April2318

I have checked with the local hospitals and a new RN makes around 17 per hour and its the same with a BSN or ADN. I can't believe the pay is so low for such a stressful job but I know the pay is much better in other states.

I just got into a very competitive Nursing Program (University of Texas Health Science Center San Antonio) Its a great school and I will be graduating with a BSN. I decided to take the nursing route because I am a very nurturing and compassionate person. I have a knack for working with children. Every job that I have had has been either at a preschool, day care, or substitute positions. I really enjoy teaching elementary and I am thinking about changing my major but if I do I will have 40 hours of 82 that will not transfer and my husband is in the military (with his job that he has will not move much) but we both don't want to stay in San Antonio and I know that teacher licenses do not transfer easily sometimes. I was attracted to the nursing profession because of the diversity of the field and there are always jobs but I am worried that I might be making a mistake. I am so great with kids and I love the school environment I can't say the same about hospitals. I feel discouraged from reading some of these threads and speaking to other nurses. It almost seems like more nurses are unhappy with their jobs than are happy and I have been hearing awful things about working in hospitals. I keep hearing that people are really mean in hospitals and its common to be short staffed. I also worry that I would make a mistake that would hurt a patient. I hear a lot of private offices just hire MAs. I know that there would be other places for me to work besides hospitals but I don't know how hard it is to get into a position like that. If I pursue Nursing my goal would be to go into school nursing, but that also is very hard to get into. I feel like if I major in education I would be limited because I could only teach whereas with nursing I can always switch specialties and whatnot. I just want a career that I will be happy with what I am doing. Sometimes I don't handle stress very well and I know that nursing and teaching are both very stressful jobs, so I really just don't know what to do. As far as the pay is concerned teachers in SA start out at 38,000 whereas new nurses start out around 35,000 (and they work a lot more!) Any feedback would be so much appreciated!!

I begin school this spring to pursue my BSN. I keep having second thoughts about going into this career. I have always worked with children and I am starting to wonder if I should have pursued elementary education instead ( I currently sub teach and have several years of preschool experience.) I love children but with an education degree I was worried that I might get burned out on teaching since with that degree a person is so limited to what they can do. I thought nursing would be a good career for me because I enjoy helping people, I have great interests in health, and I wanted a degree that I could have different kinds of jobs. I don't think I would want to be a bedside nurse, I would much rather work with disease prevention and public health education. I would love to be a school nurse but I wonder if those jobs are hard to come by. Does anybody have any advice for me? Is it easy for a BSN to get a job related to health education or school nursing?