onthefence

[color=darkslategray]dear kbok, i was wondering if you could explain more about how you worked it in residency. the basic point of our scheme is to have someone who is not going crazy to cook, keep house, and deal with kids in residency. i am not so worried about the med school part as much as the residency part.

Thanks very much, that is encouraging to hear.

i cannot believe i am the first one to ever try this idea. the truth is that i would never have even thought of nursing, except that the wife volunteers in the hospital and she had great stories about the cool er nurses and the patient care there. honestly i am coming from another even more competitive field and nursing is a good practical job. it is also one i can see myself getting up in the morning or late afternoon for, as opposed to other things like law which would be more natural possibilities for someone with the degrees i possess. i do not think that means that she is somehow marrying down. but yeah, it could be a weird dynamic when she finally gets her md in a decade or so.

Thanks for the vote of confidence. It is nice, but thats because I like my wife, not because she is going to MD.

well right now we are of very similar socioeconomic background. But she wants to go into doctoring. We have been married a while already. So technically, no.

I am starting prereqs for accelerated BSN. My beautiful and brilliant wife will be starting med school in the fall. Does anyone have any experience with this situation? I personally feel like nursing is a cool way to support her through much of med school and something I might find deeply fulfilling. And I also foresee a lot of good synergies once she is a Doctor. Has anyone experienced any pitfalls of this?

actually i do not see it as a dichotomy so much as the problem of healthcare right now, and the challenge that is driving me to switch to nursing.

Do you not like the font? I am confused as to the issue.

As someone finishing their MA in philosophy I would totally encourage you to take those classes if you can. Digressing from the MA--BSN question at hand, I have no question that my pursuit of this discipline has added immeasurably to every aspect of my life. I really hope other people get the opportunity to delve into this kind of knowledge and would love to assist you in any way if you decide to do anything with philosophy.

I am considering doing an accelerated BSN with several degrees in humanities and other related fields. If it is not too much trouble, I would like to meet people who have gone down similar paths, especially with MAs and other advanced degrees. I would be interested to hear your stories of how your background helped/didn't help in this field, how you decided to switch, and the differences between excelling at (let's say) philosophy and nursing. Thanks so much.

Thank you. I agree that tonality is really important and something to really work on. Thanks for the continual insights. I think in the past few days I have gotten a lot of reassurance about this path, and am beginning to see myself going down it.

I apologize profusely for what may have been a poor choice of words. What I meant was that in any profession I would consider, I want to be stimulated and challenged. Many of the commenters have given examples that this is the case in nursing. (In terms of dolls, I just did not do that as a child, so I cannot personally relate. I am not putting anyone down) I really want to keep far from delegtimizing, judging and trivializing anyone's life experience. Instead I want to reiterate my appreciation that you have taken the time to talk to me about this important life decision when you do not even know me. Thanks again

Thanks for the reply. I understand that it is not the same thing. I could stay where I am and do what I am doing if I wanted to keep doing that. However, I am considering not doing that. This does not mean asking nursing to do something that it does not do. Obviously you guys spend lots of time dealing with patients and doctors. If I did not want to actually care for other people, I would not even consider this path. But that does not mean you cannot constantly learn new things about the field you are in. So the response about meeting doctors, making educational strategies was really helpful. (I also do not doubt that the school part itself is a lot of new knowledge for me to wrap my head around.)

I meant that my long term satisfaction would be dependent on being able to utilize my critical thinking and creative impulses. And I want to make sure that whatever I consider doing allows latitude for that. Thus, I was happy to hear that there are many opportunities in Nursing for creative, inquisitive people.

Thanks for these great examples. I am really worried about ratcheting down the level of intellectual life I am used to, and could see this causing more problems than anything else. So it is really useful to see what is out there.

Thanks for the informative and warm response. I was wondering if you could tell me what you mean by this last part?

I do not want to be impertinent or ungrateful to those people who are sharing. Rather I am observing that these experiences are just not really connecting for me. I think the motivation thing is one aspect, and I think I have reasons to want to do it in that sense. But I want to see the actual job, and how it plays out in the real world. I do not want to commit to something and find its not stimulating enough, or that I cannot actually do any of the good things I intended on doing. Thanks to everyone for their insights and advice.

So from this thread I get playing with dolls or mom was a nurse. I do not think that either apply to me, unless the doll memory is repressed deep deep down in my psyche. Does anyone have ideas about what I can do to find out more about if this is for me?

I am finishing up a Master's and considering a move to BSN programs. I have gotten good advice on this forum telling me I need to learn more about what nurses do and I am working on talking to lots of them and shadowing/volunteering. Some people also suggested CNA but this might be infeasible. What did you do to find out that this was what you wanted to do?

Thanks to everyone for their insights. There is a lot to think about on this thread. I really appreciated the idea that I think this is what I really look forward to in the profession. I also will take to heart the ideas about shadowing and volunteering. However I do think it would be awkward to do CNA at this stage. I hope I am able to say that without minimizing their contributions to health care and understating how important their job is. I also appreciate the comments about both the job market and some people's negative experiences which will help me make an informed decision with my eyes open. Thanks very much to all of you.

Thanks for all the advice. What seems most daunting to me is that here in NY you might need to wait even to take prereqs. I wonder also if APN has a major differential from BSN in terms of intellectual stimulation. The difference in salary might matter less long term than that. Thanks for the perceptive and insightful feedback.

That seems like a lot of school for someone who has been in school for seven years already! Maybe I should just consider BSN and not MSN. Certainly a lot to think about. Thanks very much.

Thanks for all your advice. How did you know you were interested though? Like now I have vague notions of helping patients, doing something more real, less abstract, helping other nurses and doctors as satisfying ends. But how do I move from these sort of fuzzy ideas to seeing if I would enjoy the actual career? If it offers the kind of intellectual stimulation I need?

I think I would want to enter with the MSN because I would prefer to end up in some APN type of thing. Thanks for the advice

Hello. I am in the middle of an MA in philosophy and always thought I would move on to PhD. Seeing the poor state of the job market, the constant posturing among my peers and the low odds of actually reshaping the discussion in my field, I began to consider other options. Since my wife is about to enter Medical School and has been volunteering I have begun to think in the direction of nursing. I see that she gets a lot out of volunteer work and I also would like to actually be helpful to people in a non abstract way. I think that being there for patients is incredibly powerful. I will probably volunteer in one of the ERs over the summer. I wonder what kind of programs I could get into, if my academic background is at all helpful, and what kind of prerecs I would have to take. I did not take very much science in college. I graduated BA with only a 3.5 but in grad school I have kept around a 4.0. What would your advice be in terms of seeing if I like the field? In terms of getting into schools?