Saija

Hi Just1girl, You're in luck, I was sent an email informing me of a reply. x) But umm.. could you enable private messaging to your account? Maybe I could answer your questions better through that. Or send me a private message.. if I have it enabled (have no idea if I do or not xD). The biggest question is what country are you from? Because if you are from a European Union country and have citizenship, you'd be able to live in Finland and go to school without having to worry about getting a residence permit. I'm not sure if this is what you meant, but it seemed like you were concerned about things like equality in Finland, and the answer is that equality between, for instance, genders, is on the same level or better than in the US. In fact, the last Finnish president was a woman, and Finland was one of the first countries to legalize voting for women. As far as other basic living, like safety and quality of life and education, Finland is above the US.. But I can tell you more through private messages and/or if you ask more specific questions..

Well I have been married for coming up on 4 years now, and have never been pregnant, HOWEVER.. I am also aware that no matter what protection we use and no matter how responsibly we use it, there is always a small possibility of an accidental pregnancy. There is always that risk as long as someone is having sex. And although abstinence is always an option, that would be pretty ridiculous for people in long-term relationships, married or not (and frankly, even not in long term relationships as long as protection is used, I don't see the problem if it's two consenting adults). As far as abortions go, not everyone would feel comfortable with an abortion. Me, for instance, although I believe in a woman's right to an abortion, I'm not sure I could ever do it myself. Accidental pregnancy when being responsible and using protection is somewhat unlikely, I'll give you that, but every single form of birth control has a failure rate, and some people cannot use the more reliable forms for various reasons (like women who have a tendency to clot shouldn't use hormonal birth control). I agree that people should have sex responsibly, but to suggest that true accidents never happen or that if they do then a woman should just be expected to get an abortion because "it is legal" is ridiculous. It almost makes it sound like if a woman gets pregnant on accident then you're assuming she has been fooling around without protection. Sometimes life happens and women should not be punished for it. Frankly I see this as a bit of an infringement to women's rights, unless we're okay with women getting fired for getting pregnant and things like that. Of course, you shoudn't get unlimited missed days just for being pregnant or anything like that, but I like the schools here - you're allowed to "delay" your schooling for any reason up to a certain amount of time (like if you get pregnant, a close family member dies and you can't handle school then, or otherwise are going through a difficult time) and you just drop back into the next group and continue with them where you left off.

Maybe you're right. Maybe I'll feel more comfortable once I actually start to understand the drugs better. I think a lot of my fear right now has to do with feeling completely vulnerable because I don't know what drugs are dangerous or how to protect myself, I don't understand what half the drugs are that my patients are getting, etc. I don't worry about getting MRSA, either. x) But I understand your point. Thanks.

Many chemotherapy drugs are known human carcinogens, as well has having other nasty side effects. For instance, here where I live pregnant nurses are not allowed to hang chemotherapy drugs, because of studies finding a significant increase in spontaneous abortion. They've also been linked to low birth weight, infertility, learning disabilities and congenital malformations in the children of oncology nurses (though I think these links are still somewhat questionable). Chemotherapy drugs often cause secondary malignancies in cancer patients cured of their original cancer (meaning the chemo created another cancer that showed up a few months to a few years later). Some studies have even shown a significant increase in the risk of certain cancers (like leukemia) in oncology nurses, though these studies are mostly outdated, I think, so it was probably a lack of good education and PPE. Also studies have proven that even with proper safety procedures, chemo spreads throughout oncology wards and traceable amounts can be found on floors, the surfaces of tables, door handles, etc. As well as very significant amounts on the bags prepared by the pharmacy to be administered to the patients. Studies have also found traceable amounts of chemo drugs excreted into the urine of nurses and pharmacists, as well as mutation of their urine and/or lymphocytes. These findings improved with better use of PPE, though. Also it's a known fact that many chemo drugs extrete in part unchanged into the urine, feces, vomit, and other bodily fluids of patients who have received them for 2-7 days depending on the drug (hence the need for extra PPE even if you aren't the one administering the drug). You see this? This is my problem. I read way too much. xD The risks are relatively small, though, BUT at least my fears are not based on some kind of superstition. There are also other hazardous drugs listed by NIOSH that are not necessarily chemotherapy drugs, such as Cyclosporine, the one that my kidney transplant patient is taking, which excretes into feces especially and is a known human carcinogen, classified as highly toxic. Actually I think some anti-viral or anbiotics are on that list as well.. And the reason I'm stressed is because it seems that if I get a patient with these drugs, most likely no one will tell me and I'll care for them without the recommended PPE without even realizing it. I kind of just wish I'd never read about these things at all. :/ Some links if you are interested, just don't let them freak you out like I did xD CDC - Hazardous Drug Exposures in Health Care - NIOSH Workplace Safety and Health Topic http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/docs/2010-167/pdfs/2010-167.pdf http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/docs/2004-165/pdfs/2004-165.pdf http://www.osha.gov/dts/osta/otm/otm_vi/otm_vi_2.html About PPE: http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/docs/wp-solutions/2009-106/pdfs/2009-106.pdf

Thanks. I have a very supportive family that I've talked to about this, I just wanted to talk to a few nurses too who would understand better why I'm concerned in the first place, who actually have some knowledge about these drugs. My family is great, but they don't know much about chemo or any other hazardous drugs or what kind of practices are normal in the hospital. :) I've heard of some women getting prescribed anti-depressants specifically so that they could stay on hormonal bc, which I think is crazy. I've already decided to stop - I've tried different pills and I'm just sick of not feeling like myself. I'm glad someone thinks I will. :/ I have about 2 years left. I know this, but I also think most nurses would still wear PPE to protect themselves, even if it was impossible to spread it to other patients through their hands. My answer is this: I did. I started carrying around the extra-thick nitrile gloves in my pocket, even though the nurses there seemed to think that was ridiculous. But other protection like aprons was not offered to me, even after I brought it up. To be honest, I just didn't feel very comfortable there anymore and I felt stressed all the time about when to wear what and, I'm sorry to say, but also what the other nurses would think of me if I told them to wait while I went to get extra PPE. I know that's silly, but I'm a student and these people affect my grades at the end of the internship, and yes, peer pressure I guess. I'm not perfect and it's hard to be in a place where you feel judged for trying to be safe. You shouldn't be made to feel bad for following safety policies. And now the issue is, how do I know if a patient is getting one of these hazardous drugs? I can't possibly obsessively check drug lists every day and compare to some list of HDs and the different brand names, even I can see that THAT would be paranoid and would waste valuable time that I should be spending on patients. xD I'm just having trouble with the idea of, okay now I know they are dangerous and I know that I'm technically supposed to wear extra PPE.. so how can I just forget about that and pretend like it's nothing? I almost wish I didn't know - ignorance is bliss. x) But now that I DO know, I want it to be made clear which patients are getting hazardous drugs so that I can wear that extra PPE, regardless of what the other nurses think. I feel like that's the responsibility of my employer, isn't it? Thanks, that makes me feel better that I'm not the only one wanting to wear extra PPE that others do not. X) Even if the other nurses might look at me a little funny... I'm not really freaking out or panicking anymore, but I'm just stressed now, because I feel like it's not something I can just ignore. Afterall, if the risk was so miniscule as to be completely negligible, why would they list these drugs on NIOSH as hazardous and recommend they be handled differently than other drugs? The warning is there for a reason. I want to just wear the extra PPE with patients getting hazardous drugs, but would it be completely unreasonable to talk to my employer about how I can find out if a patient is getting a hazardous drug so that I can know when to protect myself? I feel like if they don't keep track now, they aren't going to do it just for me. And I'm not even sure that they SHOULD if no one else is worried about it, but then I feel like, isn't it an injustice to all employees there who might not even realize those are HDs and aren't properly informed? Half of the nurses in that ward are fresh out of school and I honestly don't think they even know. Then again, they might know and not care, so who am I to demand everything be changed just because I'm scared about something that no one else is?

