Madman

Male nursing student, graduating in 2 months. Nursing is horrible, its mentally tough, the older female nurses will use you for nearly every lifting job, you will probably go insane with all the estrogen hanging around you... But, male nurses are surprising more compassionate than females, my past patient even brought a cake to my nursing class because she didn't see me in clinical. You are more likely to meet a girl that is not dumb, broke, or illogical. 3-4 days work weeks is amazing, you can get the male physicians' attention easier cause you're a guy. You are more likely to get along with your male patients because we men are very easy to get along with each other. There are a lot of cons when you're a male in nursing but there are a lot more pros. Just FYI, being a nurse is actually a great conversation starter. Good luck brother

I was a kines major before I switched to nursing and body building has been a great passion of mine. I been going to the gym on campus at 5am before clinical starts and try to fit workouts on off days. Its been rough this semester because they are making us do a lot more clinical hours and projects but I been keeping it up. I'm currently 6'1 and 203lbs, I'm hoping to push to 215 by graduation. Squat, Bench, and Deadlift will come very handy when transferring patients. PS. Its a great feeling walking through the unit with 21.5'' arms. Keep lifting brother, if the bar don't bend you're just pretending.

I don't want to say that your situation make me feel better but I want to thank you for sharing. I know there are people in worse situations. Thank you again and keep your head up.

I do feel a bit better now, but its still frustrating. I just gotta finish and be done with it.

I think I'm on my last straw and its not going to get any better until I graduate, in exactly 59 days. I think came to term with the realization that I made a horrible mistake with my college major and now I'm just trying to make the best of it. I like nursing, I like helping people, but with the job market slumming, professors trying to tell us how they want to give us more "experience" by making us do busy work like its the first semester is not helping at all. I have a life and I want to live it, I know it was going to be hard but it doesn't help balancing school, work, social life, now jobs interviews, and doing extra clinical because they feel like its going to help. Don't get me wrong I would love working at a hospital and learning instead of being in class. However, I don't like to be force to "volunteer" to work at the hospital like a regular employee, without getting pay, paying them through driving to different hospitals, waking up early to go to class, do essays on things that do not even apply to the baccalaureate level of nursing, and instead of giving us breaks so we can actually apply for future jobs, they decided to send us to a critically-low employed facility. Like I said, I like helping people, I like the healthcare field, and I do see my self as a nurse, but I do not want to get stuck with a lazy preceptor who think we are their personal assistants. I had unpaid internships when I was an accounting major and its ridiculous. Nurses don't get paid nearly as much as people make it seems, 55,000 on average in my state, nurses who are new grads make a little over 40,000(keep in mind this is before tax). I could have kept my insurance job from high school without a degree and make more than that. Not only with money, I also have to worry about school loans, getting a job when hospitals are not getting pay due to the government ******** about each other and being like girls on their periods. So stress over school work, over not being able to work real jobs since moving around nursing school is worst than trying to get a drink at a popular night club, surprise extra work, bleak job prospect, low pay if I can get a job, school loans, bills, and whatever random crap they might throw at us "for our benefit." Since I started nursing school I experienced more crap than my last 15 years of schooling put together. I lost a girlfriend, quit good paying job to go to nursing school, moved away from my friends to a crappy town, missed friend's weddings, memorable trips, and sold my truck to buy a gas-efficient car to drive to these random hospitals. It was all suppose to worth it in the end and now I can see the end, its just ******* me off more and more that I think of it. I think I'm ranting about nothing and I'm probably better off than most college students. However, it doesn't help that one of my friends who is a business administration major just got a job offer, another friend graduating with Art history is going to several interviews and his professors even tell him to skip class to go. If I skip a class I'm risking missing a quiz that is 15-20% of my grade and risking a F on attendance review which will still fail me for the class even if I have an A test average at the end of the semester. I'm happy for them and ****** at myself for putting myself in this predicament. Nursing school suppose to be prestigious and people should be proud to be in nursing school. I do not feel any of that, I had more fun and freedom taking 16 hours a semester of Accounting classes and working at my unpaid internship than being in nursing school. I know that some of y'all might think I shouldn't be a nurse because it seems like I care about only myself and money... Are you telling me you would be a nurse if they were getting pay the wages of a burger flipper at McDonalds? are you telling me you would rather spend time charting than hangout with your friends? Its a job, its a opportunity to save a life and give someone that second chance but in the end, its still a job. A job that is over glorified by people looking in rather than people looking out. If you read through this whole post, thank you. Comment on it if you want and if you're a future nursing student I hate to make it seems like crap but that is just my experience and your could be a lot better. I'm going pass out because I been up since 0500, wake up at 0530 in the morning to drive to one of these crappy hospitals and do my 12 hours shift.