Freeda

Well, as a person considering leaving social/homan service work, I even worked for CASA at one point, quite frankly, the pay sucks. I have worked almost every arena of social service work. Also alot of red tape. You begin to wonder after a while if you are nothing but a broke paper work pusher. Sadly, in my career, I have encountered a few RN's who have left to join the ranks of social service workers, and they always leave due to boredom and low pay. You just can't pay your bills with it. I have thought about being a teacher but, wow. That's like worse than nursing or social work ever thought about being!

As a person who is not a nurse-yet, forgive my ignorance. I am very passionate about health care being available to all people-if necessary in the form of socialized health care. However, it has been suggested to me that this would not be in my best interest if I wanted to be a nurse. A nurse I know said "Just look at the Canadian nurses' situation" . What the heck does this mean? Would universal health care be a negative thing for nurses? In what way? And also what can nurses do to help make health care available to more people? My plan was to try to work in nursing for several years and then move on to a public health degree?.

I thought I was the only one who could mentally debate myself endlessly about career paths. At one point I had become frozen and was doing nothing because I couldn't decide. Nurse, teacher, keep doing social work...All I can say is to echo the previous posts. I finally decided on nursing because nursing is more flexible. If you are the type of person who is having a hard time deciding, then a field like nursing is perfect for you because you can always change specialties, hospitals, career paths, and would never feel trapped by your decision. If you are a nurse you can still do educational type things. Nursing school instructor, school nurse, community education etc. If you are a teacher you don't really get to do nursing of any kind ya know? Also if you really hate nursing once you go into it, you can always go into an alternative certification program and become a science teacher. As for social work, which I think someone brought up, already done that. Definitely not worth it. I loved my work but the pay is horrendous-to the point that it begins to interfere with your ability to provide service to your clients because you are too tired from working two jobs. Granted none of these are VERY high paying fields, but one does like to earn a living.

I finally got a reply from the hospital. We had asked the social worker with no luck. Then I found that the hospital was posting a job for a patient advocate, so I just responded to the contact person for the job opening. Thank you for the response.

My best friend is currently a patient at a very large hospital/ public system. She is an uninsured single parent after becoming unemployed due to her debilitating illness. Unfortunately, she has not yet been given a clear diagnosis although she has been treated for various symptoms and flare ups. A few doctors have brought up illness such as MS and Lupus. She is a very intelligent person and was actually preparing for medical school prior to her illness. We keep getting alot of run around and she is not seeing the specialists she needs to. Unfortunately, she needs help right away, or she will soon be homeless, since she is not receiving disability benefits. I have heard of such things as patient advocates? How would l locate one in her area? Is this something that would be through a hospital or would we have to get one another way? No one seems to be really listening to her and running the tests that would be necessary to help her.

I noticed that you note Hawaii. My husband is from Hawaii and the amount of money you would need to make to even be able to afford to live there would be ridiculous. Most people make it by living several generations in one house.

That's one of the main reasons for me switching also. I love direct care but hate administrative work and the direct care stuff just doesn't pay$$$. Thank you for your feedback.

Loriann: What made you decide to switch after getting an MSW and already working in the hospital. My close friend just got her MSW and is planning to go to work as a hospital social worker.

what will be the outcome for a baby like this if the parents don't agree to a DNR? Are we talking human vegetable here?

It's a relief to know that my skills won't be wasted, I hope that my compassion and ability to deal with all different elements of society will be useful. My coworkers think I'm nuts, since I have finally reached the point in my career where I am behind a desk with my own office...however I hate it! I am so excited to start my studies I was so nervous about all the science classes but I've found I love chemistry!

I know this is kind of late and everything but I just joined. I am preparing for changing careers to nursing and had been waiting to start my prerequisites until after my baby was born. As fate would have it my baby was born at 28 weeks due to IUGR. He is still in the NICU but will be going home soon, and is doing great, other than having the infamous "wimpy white male baby syndrome" (not my words-this came from the doctors). I just had to look when I saw the posting about such an early baby. As a mom of premie, I was horrified to hear that parents had chosen to keep these babies alive to suffer and fill their own needs. So many times I have questioned the quality of life for my own baby, especially in the beginning when he could hardly stand to be touched. I constantly asked my perinatologist if it was worth "saving" my baby's life and was clear to explain that if my baby was not going to be viable that I wanted him to die in peace. I don't know what nursing ethics will allow for but I would hope that most parents would want you to make clear to them that the quality of life for the baby will not be a good one so they can make an informed decision. Thank you for all your hard work.

Thank you so much for that insight and encouragement. I am very excited and I am scheduled to start my prerequisites in the fall but had started getting cold feet after looking at these boards. They don't have an accelerated program for second career nurses in my area. However, I am not in any rush, the regular program will take about three years. I have noticed however, that most of the complaints are not from second career nurses. I am thinking that it can't be any worse than working for Child Welfare where you don't even get PAID for the overtime. :uhoh21:

I tried to post this before but I think I was unsuccessful. I am new here and I am thinking of changing careers. I already have to bachelor's but social work just doesn't pay the bills. Tired of working two jobs. I want to keep working with people and want a job that allows for flexibility. I don't mind working hard...I already do that. I figure with nursing I can at least work one job only if I have to do the overtime. Has anyone switched to nursing from a similar field? What is your perspective. Also does anybody know how to change my login/user name? My hubby was helping me sign in and made that one up.