OCNRN63, yours was not a comment that offended me, nor were most of the others. I agree that if it's a fear I cannot overcome then hospital nursing is clearly not for me, that is what I said in my post afterall. Though the assumption that I need to get out of nursing now because obviously I can never get past this fear that I've had for only a couple of weeks in 2 years of nursing school is a bit less than encouraging. MusicEMT, thanks for the advice. The real problem here is not so much that others are not using the PPE, it's that I was not made aware by anyone that this patient was taking a hazardous drug, so I didn't realize I should have worn PPE. I had read the patient's papers, but obviously I don't recognize all of the drugs on the list yet, and apparently the paper that said he was a kidney transplant patient was really far back in the records, or maybe I just didn't look closely enough at the history, although at that time I didn't even know that many immunosuppressives are even hazardous, so I didn't know to look at that. I'm a student, and I expected that my mentor would tell me if extra PPE is required. And I guess I sort of assumed that if hazardous drugs are being used, that they would mark it on the patient's papers somewhere obvious or even put red tape on their bed or something to let everyone know (the same way they put a sign on the door when it's an isolation room for MRSA or something). And if I do go to work there in the summer, I'll be more like a "nurse's aid" and won't be handling drugs at all, and I'm not sure if I'll be given the time I need reading about the patients every day to check for these things. That is what worries me - how can I wear the proper PPE if I don't even know the patient is getting a hazardous drug? Loriangel14 - What if I told you that we had patients with MRSA or Clostridium Difficle and no one told me and no one used any extra PPE or washed their hands after leaving the room and moving on to the next patient? This is no different except for the fact that the risk is probably smaller. I get it, I was freaking out about a very small risk. But the risk is real (however small) and every nurse and worker has a right to protect themselves. I DO put the patient first when I am at work. I AM willing to take risks in order to be a nurse, but I don't see a reason to take extra risks for no reason and no benefit to the patient. I can put the patient first while wearing extra PPE as recommended by NIOSH. You wouldn't go into a room with Clostridium without extra PPE, would you (with the exception of a real emergency, of course, in which case I would go in without it if I needed to)? How in the world can you call it selfish to protect yourself while you are at work? I really don't understand that attitude at all. I just feel bad now that my concerns over safety are met with that kind of comment. OCNRN63, I understand that I was being overly sensitive and actually that is what I wanted to hear, because it made me feel better and helped me put the risks into perspective. It was some other comments that have made me feel unwelcome and discouraged. I was looking for reassurance that I needn't worry, for tips on keeping myself safer so that I don't have to worry, etc. I wasn't looking for people to tell me I'm doomed and to give up. X) Am I really the only nurse/student who has ever been scared of something in nursing?

Are you serious? If a nurse is concerned about her own safety when dealing with drugs listed as hazardous by NIOSH then she is self-absorbed and shouldn't be in nursing at all? I'm sorry, but you don't know enough about me to judge me like that in a split second based on a single post I made as a nursing student who was asking for guidance and reassurance. If I didn't care about the patients I never would have pursued nursing at all. It's really disheartening to hear how many people took my concerns and jumped to the conclusion that I'm going to be a terrible nurse. Maybe this is part of the reason that there is a lack of safety concern for nurses - if it is assumed that the only way to care about patients is to sacrifice taking care of yourself. Most safety protocols involving hazardous drugs are set in place for the safety of the patient, and only recently have people started realizing that those drugs are a hazard to all hospital staff - physicians, nurses, and even housekeeping. I care just as much about the wellbeing and safety of my patients as my own, even more to an extent, but I see no reason to ignore safety protocols and put myself and other staff at risk when I don't have to. I can't understand why safety protocol isn't followed when it's so easy to do. I am just as particular when it comes to patient safety and making sure that I don't transfer anything from patient to patient or me to patient or object to patient. I speak up when I see that safety protocol put in place for the patient's safety is not being followed too, and I see it a lot. Even when other nurses think I'm being overly careful (like a nurse who was my mentor for a day who put in a urinary catheter with dirty gloves instead of sterile gloves and told me that is unnecessary when I tried to offer her a pair of sterile gloves), I insist on following safety protocol myself. In fact it's a lot easier to speak up for the safety of patients than for my own. Why that is allowed when patient safety is involved but not staff safety, I'm not sure. But I'm a little offended about implications that I'm self-absorbed and unfit to be a nurse just because I am worried about something that has to do with my own health. Your job is supposed to be a source of satisfaction and joy, not something that kills you or causes a decrease in your health. A nurse who ignores safety standards is a bad nurse. I came asking for advice and support from nurses more experienced and wiser than me, and I appreciate those who gave me advice without feeling the need to jump to conclusions so that they could imply that I'm not worthy or altruistic enough to become a nurse. That's a big judgement to make about my character over one post - why don't you scroll down to my post on this page and read about why I want to be a nurse before you write me off as selfish and unfit: https://allnurses.com/picu-nursing-pediatric/md-vs-np-610821-page2.html#post5802445. Is this the nurses eating their young thing I keep hearing about? A student has a single doubt, a fear, a concern, and instead of getting support and advice, they get smashed down like if you're not perfect 100% of the time while you are still learning, if you ever experience doubt or fear, then you're unworthy? I could understand someone saying, "Hey, if the drugs really freak you out that much and you can't get over your fear, hospital nursing might not be for you." But to say that because I'm nervous about handling these drugs and their by-products, it means I'm too self absorbed to care for my patients? Give me a break here, I'm still learning and I want to be a good nurse and also be safe so I don't take myself away from my family earlier than I have to or bring any nasty bugs or diseases home. I may have blown the risk out of proportion, but it is real and it is irresponsible to ignore safety precautions if they have been proven to lessen exposure. I have not and will not treat patients any differently because of this. And mostly I've been stressing about this at home, not while I'm at the hospital, where I'm pre-occupied with taking care of patients and it usually keeps me in a good mood. This is one article I read: http://www.medsurgnursing.net/archives/11apr/79.pdf Also, although I have probably been more afraid then I should be, I don't understand this resistance to using proper extra PPE as recommended by NIOSH in the replies I've received?? This whole time I keep saying I just want to follow safety recommendations, not that I don't want to be around the drugs at all. I really don't understand why all the negativity just because I brought up the fact that they are not following the recommended safety protocol, not wearing proper PPE for the situation, etc.? Isn't that a no-brainer? Why is it so bad that I want to wear the PPE that NIOSH says I should? The same way I wear a seatbelt in the car and drive a car with airbags and antilock brakes to minimize my risk and wear PPE when taking care of MRSA or Clostridium patients.

