TheFuture2010

so this is the first time i've gotten on today since i posted this, and after reading all of your posts, well, first i would probably quote something from every post lol:yeah: but i won't, so i'm just going to summarize. but let me say this, believeallispossible, your post is almost identical to how i feel. about everything. i too was an A & B student in high school, general studies in college same, A's & B's, but that stopped there. I have done nothing but bang my head against a wall for 2+ years now. Right before i graduated high school, my dad took me to work and let me shadow some of his co-workers, just so at least i could get a taste of nursing and to see if i would like it. and i did. i loved it. i still do love it. it's my passion. but before he did that, i was on pace to go to college for my journalism degree. that is my only other passion, as far as a career goes, and it's something that i know i'm good at, and have always been good at. it's funny, just the other night, one of the many nights i have felt so discouraged with nursing, i pulled out some of the articles i had written back in high school and i couldn't help but wonder "what if"... but i digress, lol. also, believe, i am in the same boat when you say you have friends graduating with a 4 year degree next year. i do too. a ton. and i sit back and think, 'how in the hell...' it makes me reflect on just what have I PERSONALLY accomplished? not a whole hell of a lot. going from being an A student to struggling like I have has taken a toll on me mentally, emotionally, going from the top and free falling to the bottom now. not that i expected ANY of this to come easy. it's supposed to be a challenge. you want to weed out the "bad" ones, so to speak. but i mean, where do we draw the line? it's to the point now that it's discouraging young future nurses like myself and others from even wanting to pursue this. i LOVE nursing with all of my heart, every ounce of me, but i'm really beginning to wonder if it's even worth it. and summersent, you're right. i have been listening to my dad. he is burnt out. physically, mentally, emotionally. he's been an ICU nurse for 17 years now, and maybe it's because he hasn't really done much of anything else but ICU, but idk. i think what he's feeling he would begin to feel in any other part. i can't tell you how often he'll call me after work and i can just hear it in his voice. he's spent. it's taken it's toll on him, to the point now where i don't even think he enjoys it. he has his routine there, and now i think it's just going through the motions. he says to pursue whatever i want, but i can hear it in his voice, i think deep down he feels the same way as some of the posters on here and other nurses i have met along the way.. do something else now, while you're young and have the chance. :smackingf:

I'm a nursing student in progress, and my dad has been an RN for 17 years now, and he, as well as a vast majority of nurses that I am around on a daily basis at work more often than not tell me, if they could do it all over again, they wouldn't do nursing, and I've had some of them go as far as to try and talk me out of going to school for nursing. Even as I read various posts on here, I read about nurses saying if they could do it all over again, they would do something else. So my question to you nurses who may feel that way is, why?

anxiously waiting, i just read your last comment on the issue, and it's so funny, the example you used about a student buzzing in and saying some smart remark like that, i hear all too much of that at my hospital on a daily basis. i hear nurses/therapists/dr's walk out of a demented patient's room saying rude snide remarks all the time, cracking jokes, and it's very upsetting. because like you said, and my dad drilled this into my head from day one when i decided to pursue nursing, 'what if it was your mom or dad or spouse (you get the idea) laying in that bed'.. would you want your nurse or anybody else taking care of you to be a total ahole, joke with their fellow co-workers about said person, whine and **** and moan for 12 hours about this and that? no. and each and everyday i try and remind myself of that, because if it was my family member laying there, i would want the best nurse to be taking care of them, and i would want to know that their heart is in it 150%, and that i don't have to be there 24/7 to make sure that they're 'faking' good care only because i'm there, as you said some classmates fake to the teachers. now with that being said, the perks that go along with the job of course are nice. the salaries are great, but damn, for the work all of you do, it's well deserved and hard earned (by the ones who work hard to earn it).

Actually money, lifestyle and prestige are the first things on the minds of most aspiring doctors. As for teachers most are thinking about extra vacation time and state benefits - and teacher salaries these days are comparable to average nurse wages especially if you have a graduate degree. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- And that's why there are some, not all, but quite a few doctor's that are not that great at what they do. Because they get into it for the prestige and the money. Proof? i have two good friends who are saying they're going to go to medical school, and both have openly admitted to the 3 reasons that you just listed as their motives for going. To me, I can have all of those things in the couple years I can get through nursing school, but know I will LOVE what i do, and will be there because I care about my patients and want to save lives in my own right. Nursing is a quick route to having a great lifestyle and whatnot, but, me being one of them, are doing it not for that, but for the right reasons. To help people get better, and to attempt to make a difference in people's lives.

So as a nursing student in progress, I was doing some thinking about this, and so I decided that I would post it to all of you nurses out there and get your opinions on it, as I would love to hear your thoughts on it. My dad, being a nurse now going on 17 years, has shared his thoughts on the matter, so why not get everybody else's? Or whoever wants to share, LOL. :chuckle What made you want to get into nursing? Stories, motivations, etc etc!