Serenyd

Thanks for your replies. After some soul-searching, I've decided to start on my 500 hours and do the preceptorship. I'm feeling excited and hopeful. My kids don't need me here 24/7. I need to give myself permission to do this for ME and not feel guilty about it. If I hate it, I can always go back to bedside nursing and pursue teaching later on. I did enjoy NP clinicals, I just always felt intimidated by what I did not know. It's hard to compete with MDs who have had years of experience and medical school under their belt. If I become an NP I want to be a good NP, not a terrible one. I've heard the way people talk about NPs who don't know their stuff, especially doctors! Even one of my MD preceptors in school said, "I've always said that NPs have just enough knowledge to be dangerous." And he married an NP! The only thing I am worried about is I looked into purchasing insurance and it's over 2k! I won't even have prescriptive authority so I'm not sure why it's so high. Maybe because the clinic I'll be working in includes children?

I'm a new NP, but I've been out of FNP school 3 1/2 years and have never worked a day as an NP. I always wanted to be a family nurse practitioner and that was the main reason I went to nursing school. However, I found the reality of diagnosing and prescribing to be a bit overwhelming. Not as easy as my confident RN self thought it would be. I had a job offer straight out of school from a doctor I used to work with in the hospital, but it would have required me to relocate to a city I didn't want to live in, so I turned it down. I've since had a baby and moved out of state. The state I'm in will grant me a temporary license, but I have to complete 500 hours with a preceptor since I never completed the monitored practice requirement in my home state. I've found a preceptor, but not a job, where I can start getting hours. It will be unpaid. I have a part-time job as an RN which allows me plenty of time at home with my children and husband. I like the work I do at the bedside but I don't feel particularly challenged there. I'm just not sure my heart is in pursing a career as an NP anymore. Am I wasting my time? I feel sick when I think of spending more time away from my family but also ill at the thought of giving up on my dreams and "wasting" my degree. I've thought about teaching since I have a med-surg background and I think I would enjoy that, but I know it doesn't pay well. I'm not sure whether to continue to look for a paid position as an NP where I can work part-time, try to complete my preceptorship unpaid and then look for a job, or just try to be content with my job as a bedside nurse and possibly pick up an adjunct position as a clinical instructor for a nursing program. What would you recommend in my situation? I could really use a mentor of some sort right now.

Thanks for the insightful and thoughtful responses!

Sorry no help but I'm following. We're moving there too.

I've been a med-surg nurse since I graduated almost a decade ago now. Recently I have felt drawn to hospice nursing. I am tired of the fast-paced med-surg life. I care for in-patient hospice patients on a regular basis, but I don't feel I am able to give more than basic nursing care with the time restraints my current patient load imposes. I would like to spend more time getting to know my hospice patients and their families and making sure they are comfortable and well-cared for to the end. I want to make sure this is really what I want to do before I switch specialities. How do I know if hospice nursing is the right fit for me? What are the pros/cons?

Revealing that we'd require a stranger to undergo stringent disease testing, but not feel the need do the same for ourselves before breastfeeding our infants. Most donors have already had routine prenatal testing done for diseases like HIV and Hep C. Should we hold strangers to a higher standard than we would ourselves? Is using formula to supplement safer than using donor milk? After all, it can be contaminated with bacteria, which can cause a deadly form of meningitis in preemies and other illnesses, or even contain ground up bug parts . The CDC has this to say on milk-sharing, "For women who do not have HIV or other serious infectious diseases, there is little risk to the child who receives her breast milk." The World Health Organization supports milk-sharing stating that "breast milk from a healthy wet-nurse or a human-milk bank" is a preferred alternative when the mother cannot breastfed her own infant. The WHO also states that, "Infants who are not breastfed, for whatever reason, should receive special attention from the health and social welfare system since they constitute a risk group." Read more about the risks of not receiving breast milk HERE. See FAQ at Eats On Feets - human milk for human babies for additional information.

FROM TIME: Move Over, Milk Banks: Facebook and Milk Sharing JENNIFER BLOCK NOV 22, 2010 Thoughts?

Women have been sharing breast milk for eons (remember wet nurses?), but the practice has been stigmatized in modern society, especially in the age of HIV. Milk banks screen and pasteurize donated milk and give priority to premature and very ill babies, essentially preventing most families from accessing the milk. And for those who can get banked milk, it is often prohibitively expensive: $3 to $5 per oz., upwards of $100 for a day's supply. Thoughts?

We are not allowed to have toasters or even lights on our Christmas tree (not even LED ones). "Accidently" burn the toast a few times, when the fire alarm goes off, they will take notice!