I was in the oncology ward for 5 8-hour shifts a week for 2 weeks. And yes, I know it's irrational to obsess over getting cancer due to that minimal exposure. It still helps to hear it from others, even if you all think I'm a little crazy now. xD Like I said, it's what made me decide to get off of hormonal bc, because I'm fairly certain that they are either the cause of this or they just made a rational fear seem about a million times worse in my mind. Though I wonder if things work a little differently here, because the oncology ward was just one of many places we could freely choose to go, and there were extra spots left over even after my class had chosen in case anyone else wanted to go there. Not to say I took the opportunity for granted, but the whole reason that I decided to leave was because I felt that my fears were getting in the way of my learning. My teacher was actually really understanding about it and told me I should switch if that's how I feel. And for the record, my fears in the oncology ward weren't completely crazy, even if I overreacted. The nurses administering the chemo wore special thick nitrile gloves when prepping the bags - they were supposed to wear protective sleeves and masks as per ward policy, but they didn't. My own mentor there told me that, "We're supposed to wear these, too, but no one here really does." That made me really concerned, because if these nurses weren't watching out for their own safety, how could I be sure they would look out for mine, too? They often didn't wear any gloves also when starting the chemo and when stopping it, touching the chemo bags, etc. Don't get me wrong, I loved the staff there in every other way and have a lot of respect for them, but this worried me. Anyway, I did talk to the nurses there about my concerns and they basically just told me that there's nothing to worry about - they had no policy for using extra PPE when handling bodily fluids from patients who had just received chemo. The only thing they did differently was to separate their bed linens, and they told me that nurses in another hospital had laughed at them for doing even that. They told me they had never even heard that you would need to double glove or wear special gloves, an apron, or anything else when dealing with a chemo patient's urine or anything like that. My mentor asked the head nurse to talk to me about it and when I talked to her, I showed her what I had read in my own school book, as well as multiple other sources, about double gloving or wearing special thick nitrile gloves, etc. and she first told me flat out that my information was wrong and outdated, that there's no risk and no need for any of that because, well, that's the way they've been doing it for the last 20 years so clearly it's working. Then she went and got the ward's own safety manual for chemo and right there in capital letters it said that you need to use thick nitrile gloves when handling bodily fluids of patients who had just gotten chemo. At that point she told me I could wear them if I want. She had also asked the ward's pharmacist to bring up some pharmacy books so that I could get "real" information. When I read the books a bit later, both said that for 2-5 days after chemo, patients' bodily fluids should be handled with nitrile gloves/double gloving, a plastic apron or jacket, possibly a mask or eye protection, and other protection when necessary. I talked to the pharmacist about it and she agreed with the books and even told me she thought the nurses in that ward did not wear enough protection and were putting themselves at risk. I also talked to my teacher about it, and she was so shocked that she mentioned it to another teacher of mine, who happens to be a doctor, who said she couldn't believe the nurses weren't wearing the protection that was in the ward's policy. I think what freaked me out the most was that not only did the other nurses not seem to even be aware that extra PPE is required when dealing with bodily fluids of recent chemo patients, but that even the head nurse did not know what was written in the ward's own policies, a booklet that had her name down as one of the authors, as well as a couple of specialized doctors. It's probably a big part of why I'm finding it difficult to trust now that other hazardous drugs are being handled properly in other wards. I understand the exposures a nurse would get at work is relatively small, but even a tiny exposure is technically a tiny increase to cancer risk and they is no "safe dose." So I want to do everything I can to make my exposures absolutely minimal. If proper recommended safety protocol was always followed with these drugs (chemo and others), it would go a long way in making me feel better, and not feel like I have to worry about it myself. It should be hospital policy, and instead I feel like it's all on me to do the research and figure out how to protect myself. So yes, I am aware that my feelings are an overreaction, but I don't feel like they are completely without merit. I guess it made me feel like I can't trust my safety to other people or just trust that things are automatically handled properly. I don't blame the other nurses, either, because it's the employer's responsibility to make them aware of the risks, how to minimize them, and to provide them with proper protection. But it doesn't seem like that is being done everywhere, and I suppose that has left me feeling somewhat paranoid. Even on these forums I've read people saying they work somewhere where nurses mix chemo drugs without wearing even gloves, and without a safety cabinet. It's things like that that have left me wary, even if, again, I'm being overly wary and paranoid. Or am I really totally off base and shouldn't worry at all? Actually, I feel a lot better having gotten this off of my chest and discussed it with others who understand the risks and can relate to the situation. I do believe I need to make sure I protect myself, but I also think, as one reply said, that my reaction was out of proportion with the risks. I hope I can keep it in perspective.

