porridge

My simple answer to the OP's question: Because they worked hard to get them.

You are a lawyer so you already have a valuable degree. If you really wish to enter the health care field I would suggest something in the medico-legal sphere; administrative rather than floor nursing. I would suggest this for multiple reasons, many of which have already been put to you eloquently and persuasively in the earlier responses. The fact is that floor nursing is a thankless, exhausting, painful and often bitterly unhappy work milieu and you could not pay me enough to go back to it. I am old enough and have enough experience as an RN to know the difference between cynicism and realism, so please don't mistake my meaning. Best of luck.

I wish I was still young enough to know everything.

Physician's Assistant. If I was 20 years younger that's the way I'd be going.

I would think seriously about changing direction and pursuing graduate studies so that you can build on the excellent education you already possess and have a career that engages you and challenges you, rather than one that wears out your back and your sanity.

I doubt that you're stupid, otherwise you wouldn't have gotten through nursing school. For some reason you have problems with getting organized and perhaps with remembering everything you have to do when you have to do it. Unfortunately, that's a killer in bedside nursing because it's intense, overwhelming, and usually stressful as hell from beginning to end of each shift. I wouldn't recommend school nursing if you're the primary breadwinner, only because the money is so poor compared to all other areas of nursing. Perhaps office/clinic nursing would suit you. It's a LOT less stressful and the money can be quite good. I agree also with the poster who suggested seeking administrative type nursing, i.e. insurance company. Best of luck. Stop beating yourself up; life's too short.

I wasn't going to post a second time but I feel compelled to do so, if only to tell you not to regret your thread. If anything, you should take it as a very useful piece of pre-nursing world experience. Take it from an experienced RN, what you have read on here is real and useful, even if you have felt offended by some of it. You may or may not need a thicker skin to discuss issues on a nursing board, but you WILL most definitely require a thicker skin to be a nurse, because it's tough - even brutal at times - out there. I wish you all the best.

I don't think I've ever seen anyone on here advising those who want to be a nurse, or even just want to work, that they are idiots. There is a lot of honesty on these boards, and it's a good thing because the truth is that nursing can often be a really, really tough job carried out in distressingly subpar work environments. That's just the way it is these days. It can also be a wonderfully rewarding job sometimes. The problem is not so much the career itself but the circumstances surrounding it at the present time.

Northern Virginia. Glut, glut, glut. Schools everywhere, pouring out new grads for the unemployment line. Sigh.

I worked with one of the country's best infectious disease specialists for a couple of years and he would always re-test a pt who reported a previous positive PPD, and if that was negative he'd order a second one straight away (two-step PPD).

400lb stroke pt. choking on a huge food bolus (her family would keep bringing her junk food). I managed to get her sitting up in bed, leaning forward, and I was kneeling behind her trying to apply the Heimlich, but I couldn't get my arms completely around her middle. Fortunately we had a male tech, tall with long arms. Told him to get up on the bed behind the pt and got him to keep repeating the Heimlich. On about the 5th attempt the bolus of food shot out of the pt's throat and across the room. Nothing like teamwork.

I thought it was common knowledge that nursing is not a profession. Legally it is defined as a "professional endeavour". Like it or not, facts are facts.

It's kind of hard to hear the calling any more when you're working under several tons of bulls**t.

Community nursing project. Shudder.

"People who boast about their IQs are losers" ~ Stephen Hawking