As a nurse I believe it is my job to protect, serve and educate the patient. even if you disagree with the subject. If you want to avoid the possibility of having to work with a patient who wants one... avoid OB/GYN, Med/Surg and any clinical office setting. Now while abortion wouldn't be my choice, when it comes to medicine it's not ours to begin with. We have an obligation to educate our patients about all and any legal medical information available to them to them if they ask. We do this in a way that doesn't force our beliefs down their throat, and helps them to make educated decisions regarding their healthcare. If they as about what happens during an abortion we have an obligation to tell them about the procedure, tools used, complications and risks dependent on how many weeks they are at term, medications, and anesthesia and after care. While I don't believe it should be used as a regular form of birth control there are situations where they are necessary, ectopic pregnancies. Some high risk pregnancies where the doctors know that the child will unlikely make it to term of will fail to thrive or have serious heath problems. Also pregnancies that if taken to term with kill the mother. Aborton is a fart of life, women have been getting them for thousands of years and i would rather it be done in a safe hospital than someone's kitchen. If we don't protect the woman's right to chose we will have the problem they are currently having in the Philippines, where the catholic church has persuaded the government to make it illegal and a woman died last year from an ectopic pregnancy in her tube and it ruptured and she died. Leaving a husband and children to grieve and suffer. The doctors let her die in horrible pain and didn't do anything to help because they were afraif of losing their license. I'm pro life personally, but I respect the need for safe pro choice ptions for those who don't share my beliefs. Good luck with your decision. Just remember. We are nurses to help ppl in this world to have the best healthcare options possible.
In spite of being pro life, I think it would be reasonable to intervene in the setting of a life threatening situation. Unfortunately, I see it to be much like self defense. You can be against violence, yet resort to such measures to save your life.
The whole right to choose is a different argument and not the crux of this situation. I see several people essentially say can your beliefs, be a good nurse, and take care of everybody and every situation, or you are a bad nurse. Unfortunately, we are all human, and we may all have situations where we are doing the best for our patients by letting somebody else take over care. People who are caring enough to recognize this fact are being good nurses.
Regarding judging people. I agree that we generally have no place making judgments and compromising care; however, we are human and less than perfect. Realizing this fact and acting accordingly is the best way to ensure proper care. In addition, I can dislike or even hate my patient yet still provide care. Anybody have to care for a rapist, Taliban woman killing looser, or seriel killer? No matter what you preach, there is going to be a part of you that judges these people by their actions. Perhaps it's wrong; however, it's true. Recognizing this bias and taking action to prevent patient mistreatment is the best path to take. Sometimes this means letting somebody else care of the patient.
i have been told it isn't called patient abandonment until you actually accept an assignment and refuse to take care of a patient. in your case, you could refuse the patient assignment before hand if it conflicts with your moral beliefs. be sure to read carefully the laws associated with nursing practices in whatever state you are looking to move to.
as someone said before, don't let this issue hold you back form considering nursing or healthcare.
Specializes in Management, Emergency, Psych, Med Surg.
No hospital where I have worked have done elective abortions. In any case, just don't work OB and you won't run the chance of having to deal with it. However, you will have to deal with patients who are DNR patients and patients that are on hospice who are on large doses of pain medications to keep their pain under control. They also may not be receiving any nutritional support. Will you be comfortable caring for patients at the end of their lives who request no further care?
What I meant by that was just that I would not care of someone right after the abortion procedure as part of the whole thing. But if they came in say two weeks later with a complication then yes, because i feel that those are two very different things. That would not be part of the abortion procedure and I would still feel that I should help that person, just not right after they have had an abortion.
Hm, what about complications immediately after an abortion? Or something of entirely different matter - aborted ectopic pregnancies that are life-saving to the pt?
I do find it odd you consider caring for a pt right after an abortion as part of the abortion itself. I don't. Of course, it's only my opinion, not something you must agree with no matter what :)
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.
THANK YOU for giving REALISTIC approach of what these young girls and even women go through.
It always burns me up for pro-lifers to refer to anyone that has an abortion that they just "get rid of it" and then just go about their life as if without a care in the world.
THANK YOU that even you are pro-life, at least you are compassionate enough to know that these decisions are not reached lightly, they are agonizing decisions and they have to live with that decision forever.
To everyone else....
Folks..think about how many young girls have sex in high school in college. The vast majority of them.
Not all states have access to birth control for minors and think about who many of them are getting sex education from? Their friends. Not exactly accurate. Condoms don't always work.
If they talk to their parents, their parents will hit the roof...for the most part.
So then the very small number that finds themselves pregnant...they KNOW how other students will talk about them, spread rumors about them. We all probably still remember who "those girls" that were that got pregnant during high school or in college...and the ramifications can have long lasting and far reaching devastating effects on their self-esteem. It can make them a social outcast...they may have only had sex with one boy, but we all know the power of the rumor mill in this age group...the one that screws everyone and never gets pregnant can deny anything she wants...but the one that does get pregnant is labeled forever.
No wonder so many of these girls choose abortion...I know, I know, it's easier to say "Just don't have sex" but we all know that most of us did before we were 20 and not all of us were married when we did.
Years ago...I read in Dear Abby a letter from a mother who didn't know how to handle her daughter's sexuality...she was a single mother who got pregnant young and didn't want her daughter to go through the same thing.
She taught her daughter to wait. She taught her daughter that once the decision is made, you cannot go back and undo it. She also taught her that the right guy won't manipulate her....he'll respect her.
She also told her that if she ever needed birth control, that it would be provided...with a pact that no questions would be asked. No lecture. No nothing.
She wrote that when her daughter was 16 and had her first real boyfriend...her daughter went to her and asked for birth control. True to her word, she called her Ob-Gyn...explained the procedure to her daughter...and took her to get on birth control. The mother wrote that she had tears in her eyes and she only said one thing to her daughter, "Just know that I love you...I made you a promise and I intend to keep it. I just feel like I have to say that you don't have to have sex with someone to prove that you love them and when you are young and in love, you think it's forever, but more often than not...it isn't. Just be sure, be really, really sure."
She said her daughter sat in silence...and that was the end of the conversation.
The women wrote to say that her daughter choose not to have sex with the boyfriend...the boyfriend dumped her anyway....mom was there to dry up the tears...she never knew if her daughter had sex with him or not.
She said she didn't know that her daughter did not have sex until she was 21 years old...with a man she was engaged to and later married. She said that she was glad her daughter could enjoy the experience by being the responsible woman that she taught her to be...and her daughter has now been married well over 15 years to the same man with two children.
:D
Beebop25
143 Posts
That is a completely different situation, completely. And I am really sorry that you had to go through that.