Thanks everyone for your replies. I feel like what bothers me is that no one handles these drugs any differently than any other drug - no one even told me that they were hazardous drugs and no one used the extra PPE that I thought NIOSH recommended for hazardous drugs (double gloving, a plastic apron/coat, in some cases eye protection, etc. while handling the drugs and/or patient's bodily fluids). At least that was how I understood what I read on their website, that because there are so many new drugs coming out all the time, they don't have specific recommendations for specific drugs, rather they recommend that standard extra PPE for every HD. Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong. I just feel like I want to know if my patient is getting a hazardous drug (and obviously it's not realistic that I could memorize every HD and all the different brand names, so I feel like my work place is responsible for telling us, especially because if I work there in the summer I'll be more of a helper and I won't see the packaging of the drugs the patients are getting to read for myself), and then I want to follow the NIOSH recommendations for handling it and know that my coworkers are too to minimize the risk. I guess I just feel like - if we know it's a hazardous drug, why wouldn't we wear extra protection? But then no one seems to pay attention or know, which is why it makes me feel nervous - how can I follow precautions set by NIOSH if I don't even realize the patient is taking a hazardous drug that excretes into feces, urine, vomit, etc.? Would it really be so unreasonable to talk to my employer about making these things known so that proper PPE can be worn? As far as anxiety goes, well.. this is kind of personal, but I guess I'm surrounded by nurses, so.. I actually just came off birth control pills the other day for this exact reason, mainly because of my fears about the chemotherapy drugs, or rather that's what pushed me over the edge and made me decide that I need to choose my mental health first over the bc pills. Because as much as I feel like this is a real concern, I also can tell how it's a little irrational to freak out over such a small amount of time in the oncology ward, and once I left there, now I've found other drugs to focus my fears on. Very often on the pills I have felt like my thoughts fluctuate with my emotions instead of the other way around, and that's not normal. This isn't the first time that I've felt bad about something silly on the pills, it's just the first time I've ever felt so bad about something so scary and irreversible, and it's made me decide that I don't want any extra, synthetic hormones in my body anymore because I'm tired of feeling bad all the time and wondering when my feelings are my own or the pills. Hoping that once my own, natural hormones get time to regulate themselves again that I'll feel better about this, too. I'll never know until I try. At the moment I feel like I keep going back and forth from feeling like this hazardous drug thing is no big deal to feeling like, oh my gosh, what have I done to myself?! X) And I really hope that no one assumes that just because I'm concerned about following safe work practices to keep myself and my coworkers safe, that that somehow means automatically that I don't care about the safety and wellbeing of my patients. I have been so excited to become a nurse up until now, and even while I was at the cancer ward stressing every day about possible exposure, I was actually considering asking for a summer job there because I liked it so much otherwise and I enjoyed talking to the patients and answering their questions, etc. Caring about myself and my own health does not take away from my ability to care about the patients. Obviously if this fear is not something I can get over, that would make me a bad nurse, but the fact that I want to be safe while at work does not make me unfit to be a nurse. In fact, I think being particular about safety and doing my own research should make me better at keeping my patients safe, too, as long as I don't overdo it. And yes, I know I want to be a nurse because I can't imagine myself doing anything else, though I might consider preventative care over hospital care if it would make me feel safer. The truth is, though, I applied to nursing school because I wanted to be a NICU or pediatric nurse, and I always thought that I want to work with the sickest kids, because that would be the most rewarding.

Hi everyone, I'm a nursing student and I posted a little while back about being frightened to go to a 6-week oncology ward rotation because of the chemotherapy drugs. During the time I was there, I spent about 45 minutes in the pharmacy in the clean room watching how the pharmacists mixed the chemo under the biological safety cabinet with the vertical air flow - I didn't touch anything (and was wearing PPE, though because we had the hood, we just had normal paper masks and no respirators), but afterwards I was terrified that there was chemo in the air and I've been having trouble getting it out of my head now that I might develop cancer due to this exposure as well as tiny exposures in the ward that might have occured. This probably sounds really paranoid, and probably is, but I just regret so much being in there because it wasn't part of my normal rotation, but rather just an opportunity offered to me (and I took it mainly to be polite, not because I actually wanted to see, which was stupid). Then again, the pharmacist told me that she would be more concerned about the exposure the nurses get in the wards touching the pre-prepared IV bags and administering the drugs, and I know that OSHA doesn't recommend respirators when mixing the drugs as long as it is done in the safety cabinet. I guess it just freaked me out because I was expecting it to be totally closed off with gloves attached. Please tell me that I'm not going to die from cancer because I spent a 45 minutes in there (I know, I'm being ridiculously paranoid, but it's nice to hear from others)? Anyway, now that I'm in another ward (mainly nephrology ward with kidney failure patients and diabetics), I was just starting to feel better about the whole oncology ward thing. I ended up only spending a total of 2 weeks there and I never had to handle the chemo myself, although I was nearby when my mentor administered it. I was just starting to stop thinking about getting cancer all the time when I discovered that there are hazardous drugs in many different wards in a hospital. Chemo drugs are used in labor and delivery, to treat rheumatoid athritis, used in the operating room, etc. I just discovered the other day that one patient I have been treating is a kidney transplant patient (it's an older transplant, which is why I didn't know) and has been receiving a daily dose of cyclosporine, an immunosupressant to combat rejection. And through my own research, I discovered that although it is not genotoxic, it is a human carcinogen and it secretes in part inactivated into feces, vomit, and a bit into urine as well, and it's listed as a hazardous drug by NIOSH. I had just cleaned up spilled feces on bed linens and emptied this patient's urine bag many many times wearing only one pair of normal latex gloves and taking no special precautions. After discovering that this is classed as a hazardous drug, I was really surprised to find that no one had told me, nor was it written anywhere on the patient's papers as a warning that he was taking a hazardous drug. Thank goodness it was in tablet form or I'd be even more upset. I'm not too worried about my current exposure (though I am a bit), but I'm planning to sign a contract next week to work at this ward for 3 months during my summer vacation and now I'm actually considering turning down the job because I'm scared. I want to talk to the head nurse about it, but I have a feeling nothing will change just because some student points it out. Also I really need a summer job and I'm not sure where I could get one where this wouldn't be a possible issue. I'm also starting to question whether or not this type of hospital nursing is right for me, as I'm realizing more and more that many drugs not associated with cancer treatment are hazardous and that it seems that staff is not even informed of the dangers nor do they know to handle these drugs any differently than any others. It makes me feel paranoid about any drugs, because I feel like if I don't research every drug I see, no one else is going to tell me to be careful. I have a 6-week rotation in a surgical ward next, and then a 4-week rotation in the ICU. I just keep wondering what kinds of scary drugs could be used in those wards that no one will tell me about or follow proper safety protocol for. I think they wouldn't bother me so much if it was made known what patient has gotten what drug and what safety precautions need to be taken. But it seems like no one pays attention or even knows. So here's the deal - my dream is to become a NICU or a pediatric nurse. I know in pediatrics I would be likely to run into a lot of these other drugs, but I wonder if there will be hazardous drugs in the NICU? The other thing I'm considering is to switch gears in my school and become a public health nurse instead, which is hard to explain because I think they don't have those in the US. Basically they work with preventative medicine, and my dream there would be working with healthy children that come in for regular check-ups to track development and give vaccinations. I'm relatively certain they never handle any hazardous drugs, or hardly any drugs at all, for that matter (aside from vaccinations). But that would be a big decision to make based on a fear that might not be reasonable. I feel like a have a sudden drug-phobia and I really need someone to either reassure me that I'm being silly, or tell me that I'm right, and there does need to be stricter safety protocols in place. And could someone please tell me if I'm likely to encounter hazardous drugs in the ICU? My rotation there is not for a couple of months, so I still have the opportunity to change it to another ward. Also, if anyone could possibly give me a list of common hazardous drugs not related to cancer treatment and tell me where they are likely to be used and what kind of precautions should be taken, it would make me feel a lot better.

This is horrible! In Finland, whenever you get accepted into school you have like 1-2 years that you are allowed to take off in the middle of it if something unexpected happens like illness, pregnancy, etc. So if you get pregnant, you can leave school and then come back 6 months - 1 year later and start up where you left off (you'll just be in a different group, one that started 6 months to a year later than you). Even if you go over those 1-2 years, you can apply for more if you have really bad circumstances (though I don't think pregnancy would count after 1-2 years xD). That way, you don't have to drop out, but you also don't miss school. Two or three people already left for mother's leave from school from my class. One of them just returned in January six months later and now she's in the group that started half a year after us.