I am an agnostic leaning towards atheism. I grew up a in a church with cultish tendencies like JW and I can attest to the psychological damage such an organization can leave esp. on the minds of the young. I now believe that religious is a just a way of controlling people, as well as being misogynistic, focused on keeping women in their place. I know that many people will disagree and say that their religion is comforting and gives them the strength to go on when times are tough. Bravo. This doesn't help me any because I do not believe. It is difficult for me to taking care of patients who are religious because they want to talk about their faith with me. Some nurses even pray with their patients; I cannot. I just smile and nod. I hate being so fake but it seems wrong to say anything. I usually don't mention my beliefs around the other nurses because some of them give me a hard time about it. I know some of my friends and family would be upset and might avoid me if I said how I really felt. I fell discriminated against, not because of my religion, but because of the fact that I don't have one.

Thanks! I've PM'd you

Thanks for the kind replies everyone. I have lots to think about. Raising my children is my #1 passion and commitment. I don't want them to suffer so I can further my education. I guess I can try it and see how it goes. I'm not going to take more than one clinical class at a time, carachel. I AM having trouble picturing how this is going to work out in my mind. You make a good point that they will most likely miss me more as they get older. I don't unschool but we home-school on a fairly flexible schedule, linearthinker. I don't have to stand over him while he does his work so that helps tremendously. I was home-schooled as a child and it worked out well for me. My mom was a homemaker and I feel like I need to live up to that standard of always being there for my kids. But I also want to have the money to give them things I did not have. Working p/t weekends, I feel like I have the best of both worlds. Part of me thinks I am crazy to mess with this schedule, but I also know that I'm going to need more $$ coming in as they grow up, and it would be nice to have a career I enjoy rather than one I tolerate. Being a Med-Surg nurse is ROUGH sometimes and not something I want to do for the rest of my life (no offense to all the wonderful career med-surg nurses out there). Blessedx3, yes, I totally feel pulled in every direction. I'm one of those people who is always striving to do better, and I can't be the mom, employee, or student I want to be because because it is just not physically, mentally, or emotionally possible to give everyone my 100%. I just do the best I can. I have not accepted any grants because I do not want to work full-time right away when I get out of school and they all seem to require that. Spacklehead, Yes, I do have a decent support system. My parents will help with the kids and their dad can keep them some mornings when he doesn't have to work. My sister has also offered to watch them sometimes. I'm breastfeeding my youngest, she is a year old, and will be 15 months when I start clinicals this spring. I breastfed my first son while I went through my BSN program when he was a baby. It was difficult being away from him so much, I swore I'd never do that to him again, or to any of my other children. Thanks again, everyone. I have written a book! Hope everyone has a good weekend.

It's not that I don't love nursing. It's the fact that I have 2 toddlers and a young son at home whom I am currently home-schooling. I work part-time as a hospital RN and I'm taking MSN classes part-time as well. I'm about half-way through the program at this point. My thesis research is complete. I would like to drop out and start again later when my kids are older, when we are living in a better area where my kids can go to public school, BUT, I have invested a lot of time and money in this program. I have only 5 years of nursing experience now, which is another issue. I start clinicals next semester, up until this point I have been doing basic/theory classes, many of them online, which is great since I have small children. I am very nervous about spending more time away from them when I have to start my clinicals. I only get one chance to help them grow up and I don't want to be an absentee mother. What do you think? Should I keep pushing forward and finish my degree? Or quit and try again when the kids are older? I need perspective from some experienced NPs whom have btdt, please help me.

Does your school offer a part-time option? I'm doing part-time and will probably finish in 4-5 years instead of 2. My school allows up to 6 years to finish the program. I'm doing FNP. I was able to do online classes while my son was a baby and that really helped. I'm going to spend a year just working on my thesis, since I'm expecting another baby in October. I'm planning to finish up my thesis and defend by this spring. Then I can start back with classroom classes next fall and I won't actually start clinicals until the spring semester of 2011. The class I started with graduated this May, and while I'm sad to see them go, one nurse in particular has been a great resource, as she has already done what I am doing/getting ready to do in the program and can offer me advice. I also work part-time (weekends only), so I'm able to spend a lot of time with my kids. I wouldn't have it any other way! Good luck, I hope it works out for you.

Both years I took the flu shot, I got horribly sick with a respiratory illness afterwards. The second time I had bronchitis for weeks and my doctor ended up putting me on steriods and an inhaler. Since I caught on to what was happening, I haven't taken the flu shot. That was four years ago, and the only thing I've been to see my doctor for since was a couple UTIs. I'm not trashing my immune system by taking 3 flu vaccines back to back! My hospital is trying to make them mandatory, but they still want us to sign a permission slip to take them ... what gives?