1. Making your tests so easy that people who didn't even read the material get the same grades as people who studied really hard is not going to make you a more popular teacher, it will just lose you respect. 2. Please prioritize our classes better. For instance, we should not have a major group assignment that is related to nursing history and takes months to complete when it is only worth 1 credit, while classes that are worth a few credits have much less work load. Especially when those classes are things like First Aid. Don't you think we should spend a little more time learning first aid than nursing history? 3. Please do not pass someone who stood back while her partner did everything because she didn't even know how to take blood pressure because she never shows up for class. You don't have to be the nice teacher. 4. If you were a nurse 30 years ago, please update your information. 5. Don't grade me down for an "important mistake" that isn't in our book or your lectures and that is old, outdated information. 6. Reading something in a book and doing it in real life are two very different things. Give us a break; we can't be perfect the very first time we do something. 7. Please don't tell us that something will not be on the test and then put it on the test. 8. Please remember that school books are expensive. Do you really need to use two different books with basically the same content in them? Do you really need to use a book that is no longer sold, of which there is only one copy in the library? 9. Please remember that, although we are motivated and want to learn the material, we also have many other classes going on at the same time, and each of them have thick books and other material to study. Telling us we have to know 300 pages out of a book, 60 pages of Powerpoint slide notes, and then added on top of that a few 40-page booklets, some whole websites and other fun stuff is a bit excessive. Your class is not the only one that is important to us, nor are you the only teacher assigning reading material for upcoming tests. There comes a point when there is not enough time to read everything and we have to focus on what is absolutely essential. It doesn't mean we're lazy. 10. You are not perfect either, so stop putting us down for not being perfect. Stop telling us how much more motivated your other classes are than us and how much better grades they get. Way to be a motivator. 11. Please do not go off on a tangent every 5 seconds with stories of how awesome of a nurse you used to be. We get it. You were way more amazing than we could ever be. Can we get to the actual class subject now? 12. When we do simulations, don't expect me to be a star actress. I'm nervous when I know I'm being watched by a video camera, and I have trouble talking to my classmate as if she is my patient. I am not an actress and the pressure of being watched, judged, and videotaped only makes things worse. Have realistic expectations and understand that the "simulation" is just that. It's not reality. My conversation with an inanimate doll does not reflect the conversation I would have in a real hospital. Nor does the conversation I have with my classmate about how his "mother" (another classmate/a doll) is sick. Come watch me when I'm with a real patient and then you can judge. 13. If you disagree with the way one of our other teachers does something, don't take it out on us when we don't do it your way. Your fighting is really immature and unprofessional and we can't be expected to remember three different teachers' different ways of doing things and do it that way when that particular teacher is watching. 14. Please learn to admit when you are wrong. Nobody is perfect, but owning up to your mistakes and trying to do better is the only way to become a better teacher. 15. Don't talk down to students when they ask you a valid question. Don't treat them like they are stupid because one teacher told them one thing and you are telling them another and they are confused. They are not questioning your almighty knowledge, they are trying to learn! 16. If we are practicing injections on each other, please take care of our safety. If we are re-using the kidney bowls that have had dirty needles in them before and my classmate rests the injection needle on the bowl completely unprotected before she is about to stick it into my skin, do not say that, "In a real situation you would have to change that needle." This is a real situation, because she is really going to inject me with that needle. I should not have to be the one to say, "Hey, seriously, though, I want you to change the needle now." 17. If you ask someone to write an essay about their personal opinion on a subject, you can't grade it as wrong because it doesn't match your opinion. It's an opinion, and everyone is entitled to their own, whether you like it or not. 18. When we panic about how much we need to know, you reassure us that these are things you pick up during years of nursing experience. That's nice. However you also expect us to know everything on the exam. Do you see a problem here? 19. Practicing something once on a doll does not mean we have learned it. It would be nice to practice a few things more than once before we are expected to be experts.

1. I'll loan you my notes happily if you miss class occasionally for a good reason. However if you're too lazy to come to class so much that I only see you once or twice a month, don't you dare ask me for all of my notes. Asking a few days before the exam when I need my notes to study only makes things worse. Oh, and please don't sit next to me in class only to constantly ask me questions while I'm trying to listen to the teacher about things you would have known if you had showed up for class occasionally! 2. If we're doing a group project together and we are delegating tasks, do not continuously ask me and the other group members how many pages something has to be or how many of this or that you have to find so that you only have to do the minimum amount of work possible. The amount required is the amount it takes to get it done! We are not your babysitters and we shouldn't have to walk you through your part in the project. 3. Barely passing should not be your greatest goal in nursing school, even if you think that you can still get a job just because nurses are needed these days. What did you say? "Oh, I barely passed anatomy and physiology, but there's a shortage of nurses so it doesn't really matter." "Oh, I didn't even get the required book or read once beyond the teacher's Powerpoint, so I'm pretty satisfied with my barely passing grade!" If you don't take enough pride in your future profession to actually want to learn the material and not just pass the class, then why are you becoming a nurse? 4. If you really wanted to be something else but are in nursing school because you didn't get in / wanted a back-up plan, etc. please try to at least pretend you are actually motivated and if you can't do that then stop wasting our time and leave. 5. Please don't complain in the hallways about instructors whose tests or other assignments are unfair and then fall silent and pretend like you didn't have any problems when someone brings it up in class to the instructor, making it seem like it's just them. If you don't have the balls to speak up to someone's face about the problem then stop complaining. 6. Oh, you got 100% first try on a test that many had trouble passing at all? Thanks for telling me. I think I would have asked if I wanted to know your grade. It must be tough being that awesome. 7. The fact that you find the time to read thick books three times over before a test plus extra books that don't relate to our classes while you have a family at home doesn't necessarily make you smarter. There is something to be said for having a life outside of school and finding a balance. If you would rather read than spend time with your family, that's fine, but don't look down on the rest of us who achieve good grades and work hard without dedicating our entire lives and every second of our free time to studying. Knowing everything won't necessarily make you a better nurse. 8. Yes, part of being a nurse is those nasty hand skills that you find so below you. You can't learn from books alone, and you might try coming to class every once in awhile. The fact that you are going to the same internships as the rest of us, but you've never practiced giving an injection, drawing blood, putting in an IV, CPR, etc. is laughable. You shouldn't be allowed to be in school. Don't you dare complain to me when the instructors tell you that you have to retake a class that you only showed up once for. Going to school does not mean doing assignments from home, only reading enough of your books to pass the test and never actually going to school. Unless you have a specifically designed long-distance class, but this is not one! 9. Starting a part-time job 2 weeks ago does not explain why your assignment from 2 months ago is not turned in yet! Or the other 10 assignments that everyone else turned in on time. Stop making stupid excuses to the teachers. If you have a real reason, then maybe you need to take some time off school, because if you haven't finished half of your classes from last year, you probably didn't learn that much from them anyway. If you don't have a real reason, then stop being lazy. Many people have children at home and still turn their assignments in on time. 6 months late is ridiculous. Of course I really like most of my classmates, even if we annoy each other at times. :)

I have a feeling the OP is young and somewhat inexperienced or naive about men. And/or has had a very sheltered upbringing. Not to get into OP's personal life, just saying she comes across as how I would expect a 14-year-old girl to react, thinking that an erection means the guy is thinking dirty thoughts about her/harrasing her (don't mean to say immature, just uneducated about sex). Haven't read OP's other posts, but if my impressions are correct, she might benefit from a sex ed. class or something similar. I just hope OP doesn't have any kind of beliefs that sex/sexual thoughts/masturbation, etc. are immoral because they are a completely normal part of life and it might take some maturing to accept that.

Didn't read all of these posts, but just in reply to the first post and first few responses.. I agree with NightNurseCarol. That isn't your job, although it's nice of you to do those things. However, I'm surprised you listed fixing the TV, cleaning the floors and changing bedsheets as the things that earn you your nurse's salary. People should not expect you to do those things, nor should you have to. Nurses are educated professionals, not maids. I'm not saying it's below a nurse to do them if the people who are paid to do them need some help, nor that I wouldn't help out if the time called for it, just saying that you sort of make it sound like nurses deserve decent pay because they have to do crappy work that no one else wants to do. What about nurses' jobs as educators, teachers, supporters, grief counselors, comforters, nursing professionals, what about your knowledge about different illnesses, medications, your ability to bring someone back to life when they crash with a team of other nurses, etc.? Also, although it's nice to help out with everything that you can, you can't let it take away from the work that you get paid to do, and you shouldn't let others just expect that you're the one to do it because you're the nurse. Especially because there usually is someone whose job it is to do those things. That's why it's not in your job contract. There just might be a reason that some people treat nurses like their personal service/maid. I think at times you CAN say, "Hey, that's not my job." For instance, I've had patients in nursing homes who were perfectly capable of moving around themselves, ordering me to put clothes in their cupboards for them, and yelling at me if I put them in in the wrong order. It taught me that sometimes, occasionally, a nurse needs to say "Hey, I'm a healthcare professional and this is not my job." Especially because with a patient like that, doing everything for her is actually detrimental to her health. The situation would be different, of course, if it was a patient who really couldn't do it themselves. In that case of course I would help them, though I'd expect to be treated politely. Not saying a nurse's or a resp. therapist's job is more important than the other. All members of the medical team are equally as important and I see no point in comparing who does more or whose job has the most significance or deserves the most pay. All I'm saying is take a little pride in being a professional. You don't have to take crap as a nurse. There is a way to expect respect while still being nurturing and helping out with things that AREN'T your job just because you're being nice.

Men get erections. Period. It doesn't mean he was fantasizing about you or even thinking about you. Especially if he was washing himself down there. Haven't had it happen yet to me, but at school they mentioned that male patients may get an erection when you are about to, for instance, put a catheter in (from the touching, I assume). In which case they suggested to cover the area and leave the room for a minute or two and then come back (though personally I think this might just cause MORE embarassment for the patient.. if it happened to me I think I would put the sheet over and chat with the patient a bit or ask if he'd be more comfortable if I left and came back in a few minutes). One of my teachers also suggested changing nurses, though I'm not sure why that would really help too much, unless the current nurse is wearing her scrubs half unbuttoned and dancing around the room. xD Point is, I don't think it happens because of the NURSE, it happens because the patient is a male and men get erections. Again, it probably had absolutely nothing to do with you. I feel sorry for the patient, too. Your reaction to it probably made him feel even worse. The best thing to do in that situation is not to make a big deal out of it. If he could have controlled it and stopped it from happening, trust me he would have. But he couldn't. It's anatomy, not harassment.

My studying is time consuming, but it works for me. First I read through the book chapters and highlight everything important, then I go back and write my own notes based on those in my own words, preferably in as short terms as possible, and in lists when I can so it's easier to remember (not complete sentences). Then I go back through my own notes and highlight the most important things from there, and then I read through them a million times. xD The highlighting helps me because if I just read through with nothing in my hand, I tend to not pay attention to what I'm reading. I go through a million highlighters every month. Flash cards for things can help, too, and you can take those anywhere so you can study anytime you have 5 minutes of downtime. I keep thinking I need to buy flashcards, but I always forget.. maybe for my next exam.. xD

Okay, so my first week is over. I'm disappointed about their safety protocols in that ward. Though of course you were right - students are not allowed to give chemo at all. However my instructors who give it told me straight that they are supposed to wear masks and sleeve protectors in addition to gloves while administering the chemo, but they don't. All they wear are nitrile gloves. Even those they usually take off right away and don't wear any gloves if they have to switch the canule, adjust it, or when stopping chemo and disposing of the bag. I also did some research on my own and discovered that with patients who have had chemo recently, you're supposed to wear nitrile gloves (x2 pairs?), a plastic apron or coat and possibly other protection for 2-5 days after the chemo when handling laundry, clothing, excrement, or washing. When I brought this up at the ward, they told me my information was wrong, flat out. Then the head nurse brought the ward's own chemo safety guide for me to read to get "real information" and it turned out that in there is read in capital letters that nurses should use at least NITRILE gloves when dealing with urine or stool of patients who have recieved chemo within the past 2-5 days. She had also brought up some books from the pharmacy that gave the same instructions as above (about gloves, an apron, + other protection). When she saw that, she said I can have nitrile gloves in my pocket and wear when needed. It made me feel a little better, but it bothers me that I have no support in this, since I just want to follow the safety regulations put in place by the hospital's own staff. I don't like it that they just expect me to ignore them just because they do. And it was concerning to me that the head nurse didn't even know what the safety regulations were (even though her name was listed in the group of people who made them), nor did it seem that the other nurses were aware of it. I do understand better now that the risk is very small, but why would I take even a small risk when a few easy safety measures can help? And my instructor keeps mentioning how she would be more concerned about things like clostridium difficile, if she were me. She doesn't understand that I would be concerned about that too if they told me, "Oh well we're supposed to wear all this protective clothing when we care for a clostridium difficile infected patient, but we don't really do that here." However, if I ignore that little fact I REALLY like this ward. The staff is otherwise really nice, trusting me to practice skills I've only practiced before on dolls at school and always inviting me to come along if they are doing something new or interesting that I've never seen or done before. My instructor especially has made it clear that all I need to do is ask and I can go with other nurses even to do things. Also since most of the patients can take care of showering, using the restroom, etc. themselves, there's a lot of time for the nurses to sit down and talk with and educate the patients. It doesn't feel like we're in a hurry all the time. I like the patients, too. I've met some people going through chemo who are just so positive and nice. Although on friday I had some experience with the sadder side, but I think I need to see it so that I can grow and mature and learn how to support patients in difficult situations. I'm really excited to go back on monday. If they followed the safety regulations it would be perfect. I just don't think that as a student I should have to fight so hard just to be able to keep myself safe, and it's not fair to students or new nurses who come in and probably never realize that safety regulations are not being followed. If I hadn't gotten concerned and done my own research beforehand, I would have just trusted that they were following all regulations. But otherwise I really do love the ward so far and the other nurses.

Thanks for the responses everyone! It's actually really nice to hear from those with experiences as patients/family of patients. Though I hope I didn't come across wrong, as I certainly didn't mean to imply that I would treat the patients poorly. It's not their fault, afterall, that the drugs are so dangerous! I want to be a nurse specifically because I believe nurses have a unique opportunity to help patients both mentally and physically, because nurses are there 24 hours a day. I would never treat a patient like they are not a person. Thank you for your replies, it does make me feel better. Always Learning, thanks for your input, too - sometimes I'm not sure what is a sensitive subject or not with patients and their families, and cancer is entirely new to me. It's actually really really nice to hear from your perspective. :)

Hi everyone, So I'm in my second year of nursing school and we have our med/surg rotation starting in just a few days (monday). For my first rotation I chose the oncology floor and it lasts 6 weeks. Unfortunately, we studied oncology after choosing these spots, and now I've just found out how dangerous chemotherapy drugs can be, as well as the urine and other bodily fluids of the patients receiving them. It's probably too late to change (though I guess I could try, but I have a feeling I'm overreacting and I don't want to switch over an overreaction). I'll admit I might be a bit of a slight hypochondriac when it comes to things like this, especially since in this case I don't feel my studies provided me with enough info to fully understand my risk and how to minimize it. The reason I chose oncology is because I want to work in pediatrics eventually and I've toyed with the idea of working in a pediatric oncology ward. The ward I'm going to is an adult ward, but I wanted to see what type of work it is and how well I can emotionally handle the sadness of it. Anyway, I know that the danger to nurses should be minimal if all proper safety precautions are followed. The problem is that I've seen nurses not following proper safety precautions in other wards due to lack of time, or maybe just not realizing what they are doing (absently touching their own mouth, a patients arm, then another patient without disinfecting their hands, etc.). Obviously not all nurses do this, but enough to make me nervous. I'm less nervous about administering the drugs as I am about taking care of patients who might possibly have the remnents of cancer-causing drugs in their urine, excriment, sweat, breath, etc.? My book didn't exactly outline how to handle this in very good specifics, so I feel like I'm sort of at the mercy of the nurses I work with in the ward, because if they do something wrong I won't know it's wrong. Can anyone give me some practical information about how every day care of patients should be handled? When I'm doing things like empyting urine into a toilet, flushing it, etc.? Changing sweaty bed sheets? Just being around the patients? And what about drugs that are in tablet form? My book read to "avoid breathing in dust from the tablets." Great, so I just don't breath and I'll be safe? xD I know I'm probably overreacting, but like I said this kind of came as a surprise because we were scheduled to learn about it just before starting our rotations, and by then we had already chosen our places. Realistically, do I need to be worried about spending just 6 weeks working there? And how often do accidents happen (though in truth I'm more concerned about "accidents" that no one notices because they are in a hurry)? If it's actually a serious risk, I might consider contacting my teacher, but I think it's too late for that and I have a feeling she will think I'm being ridiculous, as many of you probably think reading this.. x) But I have to ask. I just want to go knowing the proper procedures so that I can speak up if I see it done wrong and avoid doing it wrong myself.

I agree with what others have said. Not even physicians do that, even though they do on TV. The difference between a nurse and a physician when it comes to that, though, is that if a physician wants a new specialty they have to train for years. If a nurse wants a new one, s/he can apply and get a job with an orientation period. So if you do something for 5 years and then feel you want a change, you can switch and try something else. I would say that if you want a job that changes everyday, the ER or ICU or something like that is definitely your best bet. You never know what will come through the door - might be a broken limb, an allergic reaction, a gunshot wound. Though I do think that aside from maybe assisted-living homes and similar places, most nursing jobs are pretty good about not doing the same thing every day. Plus you're constantly interacting with your patients and their families, so that adds to your day even if you are doing routine tasks.

Honestly, I don't think any of that even matters. The basic fact is that if your heart is not in nursing, you will never be happy as a nurse. Period. And you'll be taking the spot of a nursing student who really wants to be there, when for you it's just a back-up career. Sorry, this is a touchy subject for me because I have a classmate in a very similar situation. She has almost completed a degree in business (not sure exactly what degree) and she's told us how much she loves that and it's her "thing" and she definitely wants to do that. So why did she start nursing school? Because it's a good Plan B career. She has no passion for it, she hardly ever comes to class (to the point where her absences are causing a problem and she's having to repeat classes - she just started her first internship, about 6 months after the rest of us completed ours), she has no motivation and she's difficult to work with. We had a clinical test last year and her partner had to do both tasks because she couldn't. She also mentioned that she thinks it would be great to directly get promoted to a floor manager and never have to do bedside nursing at all. That sort of attitude is really bad for all nurses and patients. There's another girl in my class who really wanted to have a different career but didn't get into the program and it shows with her too - people like this take up spots in the program that others would have wanted, and they slow the rest of us down when we have to do group work. In general it's just frustrating to work with someone who is not motivated and it's hard to remain motivated yourself when others are not. I'm not saying that you would be that bad. You sound like a motivated person. But nursing school is hard and nursing is even harder. If you're just doing it as a side career, my bet is that you won't be able to keep yourself as motivated as your classmates who are passionate about it, and even if you survive to graduate, you won't make a very good nurse. Nursing is so close to people and that means that without true caring and passion for the job, your patients will always feel it. Your coworkers will feel it, too, and your classmates before them. However, if you've been having nursing on the mind because you actually have a passion for the field and decide you might want to do it full time, that's a completely different story. But if you just have nursing on the mind because it's being advertised as a guaranteed job and good money, do the rest of us a favor and don't do it. NOT trying to be mean here - it doesn't make you a bad person or anything, it just means nursing probably isn't for you. And the patients will suffer if you do it anyway. You should do what you love, whether that's what you're doing currently, nursing, or something else. If you like the idea of doing nursing-like work on the side, you might try volunteering somewhere or doing some other kind of work that requires little to no extra education. It's just not fair to take a spot in school from someone who is dreaming of nothing more than becoming a nurse, when to you it's just a back-up plan if you can't find a job in your real passion. Oh, and if you do study to be a nurse, but can't find a part-time job, work in your current job only for the next 10 years and then suddenly you decide to use your nursing education with no experience, my bet is that you won't be able to find a job in nursing anyway because all of your knowledge will be old (what you remember of it by then) and you won't have hands-on experience. Bad idea all around, I think. Seriously, if you want to help people you can get that same satisfaction from volunteer-work or doing part-time jobs for hospitals that don't require a 2-4-year degree. Do that, enjoy your current job, become a nurse someday if you decide that your current job is no longer satisfying.

Well I'm in my second year of nursing school now, and this is how I ended up here: I had always been interested in the medical field - mostly in being a doctor or a paramedic. I didn't know what nurses did, because on TV they show doctors doing the jobs that in reality, nurses do. Then I saw a show on TV that was filmed in real a hospital following the real staff in their day-to-day jobs with a nurse working with sick infants. Now I have always loved kids, but I don't think it had ever hit me before that nurses can choose to work only in a pediatric ward. That got my interest going, but I was still thinking of being a paramedic instead. Afterall, if you go by TV, nurses only do menial jobs, and I wanted to save lives! Now I'm an American moved to Finland, so things work a little differently here and paramedics actually graduate with a nurse's and a paramedic's degree and get the same pay, but my school only has paramedic groups starting once every other year, and I was applying during a year when no group was starting. So I figured okay, I'll apply to nursing school first and then switch after a year. Well, by the time my chance to switch came around, I no longer wanted to. It was a combination of different things, mostly realizing what a nurse actually does, and that nurses save lives, too, as well as prevent life-threatening situations from ever occurring. I also realized that when I was a teenager and wanted to be a doctor, I wanted to be a doctor because of the nursing jobs I saw them doing on TV. I also discovered an interest for pathology, psychology, and other subjects that I never knew I had. But mostly? I think it was because I discovered a new side to myself that I didn't know I had. I always admired people who I saw talking to patients with ease, making jokes, making them smile and laugh, but I never thought I was that type of person myself, even though I'd always wanted to be. But during my first internship, working in a hospital ward with only elderly patients (an age group I previously thought I would never want to work with), I found a passion for taking care of patients. I made patients smile, I laughed with them, one old woman even started to cry when she asked me why I wanted to be a nurse and I told her that I love that I get to make people smile when they are sick and lonely - and then she wanted a hug. I had another patient that was largely misunderstood by some other nurses because he could hardly speak - turned out he was just a jokester - all that pain and he still had a sense of humor. I had another patient that probably didn't totally know what was going on around him anymore, but he smiled and laughed all the time. I remember I was moving him to his chair with another nurse and he could still walk with help, but as soon as he saw his chair, even though it was probably 10 feet away, he started sitting down and we had to scramble to get him in his chair. It still makes me smile to think about it. It was actually difficult to leave in the end. I surprised myself by getting attached. My dream is still to work with infants or children, but I think any patient that has trouble caring for themselves, trouble communicating or just needs someone to make them smile, has a special place in my heart. I surprised myself and realized I really want to be a nurse.

I'm a couple of years behind my friends too, because I moved to Finland after high school and spent 2 years learning the language before being accepted into nursing school (long story)! Now my old friends from high school are all graduating this summer and I still have 2 years to go. But guess what? Most of the people in my class are my age (early twenties), a few are mid-twenties, thirties, and even forties. With children at home. Don't be discouraged, you will NOT be the oldest in your class by far. You will probably be one of the youngest. Good luck! P.S. I liked the comment above, by Memories! That is a really good way of putting it!

I'm a nursing student and like you, I considered for a time studying to be a social worker. The eventual conclusion that I came to was that social work is a lot of paper work and sitting at a desk. It would be great to be a social worker in certain fields, but if those jobs are full, you might end up doing something you really don't enjoy. Keep in mind, though, I've never been nor do I know any social workers - this is just my own perception of the job, so I might be wrong. But that's true for any job - if you study something because with that degree you can fill a niche job that you would absolutely LOVE doing, you need to be sure that you could stand doing other jobs in case that position is never open in your city (or be willing to move). If you get into social work, psychology or nursing, be sure that you would be happy doing multiple different jobs within that field or you might end up sorry when the specific position you want is not open. Like me, for instance, my true dream is to work with infants or pediatric patients. Luckily for me, there are many different pediatric wards where I could work, and I know I won't be miserable if I have to work with adults somewhere for a few years before finding that pediatric opening (though crossing my fingers that I won't have to!) - afterall, I still enjoy working with adults, just not as much as with kids. The point is that with some careers, there might be one ideal position among a bunch of much less appealing jobs. So everyone studying for that career are all vying for that single position, and of course only a select few will end up in the job that they went to school for. You need to make sure you have a realistic view of the scope of all three careers and that you're not just focusing on one ideal job position that you might never obtain - and make sure that if you don't end up in that job, you will still be happy in others. Psychology would be very interesting, but if you major in that and only that, and let's say you do get your master's/doctorate, what sort of job were you planning to have with that degree? I mean you have to think about the day-to-day job that you actually want. Because if you are afraid of working with psych patients as a nurse, does that mean you are assuming you will get a job as a psychology major that doesn't involve people with those same kind of disorders as mentioned by others above? If you don't like psych patients, psychology might not be your best bet. Then again, every single job you will find will have upsides and downsides - you just have to decide if for you, the good things outweigh the bad. It's a mistake to imagine a career for only the good sides because you'll be disappointed. That's the same for social work, psychology, and nursing alike. Trust me, I know because back when I was imagining my future career, my imagination was full of unicorns and rainbows. It took a bit of experience to realize that no, no job will ever be totally perfect, but for me nursing is worth the downsides. The great thing about being a nurse is that you don't have to choose just one ward and stick with it for your whole entire career. If you want to work in pediatrics for awhile then switch to adults, it's a possibility. If you want to try out a psych ward but find you don't like it, that's okay, too - try something else, like the ER. Okay, so it's probably not as easy as it sounds, but it is an option with nursing. It's definitely easier to switch than if you study something other than nursing. Keep in mind that if you major in psychology, for instance, you will only be dealing with psychology cases and nothing else. It's not a bad thing if that is what you want, though. But there is no doubt that psychology would be useful in a nursing career. A big part of nursing is not just the physical - it's comforting, reassuring, supporting patients and their families. It's being a teacher, a life coach, helping them grieve and helping them overcome. It's taking their fear away, motivating them when they want to give up, connecting with them and gaining their trust. Those skills will always make you a better nurse. That being said I don't think nursing is for everyone. And if your heart isn't in it, you might find you are miserable as a nurse. But that's the same for any job. I concur with others - job shadowing is your best bet. I actually got into nursing by accident, because beforehand I didn't really know anything about nursing (save for what you see on TV, which shows doctors doing nurses jobs and nurses sitting in the background somewhere). The more I learned, the more I enjoyed it. And I surprised myself, too, because I've never been a socialite type of people-person, but when I put on that uniform I change somehow. Then again some people in my class dropped out during the first year for various reasons - for some, I think it just wasn't for them.